Here are the three words in a text that can tell you that this is a scam alert
Scam Alert – These three words in a text message can spell “red flag” and you should be careful in dealing with this kind of situation.
With the technology that the world has now, communication has become much easier. Snail mail is a thing of the past. People can easily send messages using different messaging apps even to other parts of the globe.
With this convenience, some people also see this as an opportunity to take advantage of others. Text scams are common and to avoid being a victim, here are the standard three words that could make you think twice about the authenticity of the message.
Based on the article in Reader’s Digest, if you read the words “would you kindly” in a text message, don’t just easily believe it even just the word “kindly.”
You may think that the sender is just being polite but this is what the scammer wants you to think. Tim Bajarin, a 40-year veteran technology analyst and the chairman of the San Jose, California–based market research company Creative Strategies said that the word “kindly” is not in the common vernacular in the U.S.
He said that this word is commonly “used in countries with British influence, perhaps once a colonial country, where English isn’t their mother tongue [such as Nigeria, India and Pakistan].” With this, the text message with this word might be from another country.
Another red flag is if the the sentence is poorly constructed with grammatical errors or if some words and incorrectly spelled.
Doug Shadel, founder of Fraud Prevention Strategies and former Fraud Investigator and Special Assistant to the Attorney General’s Office in Washington State, also noted that if you did not initiate the correspondence, whether it is a text message, email, or call, then, most likely it’s a scam.