According to Mashable, hackers breached New York’s official text messaging system this week, sending scam texts to approximately 160,000 residents who had signed up for state updates. The attack targeted Mobile Commons, a text messaging service used by New York state government, Catholic Relief Services, and Fight for a Union. During a four-hour period from the evening of November 10th until 12:10 AM on November 11th, scammers sent messages about fake declined bank transactions involving large sums of money. The company believes the breach occurred through a spear phishing attack or similar social engineering method. While Mobile Commons claims user information wasn’t accessed, they declined to specify how many subscribers received the fraudulent texts.
This is next-level text scam territory
Here’s the thing about this breach that should really worry you. We’re not talking about random spam texts from unknown numbers anymore. These came through what appeared to be legitimate government communication channels that people actually trust. When you’ve signed up for official state updates and suddenly get a text about a banking issue, your guard drops immediately. That’s exactly what makes this so dangerous.
The psychology behind the scam
The scam texts urged recipients to call a toll-free number about a declined transaction involving a large amount of money. Basically, they’re playing on two powerful human emotions: fear and curiosity. Nobody wants their finances messed with, and everyone wants to know why thousands of dollars are supposedly moving through their account. The goal is simple – get you to call that number where “customer service” will then convince you to make a “legitimate” transaction to fix the problem. Except the money goes straight to scammers.
What went wrong here?
Mobile Commons says they detected and shut down the malicious activity within four hours. But honestly, that’s four hours too long when you’re dealing with government communication systems. The company’s statement about “spear phishing or similar social engineering” raises serious questions about their employee training and security protocols. How does a service handling sensitive government communications get compromised so easily? And why weren’t there better safeguards to prevent mass scam campaigns from going out?
What you should do now
Look, the safest approach is what you’ve probably heard before but might not actually follow: never interact with suspicious texts claiming to be from financial institutions. Don’t call the number. Don’t click the link. If you’re concerned, contact your bank directly using the official number on your card or statement. This breach shows that even “trusted” communication channels can be compromised. The scary part? We don’t even know how many people fell for this particular scam and lost money. When official systems get hacked, everyone’s trust gets eroded a little more.
