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What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

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Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#71

Post by cronix »

LinuxBender wrote: post #46
idiotsecant wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want one company to be the arbiter of all communications everywhere. Phone numbers work fine.

I agree with this. For what it's worth my solution which may not work for others is to set the default ring/text tone to "None" and then add custom ring/text tones in my address book on my little throw away flip phone. It works great for me personally. I never get distracted by bots and just mass delete their messages without even looking at them when I get around to it. This method probably will not work for people…

An android solution is to only ring/notify the phone for people in your contacts. It's easier than giving individuals a ring tone as unknowns get the silent treatment by default. Basically just whitelist instead of blacklist.

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#72

Post by bequanna »

shostack wrote: post #40
avalys wrote: post #29

Wow, how interesting. I started getting these a few months ago, right after starting a new job in a somewhat high-profile area. I have been getting 1-2 per month but found them quite unusual because none of them ever progressed to an actual scam - just a few messages back and forth about the fabricated "wrong number" situation and then each thread would stop, seemingly earnestly. Since there was no obvious scam, I've…

If there's back and forth interaction I wonder if it is to aid improving their "legitimacy footprint" from metadata or something to avoid spam blockers.

This is a good guess and if true, pretty damn smart.

Essentially reverse engineering the spam model by brute force.

If they are doing this at scale they can experiment with # of conversations, length, and other variables to see what is needed to bypass spam blockers with high probability.

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#73

Post by wpietri »

cdelsolar wrote: post #62

I basically just send them all a big copy-pasta full of banned Chinese terms like 6/4, Free Tibet, Tiananmen Square, Winnie the Pooh, etc; they often leave me alone after that or act confused

This warms my heart! I'm going to start pretending like I know them, sending Wikipedia links to those topics, and asking what they think.

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#74

Post by cmg »

avalys wrote: post #29

Wow, how interesting. I started getting these a few months ago, right after starting a new job in a somewhat high-profile area. I have been getting 1-2 per month but found them quite unusual because none of them ever progressed to an actual scam - just a few messages back and forth about the fabricated "wrong number" situation and then each thread would stop, seemingly earnestly. Since there was no obvious scam, I've…

I've gotten a few in the last couple months, with a US cellular number that I've had for over 20 years. At least two are "I missed you at the gym today!" via text and another was from a Vermont area code via WhatsApp to a "Dr. Jack":

> Hi Dr. Jack! My cat is very slow and does not eat cat food. Can you make an appointment for me?

> Sorry, you have the wrong number

> Sorry, I just checked, I entered a wrong number, please don't mind. hope I did not disturb you.

> Best of luck with your cat!

> thank you for understanding. You are a kind person. where do you come from.

And then I just moved on with my day, because as nice as that sounded I wasn't looking for a conversation.

The contact profile image is of a young, attractive Asian woman, I think at a restaurant. No reverse image results on Tineye or Google.

[Edit: I’ve had this number for over 20 years (not “nearly 20”) and now I feel old.]

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#75

Post by xenophonf »

LinuxBender wrote: post #46
idiotsecant wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want one company to be the arbiter of all communications everywhere. Phone numbers work fine.

I agree with this. For what it's worth my solution which may not work for others is to set the default ring/text tone to "None" and then add custom ring/text tones in my address book on my little throw away flip phone. It works great for me personally. I never get distracted by bots and just mass delete their messages without even looking at them when I get around to it. This method probably will not work for people…

I'm considering doing that to my personal email. Default deny, whitelist known contacts, auto delete the junk mail folder. If I didn't have friends and family using them, I'd just outlook.com and gmail.com outright. It's frustrating how much spam they send.

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#76

Post by oefrha »

johnklos wrote: post #2

Simple: it's time to stop using phone numbers. I use Apple's Messages. If someone spams me, I report them. They're blocked and have to go through the extra work of setting up a new account to try again. Compare this with, say, Google. Gmail lets spammers / scammers have limitless accounts and they don't do shit when an account is reported for spam. You can block and report Gmail spammers all day long and you'll get n…

These days I get a lot more spam through Apple services, mostly in the form of iCloud shared albums, than I get SMS spam.

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#78

Post by tester756 »

wpietri wrote: post #68
Animats wrote: post #7

In this case, the victim deposited the money into a fake crypto platform that told him his investments were performing well, presumably to entice him to deposit even more. Of course, once he tried to withdraw the money, he found he was unable to. That sounds just like the "binary option" business which used to be run out of Israel. The Times of Israel blew that apart with "The Wolves of Tel Aviv" investigation series…

> Scamming people outside Israel was legal in Israel at the time. My head just exploded here. I think I need to go lie down. Please nobody tell the Florida legislature about this.

In Russia you can hack foregin countries too :)

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#79

Post by forgetfulness »

cmg wrote: post #74
avalys wrote: post #29

Wow, how interesting. I started getting these a few months ago, right after starting a new job in a somewhat high-profile area. I have been getting 1-2 per month but found them quite unusual because none of them ever progressed to an actual scam - just a few messages back and forth about the fabricated "wrong number" situation and then each thread would stop, seemingly earnestly. Since there was no obvious scam, I've…

I've gotten a few in the last couple months, with a US cellular number that I've had for over 20 years. At least two are "I missed you at the gym today!" via text and another was from a Vermont area code via WhatsApp to a "Dr. Jack": > Hi Dr. Jack! My cat is very slow and does not eat cat food. Can you make an appointment for me? > Sorry, you have the wrong number > Sorry, I just checked, I entered a wrong number, pl…

The pictures are always super blurry, clearly fabricated or heavily doctored. Often I've gotten the same portrait for several scam texts from different numbers.

Re: What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts?

#80

Post by spbaar »

I've been a bit unemployed and bored so I've responded to a few of these to see what the angle is. There are also a bunch on telegram. Strangely, most do not push hard at all and drop off. They may mention crypto in passing but thats it. One time a scammer said hey can you help me an make an account for this crpyto scam website. When i said i did they said great and nothing else.
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