Missouri DHSS Warns of New Scam
JEFFERSON CITY, MO -- The Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services (DHSS) 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 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 myDMV portal appear along the top.
DHSS has worked with the Office of Administration’s Information Technology Services Division (OA-ITSD) 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 disclose
Below are some examples of what the websites look like. The first image is what it would look like on a PC or Mac. The second is what it would look like on a mobile device and the third image is what the text message they send looks like when you receive it.
Again, this is a scam so please do not click on any link from this phone number if you receive the text. Simply delete the text from your text message library.
