SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— Concerning spam-like text messages are being reported to authorities across the country, and now the FBI is getting involved. A viewer sent this screenshot of a text she received from an unknown number.
Tali Letoi
Tali LetoiThe viewer who asked not to be named says she felt ‘horrified and fearful’ after receiving a message like this. She’s not alone.
Many black people nationwide have reported getting similar messages post-Election Day where they’re told they’ve been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”
But this latest trend raises the question of how people are able to do this. One local expert weighed in on how it’s possible to receive certain peoples’ private information.
“There have been several data breaches, and each one of those data breaches contain sensitive information,” says Nikolas Behar, an adjunct professor of Cybersecurity at the University of San Diego. “And when we take pieces from each one of those data breaches and we cross-compare it with things like social media, publicly available profiles, we can discern certain targets, whether it’s gender or race.”