A Message from Your Bank About a Closed or Compromised Account

These scary messages say that your account is about to be closed, or has been hacked, and they need personal information (coincidentally, a PIN number, SSN, or account password) to make sure it stays open. They can come from traditional big banks, PayPal, and many other financial accounts.

Yes, banks do sometimes send text messages if you sign up for them, but they use these to confirm credit card activity and similar tasks. The phishing texts, on the other hand, probably won’t include any personal information, may not even be from a bank you use, and often include suspicious links. If you have any doubts, always call up your bank before responding to a text like this or head straight to its website.