Two Long Island fire departments are asking people not to reply to text messages asking them to buy t-shirts.
Text posted on the Malvern Fire Department’s Facebook page displays a message asking residents to purchase a Malvern Fire Department T-shirt for $10 off.
However, the department says it’s not part of the T-shirt movement.
The South Farmingdale Fire Department says it has previously been targeted by the same T-shirt scam.
“We quickly got ahead of this issue, probably within 12 to 14 hours after the text messages started bombarding firefighters and EMS personnel,” said Don Mormino of the South Farmingdale Fire Department. .
This time, members of the community were also targeted.
According to Mormino, the scam also includes bogus websites, and clicking links can put you and others at risk.
“Any time you click on a link you’re not aware of, you never know what you’re getting into,” Mormino says. “Either you get a virus, or it corrupts your phone book or contact list and starts sending this message to all your contacts.”
Residents say targeting local first responders is shameless.
“…it’s close to home so I hope they find out who’s doing it,” says Shannon Hannah.
Mormino said another scam is likely to occur again.