Government stupidity, or maybe a scam; if scam, I haven't figured out how it works.

I received the following text message this morning

quote:

sent from phone number (304) 873-9671:

This is a message from the Department of Veterans Affairs: Hi <V-Tail>, your VA profile is missing a phone number. Sign in at va.gov to update your information so you don't miss important VA updates.

Yeah, a TEXT message sent to the phone number that is "missing" from my VA profile.

Just checked, same number, same message, to my cell phone. I hardly log in there, if I ever do, wouldn’t use the link provided.

Yes it is a scam.

Friend of mine also got a text from that number and is not a veteran, type 1 diabetic since he was 11.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

Yes it is a scam.

Have you figured out how the scam works? It does not contain a link; it tells me to log in to va.gov, which is a legit website, where I already have an account. As far as I know, you can't do anything on va.gov without going through 2FA or similar; I enter va.gov via verification through ID.me

Is it perhaps a mindless piece of VA website code that requires you to “confirm” your telephone number every year or every other year and it’s now complaining if you haven’t done so?

Wasn’t the same, but the wife got an email from one of her IRA accounts saying she needed to call them or login at least once or they were going to consider it abandoned and send her funds to the state. All because she hadn’t logged in for several years even though there was no reason to do so.

quote:

Originally posted by tsmccull:

Is it perhaps a mindless piece of VA website code that requires you to “confirm” your telephone number every year or every other year and it’s now complaining if you haven’t done so?

It sure ain't every year. I just started my VA account on June 30 of this year, so it's not even three months old, and I have been accessing it couple times / week, to coordinate some health type benefits.

I'm not seeing the scam based on what they are asking of you.

FWIW, any time you receive a request via text, phone call or email that asks for anything even remotely personal, don't respond. I don't know of any government entity whether federal, state or local that will use anything other than US mail for an information request. Any legitimate business will do the same. If you believe the request is legitimate contact the entity using verified email, website or phone number.
Unless you have a criminal mind the scam may not be apparent. Based on my experience on Sig Forum, there are not many criminal minds here (that's a good thing).

Googling the number shoes a number of entries calling it a phishing scam, maybe they are just trolling for people that will reply to the text and will try and work the scam from there.

There was an instagram entry saying it was valid and part of the VA's August and September drive to get people to update their profile. Its on instagram so I'm pretty sure its trustworthy.

I received the same message from the same number.

I got the same message on e-mail. I used to have a link for my cell phone but all notifications kept going to it instead of my house phone. I don’t carry my cell phone unless I’m out and about, so I kept missing reminders and such. I told the VA to contact me via house phone, as answering machine would catch it if not answered. Got to the point that I deleted cell phone from my profile with them.

I keep getting emails from "ID.me" to download and review a document that is attached. Everything in the email address looks legit. But, I go to the ID.me website separately and there is no mention of any document acknowledgement.