The Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services is warning citizens of a new text message scam targeting citizens and their personal information. According to website registration information, it was established on Dec. 2, 2021, and was registered using a provider from the European Union.
The text message requests that citizens visit a website to enter their social security number, name, and date of birth, and upload photos of their Driver’s License to “validate” their “one-time Covid-19 Vaccine verification.” In an attempt to legitimize the site, logos of DHSS and the Missouri Department of Revenue’s”My DMV portal” appear along the top.
DHSS has worked with the Office of Administration’s Information Technology Services Division to take all actions at the state’s disposal to report the site to the proper authorities, although the site is hosted and maintained externally.
DHSS will never ask for a citizen’s SSN over email or text message and only provides vaccination verification and records upon request. Although citizens have reported text messages originating from 1-704-525-9772, DHSS encourages citizens to protect their personal information online no matter the source.
If a citizen submitted their information through this website, DHSS recommends starting with the following steps to protect themselves:
- Contact your financial institutions to notify them of the privacy breach
- Contact the Social Security Administration to report an exposed SSN
- Contact credit reporting services to alert them your information was disclosed
Media assets: to protect citizens from visiting this malicious site, we have hidden the URL in these screenshots.
- Screenshot 1: desktop screenshot of website
- Screenshot 2: mobile screenshot of website
- Screenshot 3: mobile screenshot of text message
