What's the deal with all those weird wrong-number texts? • Hacker News Board

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

#231

Post by jccalhoun » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 2:48 AM UTC

Last year I got a ton of emails supposedly from different people all talking about a "Becca" that I was allegedly in a relationship with. Some would accuse me of cheating on this person, others would say she was cheating on me. I remember one was about how she had cleaned up her life and was working at Arbys.

Like the ones in this story, none of them ever had links or asked me for anything. I never interacted with them. They were kind of interesting at first but after a while I blocked the emails.

I can only guess that this kind of long game scam is what was happening.

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

#232

Post by metadat » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 2:53 AM UTC

guilherme-puida wrote: post #190

sowbug wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you haven't seen it, someone automated this: https://jollyrogertelephone.com/

Blocked in Brazil for some reason.

Brazil is, unfortunately, a known scam source origin country.

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

#233

Post by al_borland » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 2:54 AM UTC

milchek wrote: post #185

al_borland wrote: post #182

Thank you! I've been wondering what the scam was. I've gotten 3 of these so far. I've received actual wrong number texts in the past, so I want to let the person know they got the wrong number and aren't getting ghosted by their friend. But they just keep texting back, which is really weird. With the first one I didn't know what was going on the person said they just moved to the country, which is plausible, so I did…

This sounds to me like a relationship long con. A lot of people are isolated and lonely, not just the elderly. The scammer tries to create a spontaneous meet that seems genuine. If you engage then it’s about quickly developing a relationship and then if that works, asking for money. I wonder how much of this can be automated these days. This sort of scam usually requires a lot of effort and is more targeted. Since ma…

Yep, that's pretty much what the article says. They take several weeks before getting to the scam.

Someone messaged me on Reddit a while back pretty randomly after a comment I made mentioned it would be my birthday at some point in the year. It seemed a little too weird, she said we lived 30 minutes from each other. I didn't know if it was a girl or a guy for quite a long time, so there was no relationship talk. We both wrote really long detailed replies, much more than any script would be able to handle. Ended up meeting up with her and it was in fact a real person, but I was very up front with my skepticism very early on in the chat. Even after we met up I said something about how I was half expecting my car to be broken into or something. She ghosted me afterward, lol. Maybe it was a relationship long con, but I didn't look like I was worth conning or I was still too on edge and not engaging enough to make it worth the time she'd have to put in to make me not think she was scamming me. Or I'm just boring, ugly, and weird. Whatever, she basically just complained about work for an hour.

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

#234

Post by metadat » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:04 AM UTC

xmprt wrote: post #24

kube-system wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I agree with that. I rarely get scams via USPS, never get explicit or potentially damaging content, the senders are all in my legal jurisdiction, and the spam arrives once per day in a manageable format. Almost all of the content is from businesses in my local area, businesses that I have previously shopped at, or political ads. Electronically from private companies I frequently get a larger volume of s…

> I'd take 10x the amount of spam in my mailbox if I could get rid of all of the rest of the garbage I'm bombarded with I for one would not. Digital spam is easy to deal with. There are automated filters, easy ways to block them, and the few that slip through are simple to deal with. Mailbox spam is physically painful to deal with and it's a massive waste of paper.

It is without a doubt a shameful waste, but how is it physically painful? Did you get a paper cut

Personally I find it emotionally painful and depressing to deal with. It sucks to be physically confronted with the reality that my personal contact information is being passed around like a bitch in prison.

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

#235

Post by xmprt » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:05 AM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #217

rglullis wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Snapchat/LinkedIn/Instagram: just close your account and put email filters?

In that case, the problem is just as easy to solve with snail mail. Remove your mailbox and your mail will be returned as undeliverable.

You are legally required to be reachable by mail by the US government. Unless you're planning on being an undocumented citizen living on US land off the grid, you will need a mail box.

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

#236

Post by krallja » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:28 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #159

krallja wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paper is a renewable resource, and also a carbon sink. Throw it in the garbage and consider it carbon sequestration.

Unfortunately I'd bet that the paper production and delivery to your mailbox emits much more carbon than the paper itself sequesters.

Exclude that as a sunk cost: the paper is coming to your mailbox either way. The only difference is, does the carbon get sequestered in the dump, or does it prevent another artificially-fast-growing pine from being processed into paper? Which of those options is less damaging? I don’t have the data, but I feel like it’s probably pretty close.

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

#237

Post by yourad_io » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:57 AM UTC

WalterSear wrote: post #218

kccqzy wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any person who is remotely knowledgeable about bitcoin should know that there is no need to "connect your wallet" or reveal your private key to receive bitcoins. To receive, you only need the address which is basically a public key.

Most people in crypto aren't remotely knowledgeable about bitcoin: luring in rubes is almost the entirety of the crypto industry's thesis, not to mention comprising it's (actual) market cap. To wit: the wallet-drainer billboards that popped up around the NFT NYC and Eth Nyc conferences this year: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/scams/2022/06/rogue-cryptocurr...

> However, a “wallet drainer” is just another way of saying “phishing website”

From the article

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

#238

Post by tjbiddle » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 4:10 AM UTC

Sooo happy that someone did the research and write-up on this. I get a handful of these every week and I've been dying of curiosity. Tried stringing them along but could never figure out the end-game.

Now - can someone answer why I get 10 calls a day with no one on the other end? Either I pick-up and it's empty and the call ends a few seconds later, or they leave a 7 second voicemail of nothing.

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

#239

Post by seoaeu » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 4:15 AM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #219

seoaeu wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long term, the paper will decompose while sitting in the landfill and then release the carbon back into the atmosphere. Even temporary sequestration is beneficial, but I don’t know whether it is still a net positive once you factor in the resources spent growing the wood, mailing the paper, and transporting it to a landfill.

Many landfills in the US capture carbon emissions. My local landfill sells their methane to the local gas utility.

Many US landfills capture methane, since they can then profitably sell/burn it. I haven't seen anything about them capturing all the CO2 emitted, which would be much trickier.

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

#240

Post by sockaddr » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 4:17 AM UTC

tjbiddle wrote: post #238

Sooo happy that someone did the research and write-up on this. I get a handful of these every week and I've been dying of curiosity. Tried stringing them along but could never figure out the end-game. Now - can someone answer why I get 10 calls a day with no one on the other end? Either I pick-up and it's empty and the call ends a few seconds later, or they leave a 7 second voicemail of nothing.

They just want to hear you breathing.