New England: Beware of Solar Panel Text Scam Now Lighting Up Your Phone

Texting scams are happening at a high rate

Texting scams are nothing new. In fact, within the last two weeks alone, we've highlighted a New Hampshire man who hilariously trolled a text scammer, as well as Maine Police mentioning the "grandparent scam" has hit the area. And now, you can add another one to the list -- the solar panel scam.

Earlier this afternoon, a New Englander (specifically a Massachusetts man) was the attempted victim of a text phishing scam involving the selling of solar panels for homes.

In case you're not familiar with the term, according to Phishing.org, phishing is:

"a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords."

What the solar panel scammer didn't realize is that person she reached out to in an attempt to get one over on, happens to be a local amateur comedian who has done opening sets for comedy shows around the Massachusetts and New Hampshire area. So, she wasn't scamming him, just giving him material for his next set.

Solar Panel Scam

The scam started off with a text from an unknown number (978-396-4096), identifying themselves as "Kayla," and inquiring about whether or not the recipient had gotten a chance to look into solar. "Kayla" went on to ask for personal information, namely, the average monthly electric bill cost to "get back to (him) with a free savings estimate."

The recipient, named Travis, wasn't taking the bait and decided to go off on a tangent about the solar system, whether the earth is flat or round, and even fit in a Neil deGrasse Tyson reference.