EDD reminds us to watch out for identity theft scams

Published on October 24, 2022

The California Employment Development Department reminds people to be aware of scams from people claiming to work for the Employment Development Department or Bank of America. These scams try to trick people into giving up personal information by text message or telephone. Such fraud attempts specifically through text messages are called smishing.

Tips to determine whether a text message is a scam:

• Text messages asking people to reactivate a card by clicking a link are scams. Bank of America and EDD never text message people to reactivate a debit card.
• Never click a link in an unexpected text message claiming to be from EDD or Bank of America.
• Customers can verify whether an EDD text message is legitimate by checking online or the mailed notice for the same information.

Customers can call Bank of America using the telephone number on the back of their debit card to check if a bank-related text message is legitimate.

The Employment Development Department sends text messages from the numbers 510-74 or 918-06. Customers should be aware that a scammer might attempt to spoof this number to trick someone.

Information about how to avoid text-message scams is available through the Federal Trade Commission, FBI, and the Employment Development Department unemployment scammers fact sheet.

Anyone who believes they have been targeted by smishing should report to the National Center for Disaster Fraud or by calling 866-720-5721. Customers can also report fraud to the Employment Development Department.