Springfield Fire Department issues warning about T-shirt text scam

The Springfield Fire Department is warning people not to respond to text messages purportedly saying the department is selling T-shirts, saying that they may be part of a phishing scam.

Chief Brandon Blough said the department started receiving notifications of the scam texts from citizens late Thursday afternoon. The texts themselves say that the department is selling T-shirts for $10 off, along with an unknown link. The department said that the texts are malicious and that the department would not try to sell anything through text messages or phone calls.

"Once I found out there were people out there misrepresenting that our organization was trying to sell anything, we tried to get ahead of it as much as possible," Blough said. "I posted something on our Facebook page, I know that Local 37 (the firefighters' union) posted something on their Facebook page and then I went ahead and put a press release out to most of the contacts that we have locally."

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Blough said that the department suspects it could be a foreign phishing scam, as it has all the elements of one, but it doesn't have enough information to know that for sure.

"Could it be somebody local doing it? Absolutely," Blough said. "Is there any way that we can find out who's doing it? I do not personally possess the expertise to figure that out."

Blough said no investigation is currently being conducted by Springfield police or any other law enforcement agency into where the texts are coming from, as scams of this nature are difficult to catch, particularly if the perpetrator is operating overseas.

"Especially if they are overseas, you're not going to get anywhere with most of them," Blough said. "It's just for whatever reason, they added our name to something trying to scam people out of whatever they can scam people out of."

The department recommends that people report the messages as a scam and to ignore or block any numbers that try to solicit people in this manner.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield Fire Department issues warning about T-shirt text scam