Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody issued a consumer alert warning on Tuesday about a Google Voice identity theft scam that appears to be on the rise.
“Scammers are preying on users who post in online marketplaces – posing as buyers in an effort to access a victim’s authentication code,” Moody said. “If the scammer accesses the code and is able to set up a Google Voice account in a victim’s name, they may execute additional schemes that can cause great harm to the original target and potentially many other unsuspecting consumers.”
The AARP has issued a warning about Google Voice scams, explaining that people who use online platforms, either posting an item for sale, or asking for help to find a lost pet, for example, and include their phone numbers are targets for the scam. The fraudster, AARP explains, “will call you, feign interest, but say they want to verify first that you aren’t a scammer. They tell you that you are about to get a verification code from Google Voice (their virtual phone and text service) sent to you, and ask you to read it back.”…