A Prince Albert man said he lost nearly $30,000 to a text message scam just before Christmas.

Norm Richards told CTV he received a text Dec. 21 that appeared to be from PayPal.

The text said he had authorized a payment to Walmart. Concerned, Richards called the 1-800 number that was included in the message and spoke with someone who said they were a manager.

It seemed to me that he was being trustworthy, Richards explained. So, I went along with the inquiries he made and things he asked me to do.

The scammer convinced Richards to make gift card purchases and to share his debit and credit card information.

Within a few hours his bank account was drained along with his crypto wallet, which he says contained funds valued at over $22,000 USD.

I had an account with one of the companies that handle, bitcoin trading and they convinced me to get in there too, he said.

The incident has caused Richards to fall behind on his rent. He said he reported the scam to the Prince Albert Police Service.

Over 5,000 text messages were reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in 2023.

Saskatoon-based tech expert Chad Jones has a tip for anyone who wants to avoid falling victim to similar text message scams.

On the iPhone you can [go] into messages and theres a setting to filter out unknown senders, he explained.

If they turn on that setting then they wont get these texts.

He said Android users have a similar setting on their phone to block unwanted texts called Spam Protection.

That means that if some random person texts you, you might not get the text, but they just have to phone you instead, Jones added.

The Prince Albert Police advise members of the public not to give out personal information over the phone or on the internet and to protect their social insurance number.