The BBC has warned fraudsters have been pretending to be the British Government in a bid to steal money through SMS scams. Fraudsters have been impersonating top organisations and demanded phone owners pay hefty fines for leaving their homes despite rules currently in place urging everyone to stay inside during the coronavirus pandemic. BBC 5Live Business reporter Sean Farringdon said: “In theory, we should have all received that text from the Government telling us to stay at home with the messaging we’ve heard so much of.

“A lot of scammers…it’s called smishing, SMS phishing, where fraudsters are sending text messages impersonating other organisations.

“This opportunity for them to try to impersonate the Government follow up on that official message with a link to click on. what they are able to do is give the impression it’s from the same account that the Government sent its text from but that often isn’t the case.

“The simple thing for me is, if there’s a link, don’t click on it. Don’t use that link.

“Some big figures around, since the beginning of February nearly £1 million lost on online scams linked to coronavirus.”

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