GREENSBORO, N.C. — It didn’t take long. At the beginning of June 2 Wants To Know was warning you about a scam text that caused problems for a fire department in Michigan. Now the scam is here in the Triad.
The Professional Firefighters of Greensboro, the Union organization, posted a fake text on their Facebook page to alert everyone.
The fake text claims to be from the City of Greensboro Fire Department, and it's for a t-shirt fundraiser. The union makes it clear in the post, the Greensboro Fire Department does not sell shirts to the public.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing to see people take advantage of situations like this. Our job as firefighters is to help protect people and this is another way we step out and protect citizens and consumers and everybody else,” said Vincent Messina, Professional Firefighters Organization, Secretary.
The text scam is now using Greensboro Fire, but your local fire department could be next. This kind of scam just makes the rounds.
What makes it so bad is there are real t-shirt fundraisers. For the last couple of years,
the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro have teamed up with Little Brother Brewing for a beer and t-shirt release that benefits the Greensboro Firefighters Charitable Fund.
So, how can you know what's real and what's not?
“If we have something like that going on, a fundraiser, or selling t-shirts it’s going to come directly from our website, there will be links to our page, whereas we are never going to send out blanket texts,” said Messina.
Don't believe the text. But this is a rule of thumb for any text or email or phone call. Always go to the source and check with them first.