Police are warning of email and text scams targeting Verizon and Xfinity customers.
Various customers both locally and nationwide have been reporting these types of scams to law enforcement, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Friday. Authorities are warning customers to call their service provider directly if they receive a suspicious message.
The Verizon scam is sending text messages and emails to customers, telling them to click on a link to claim their $20 account credit for the recent service outage.
The 10-hour long outage occurred on Wednesday, Jan. 14, affecting to to 2.3 million customers. The company later announced that it would issue a $20 credit to all customers affected by the outage.
Verizon issued a statement during the week of the outage, stating that the credit can be redeemed directly through the MyVerizon app. A text message from the company that tells customers about the credit does not include any links.
An Xfinity scam has been sending emails to customers, claiming that the terms of service and privacy policy has changed. The email falsely tells customers that they need to click on a link to prevent access to emails. A second Xfinity email scam says that changes have been made to the Wi-Fi network name or password and encourages the customer to click on a link to reconnect.
The links in the messages can be used by scammers to steal passwords or other personal information, prosecutors said.
The media relations teams at Verizon and Xfinity could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday afternoon.
Law enforcement is warning customers to never give out their personal information such as date of birth and social security number. Authorities are also recommending that consumers utilize two-factor authentication whenever possible.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said victims of the scam should contact their local police department and report any suspicious messages to the Federal Trade Commission.
