ATLANTA — The FBI is investigating after people across the country reported getting text messages, telling them they’ll be enslaved and made to pick cotton and have to report to plantations.
One Georgia mom said her 13-year-old son received the text while he was in school.
“The alarming part is that his name was included in the message which confused him quite a bit," said the concerned parent, who wishes to remain anonymous.
She said she plans to talk in-depth with her son to make sure he understands the text is not legit.
“I have a Black son, so we’re not unfamiliar with certain conversations. It just saddens me that we’ll have to take those conversations deeper for at least the next four years," said the mom.
Community activist and CEO of the Communities United for Justice Foundation Richard Rose said he’s not surprised that this is happening.
“I grew up in the Jim Crow South, so I’ve seen all these tools and various methods of intimidation," said Rose.
Tech expert, Harold Alexander, said he thinks the people behind the texts hacked into some kind of voter database.
“Either a Political Action Committee or one of the campaigns released their information to a third party and that third party got hacked," said Alexander.
Rose said we should expect to see more of these types of targeted messages in the future.
“Those totalitarian messages will become more active in American messaging. This is the first shot. We will be hearing from them for years," said Rose.
The FBI said its working with other agencies to look in the texts.
Alexander warned that anyone who gets these messages to be wary of any links or pictures they may contain because those could allow the sender to hack into your phone.