AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine's Department of Labor is warning Mainers after a number of scams were recently brought to light.
Right now, scammers are using social media accounts and text messages to entice Mainers to share personal information with them. The Department says scammers do so to create fraudulent unemployment benefit claims.
"Scammers will actually impersonate the Department of Labor," said Department of Labor's Director of Communications, Jessica Picard. "They'll take the cover photo or the profile picture that's on our legitimate Facebook page and create an identical page in order to try to get people to message them their information."
This text is popping up on Mainers' phones -- you might notice the spelling error in the last line – a clear red flag.
"We will never ask you for any sensitive information on social media," said Picard. "And the Department of Labor does not text claimants."
Picard warns not to click on a link like this instead you should delete it.
The Department has been working with social media platforms to remove these fake pages when they pop up.
"If you're on social media look for the blue checkmark on our page to verify that it's actually us." said Picard.
If you receive a text or come across one of these phony social media pages you are encouraged to report it to the Department of Labor.