Is this ReliaCard "account frozen" text real?
U.S.Bank Alert: Your state-issued ReliaCard acct has been temporarily frozen due to unusual activity. Verify your identity & restore card access immediately: https://reliacard-secure.verify-status[.]com
Scam. A ReliaCard is the prepaid card some states use to pay unemployment benefits, which makes it a precise target: the people holding one are waiting on money and can least afford to ignore a warning. The text is engineered around that. Nothing about a genuine card problem is ever settled through a link in a message.
How to spot the U.S. Bank ReliaCard scam
- It says the card or account is frozen, locked or suspended, and offers a link to restore it.
- The link is not usbank.com. These campaigns lean on 'reliacard' appearing somewhere in a domain that belongs to the attacker.
- It asks for the full card number, the PIN, the CVV or a one-time code. Those together are the card.
- You are asked to confirm your Social Security number to verify identity, which is what makes this one worth more to them than an ordinary card scam.
- There is a deadline before benefits are returned or the card is closed permanently.
- You never enrolled for a card at all. Receiving an unexpected ReliaCard can mean someone filed an unemployment claim in your name, which is a separate and more serious problem.
- The message arrives about a state you have not claimed in.
What to do now
- Do not tap the link. Call the number printed on the back of your own card, which is the one contact route no message can fake.
- Check the balance and history through the official ReliaCard app or site, reached by typing the address yourself.
- If a card arrived that you never applied for, do not activate it. Report it to your state unemployment agency and to U.S. Bank using its Report Card Received in Error process, because it points at unemployment identity fraud rather than a card problem.
- Report unemployment identity fraud through the Department of Labor's guidance, which routes you to the right state agency.
- If you entered card details or a Social Security number, call the number on the card immediately, then follow the recovery steps at IdentityTheft.gov.
- Forward the text to 7726 (SPAM) and delete it.
What it looks like on your phone
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Sources and reporting
Use official channels to confirm a suspicious request and report fraud.