The Better Business Bureau analyzed nearly 440,000 Scam Tracker reports filed since 2022, and the conclusion is hard to miss: scam calls and texts have become the top way scammers contact victims, growing faster than scams overall. The report points to tools that are easy to rent and easy to scale, including VOIP numbers, bulk texting platforms, AI voice and video generation, and social media ads. BBB spokesperson Josh Planos says scammers see this as a lucrative industry and keep finding new ways to grow it.
Part of the reason texts are such a problem is legal. According to the BBB, current telecom rules were written for the landline era, and text messages don’t get the same explicit protection that calls do. The report recommends expanding the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the FCC’s rules, to cover texts directly. Until that happens, enforcement lags behind the technology scammers are already using.
For Suncoast residents, the practical steps are simple. Turn on your phone’s built-in spam filter. Be suspicious of any text offering a job or a loan you never applied for. Don’t click links from unknown senders, even if the message looks like it’s from a bank or delivery service. And check on the people around you, especially older neighbors and family members who may be targets. Have you or someone you know gotten a scam text recently? Tell us about it in the comments.
