NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — There is one phrase that should always make you feel wary when you see it in a text message or email. Scammers specifically rely on this three-word message: "Would you kindly." While it appears to be friendly or harmless, you should immediately put your guard up, and even the word "kindly" by itself should be a red flag. "The word 'kindly' is simply something we don't use in our common vernacular in the U.S.," said Tim Bajarin, a veteran technology analyst and chairman of Creative Strategies. "You'll often hear it used in countries with British influence, perhaps once a colonial country, where English isn't this mother tongue — such as Nigeria, India, and Pakistan." The word "kindly" is most likely to be used by a foreign national, and it is possible that the message is being sent by someone overseas to scam you. "If you see this word or phrase," Bajarin continued, "it's a red flag, similar to poor spelling or grammar." People should also be warned to look out for more than just a particular word, phrase, or spelling mistake, according to the Founder of Fraud Prevention Strategies and Farmer Fraud Investigator and Special Assistant to the Washington State Attorney General's Officer, Doug Shadel. "Really, any communication that you get that's unsolicited — whether it's a text to robocall, social media message, or email — should make you highly suspicious," Shadel warned. "If you didn't initiate this correspondence, chances are it's a scam." One injured, one missing in two Dickison pursuits Shadel explained that scammers know that people are catching onto these faster than ever before. This causes them to have to shift tactics. Now, a new message is being posed in an innocent way, something along the lines of, "Did I miss you today?" "Hi, how are you?" or "I'll be late for the meeting." "When you write back to ask who it is or tell them they've got the wrong person," Shadel added, "they will try to defraud you in some manner." The FTC stated that these conversations gain trust and friendship — when a scammer feels they've done that, they'll ask you to invest in cryptocurrency or say they need help and ask for gift cards. The best thing to do when faced with this dilemma is to delete the text or emails and report them as junk. "If it's an 'imposter' message, like someone claiming to be from, say, Bank of America or the IRS, never click on the link or attachment," Shadel warned. "If you're not sure if it's legitimate, you should independently log into that account with your own login and password — not what was sent to you — to see if the institution truly was trying to contact you." Other options include calling the organization on their published phone number to verify the message. It's important to report these emails and texts for one reason: law enforcement needs to know the extent of these scams to be able to put a stop to them. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Today's Top Stories SIGN UP NOW