State attorneys general across the country are urging people to let authorities know if they’ve received one of these racist text messages sent out to scores of black people on Wednesday, telling them they had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation.”

They said anyone who received these texts should contact local law enforcement, the FBI or file complaints with state agencies if they feel threatened. New York Attorney General Letitia James directed the recipients to file a complaint with the office’s civil rights office, while Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison encouraged anyone who received the message to fill out a complaint form with his office.

The FBI said it is investigating the case, but would not confirm to NBC News whether it has information about whether the text messages originated domestically or overseas. A law enforcement source told NBC News that multiple branches of the FBI were deployed, including criminal, cyber and counterintelligence agencies.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said her enforcement office is also working alongside law enforcement.

Devereaux Adams, 27, of Atlanta, is one of several Georgia residents who allegedly received the texts. Although the messages differ slightly in language — and some mention President-elect Donald Trump — they follow a similar script: “Our executive slaves are coming to get you … be prepared to be searched after entering the plantation.”

“I was just disappointed, scared, because I have no idea how this particular person got my phone information. I have no idea how that was possible,” Adams said. He added, “I feel like the text confirmed my suspicions about what I knew would happen” if Trump wins.

The messages were sent to black people of all ages, including children. A number of colleges nationwide, including Ohio State University and Clemson University in South Carolina, released statements condemning the messages and urging students who received the texts to report them.

Several recipients who spoke to NBC News expressed fear and wondered how those behind the text messages accessed their personal phone numbers. It’s unclear who is behind the mass text messages, what motivated them, or how they obtained phone numbers for groups of black people.

A spokesman for TextNow, a text messaging service that allows users to get untraceable phone numbers, denounced the messages in a statement to NBC News and said the company acted quickly when learned of the messages, “closing the accounts involved. in an hour”, the statement says.

Lance Beaudry, founder of TextSpot, another anonymous text messaging service, said a new user tried to send one of the racist messages Wednesday afternoon, but the company’s AI system flagged the message for “language that is extremely disturbing and could be construed as exploitative or coercive.” TextSpot said it immediately blocked and banned the user from accessing the service.

NBC News tracked down the person’s account number in Philadelphia. A phone call to the number went unanswered.

“If it was going to work, I’m sure they would have tried to send it to thousands of people,” Beaudry said, “but we stopped that from happening. That’s when we realized this was happening all over the country.”

He added that the company’s alert system was originally intended to catch spam or phishing messages.

“It’s rare that you’ve seen blatant, you know, racist comments,” he said, adding that he believed other telecom operators would use the case to improve their own internal security systems. “I’m glad we could play a small part in preventing the spread of hate.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murill said in a statement that the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation traced some of the messages to a VPN, or virtual private network, in Poland. But the FBI told NBC News that a VPN in another country doesn’t necessarily mean the text messages originated there.

Kumi Wolf, of Michigan, said it was “disheartening and very dehumanizing” to receive the text message. She is among several recipients who were disappointed by the outcome of the presidential election and saw the text messages as salt on an open wound.

“I don’t understand how anyone could think like that and want to send out a mass message like this to make people feel even more hurt than they already are,” Wolf told NBC News. “I thought maybe after the election we could at least figure out how to pick up the pieces.”

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, condemned the text messages on Thursday and said: “If we can find the source of these messages promoting this kind of ugliness on our behalf, we will obviously take legal action to stop it.”

A spokesman for CTIA, the official trade association representing the wireless communications industry, told NBC News in a statement that it has blocked thousands of messages and the numbers sending them. The association urged anyone who receives spam messages to forward them to 7726 or “SPAM” to report them to their wireless service provider.

“Through CTIA’s Secure Messaging Initiative, participants have identified the platforms that bad actors used to send these messages and are working with law enforcement on this matter,” said Nick Ludlum, director of communications at CTIA, in a communicated.