BBB Issues Scam Alert

TYLER — The Better Business Bureau Serving Central East Texas has received numerous reports of fraudulent e-mails that have the appearance of being from the Better Business Bureau. The e-mails appear to be sent from “service.bbb.org”, however, this is not a legitimate BBB email address. The subject line reads: “Complaint #” followed by a phony complaint ID number.

The e-mails are addressed to what appear to be legitimate email addresses and state that a consumer has filed a complaint with your company. They then ask recipients to click on a link in order to respond to the complaint. While this is the verbiage used when an actual complaint is filed, BBB Serving Central East Texas ALWAYS precedes the email with a phone call. Hovering over the link at the bottom of the email will show the actual destination of the link. In this case, it links to a website in the UK. These e-mails and the link included are fraudulent and were not sent by BBB.

According to BBB, recipients should consider the intent of these e-mails as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers. Recipients should NOT access the link provided within the body of the e-mails and should NOT, under any circumstances, provide any personal financial information through this media. To report a fraud or scam, call the BBB Hotline: (903) 581-8373.