Federal officials are out with another scam warning.
A Wisconsin resident who had applied for federal assistance is very familiar with this scam, after receiving a text message that appeared to come from FEMA. That’s according to Michael Raphael (ruh-FEHL’) with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “The text message says it was sent out on behalf of FEMA. Well the main point we want to make is, FEMA doesn’t send out text messages to anybody. And if you get a text message delete it. Don’t open it. Don’t react to it.”
Thousands of Wisconsin residents have recently applied for flood recovery assistance. Raphael says FEMA doesn’t want survivors of the recent flooding to be victimized again. “And this this text message that you get purportedly from FEMA says to call a certain number, don’t call that number. You may be billed $9.99 for making the call.”
He says officials don’t know how widespread this scam is, but they will conduct a full investigation. If you do get scammed, call your phone company and call Consumer Protection officials.