San Antonio and Texas furloughed federal workers, many of whom are desperate after more than a month without a paycheck, are being targeted by on line and phone scammers, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Jason Meza, who is the regional director of the Better Business Bureau, says they scammers know many of them are facing not being able to pay their mortgage at the end of the month, and are looking for anything to help pay the bills.
"The scammers take advantage of the situation right now with the shutdown to aim their schemes at furloughed workers who are probably in a very financially desperate situation," he said.
Meza says it is mainly 'work from home' and other money making scams which are being targeted at the government workers.
"Part time work from home opportunities, presented as easy money making opportunities, actually mask attempts to steal their personal information, or in some cases, actually get them to wire money."
Meza says the scammers also know that they have another factor on their side during the shutdown.
"Since the FTC, our consumer watchdog group, is not being staffed right now, criminals and crooks know they will be able to get through a lot quicker."
He says no matter how attractive the opportunity sounds, government employees should see these scams for what they are hang up, delete, and report them to the BBB.