Illinois Secretary Of State Warns Of New Text And Email Scams

So you've received a text or email from the Illinois Secretary of State's office, and it looks official. It's got the right logo, it's got the right masthead, so it's obviously legit, right?

Welcome back to Rhetorical Questions 101. Of course it's not legit. These guys want to get your personal information to use your ID for their own purposes. But that doesn't mean that everyone who gets a note purporting to be from the Illinois Secretary of State's Office is going to realize that before it's too late.

I'm guessing that since this is the 2nd time in one month Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has seen fit to reach out to all of us with a warning, a good number of Illinoisans are being taken in by scammers. It's easy to understand why, since most of us do our best to be law-abiding citizens who don't want the kind of trouble that comes with ignoring governmental agencies when they want to talk to us.

Except, as Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White points out, this isn't a governmental agency reaching out to you, it's a scam artist or artists who are doing the reaching, right into your wallet and identity information.

The Illinois Secretary of State's Office provided some examples of the phony texts and emails that are going out. Have you ever been on the receiving end of one of these?

Illinois Secretary of State's Office:

Recipients should not click on any links or provide any information. Visiting these various fraudulent websites could place malware on the recipients’ devices or trick them into disclosing sensitive personal information. The Secretary of State’s office NEVER requests personal information, like a Social Security number, via text message or email.

Keep your guard up for these sorts of ID theft attempts, and make sure you share the info with anyone you know who might not know how to handle it if they should get one.