City of Elkins Issues Scam Alert About Life Insurance Texts
ELKINS, W.Va. — July 16, 2026 — Elkins City Hall has received calls about people receiving texts about the City of Elkins selling life insurance. Those texts are spam, and even worse, they are a scam.
These messages are unsolicited, fraudulent, and are in no way affiliated with the City of Elkins. We’re not in the life insurance business.
If you receive a text claiming to be from the City of Elkins regarding life insurance, do not reply, do not click any links, and do not provide any personal information. Instead, block the sender, report the message as SPAM, and if possible, file a report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
For those assisting less tech-savvy family members and friends, you can forward the suspicious text to SPAM (7726) to report it to your mobile carrier.
Red Flags: How to Spot a Scam Text (and Email)
Scammers rely on urgency and confusion to steal your personal information and money. Stay vigilant and remember these warning signs:
- Urgency or threats: Any messages that create panic, limited time to act, or threaten negative consequences if you do not act or pay immediately.
- Suspicious links: If it looks the slightest bit suspicious, do not click on any links.
- Requests for personal information: Demands for sensitive data such as PINs, bank account information, or your taxpayer ID numbers. Legitimate organizations will never ask for these.
- Too good to be true: If an offer sounds unbelievable (like a lottery or prize winning), it most likely will be. Ignore it, block it.
- Unexpected alerts: Missed tolls, unpaid parking tickets, and delayed packages are only a few examples of how scammers want you to rush quickly so they can steal your sensitive information and thereby, your money.
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