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?

#251

Post by AgentME » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:25 AM UTC

SapporoChris wrote: post #187

jameshart wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong numbers generally used to be caused by misdialing. Nobody dials numbers any more.

Generally, you are correct. However I had an interesting experience in the 90's where someone's number was somehow linked to mine. So their friends kept calling, for the first few times I politely said that X wasn't here, they had the wrong number. However I had a call blocker on my line, and after two or three phone calls I'd just add the number to the call blocker. I also had an answering machine, and eventually, I…

Somehow when I was in high school, my ex girlfriend's cellphone number became linked to my cellphone number so that if someone called me while I was already in a call, the new call would be redirected to her. It caused some awkward situations. I have no idea how it happened. I had once set her number as a speed-dial on my phone and also set it as a Verizon "friends & family" number so I could call her for free, so I assume somehow there was a glitch with one of these features. She was a mutual friend with a lot of my friends so people just assumed they had called her by accident, but years later I finally realized something was up when a new friend who didn't know my ex got redirected to her. I googled a lot and found out there was some phone star code you could dial to set or unset a number to be used as a backup number, I finally understood that was the association that must have been set, and I was able to clear the association. I wondered a lot if I had accidentally used the star code in the past to set up the association but I can't imagine having done it by accident, and I didn't know about the feature before.

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

#252

Post by Vanit » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:31 AM UTC

water8 wrote: post #248

nsenifty wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why the 2FA texts don't clearly state what the intent of the code is? Something on the lines of "you or someone tried to create a new Google voice number. Please enter this code xyz on the form to proceed".

Do you really need a message like that? If you didn’t try to sign in But you get a notification, it’s pretty freaking clear what’s going on. Alternatively if you just signed up a new account you should probably expect a message like that

A common attack is to impersonate a trusted institution and ask for confirmation via an SMS code. The attacker is going through the lost your password recovery flow for 2FA, but pretends it's just for confirmation of identity. If they're smart they can even perform the attack twice and change the 2FA number for your account. If the code was accompanied by an explanation of the intent it would mitigate the attack, that's why.

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

#253

Post by roca » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:00 AM UTC

ctoth wrote: post #23

Terrified to consider what happens when these scammers get hold of large language models here in a year or so. Rather than fading into the background as this article posits, I expect people to have models finetuned on convincing them to make purchases/send money. Probably trained by being pitted against other models which have been trained on the mark's social media feeds. Train the scambot to perfectly push your but…

Yeah. I suspect we're only months, or a few years at most, from automation that's as good or better than these human slaves. Then they can A/B test their way to increasing effectiveness.

An interesting twist will be to pull the voices of your friends off social media videos and impersonate them to you.

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

#254

Post by raverbashing » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:08 AM UTC

deepspace wrote: post #43

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…

What would the motivation be for anyone to reply to a text from an unknown person? I have also been getting these for months, in it was 100% obvious from the get-go that it must be a scam. I have never felt the slightest urge to reply.

[flagged]

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

#255

Post by RajT88 » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:12 AM UTC

hackernewds wrote: post #193

nobody9999 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I did this with some 419 scammers, and led them on a merry chase. I documented it in a private web forum, which entertained my friends for weeks. It's a bit dated now, but 419eater[0] is a public forum that did the same. If you enjoyed your own, I expect you'll like this too. I did the same a few times myself, but got bored after a while. I never did get anyone to send a photo of themselves with underwear on their h…

Possible they're the same story?

I have no connection to that site. Indeed, I was aware of it before my merry chase I led the scammers on, which was 2008 when I did it. It was certainly an inspiration.

My private forum is long dead, and to be completely honest, I think the 419eaters did a much better job. That is subjective, but for sure they invested a lot more time in it.

I would post my exploits publicly, lightly anonymized, but I was in my 20's when I did it. I look back at it, and feel like the sort of long-con thinking and sheer sneakiness and meanness of how I reversed the con back at them is just not a good look. I wouldn't do it again now.

Maybe some folks understand what I mean by that? I don't want to be a shady dude, even in pursuit of some weird form of justice.

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

#256

Post by RajT88 » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:16 AM UTC

yorwba wrote: post #149

cmg wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was an 802 area code in this case, but I think it’s pretty clear now that these scammers have multiple personas and numbers to work with.

Does the profile picture have a sign in the background saying "Vilan Pho - Fresh Soup Everyday", perchance? I got "Hello are you Mr.Jack? My aunt recommended you to me,saying that the found the shop I wantend." Burmese phone number.

I went back and reviewed my conversation. I hadn't looked at the photo super close before, and was surprised when I could actually get a somewhat high-res version of the profile photo.

I had a photo of an Asian lady holding a Starbucks cup at a restaurant. Maybe an office, actually? The photo was reversed, as the lettering on the cup was backwards.

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

#257

Post by gautamdivgi » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:19 AM UTC

The article talks of WhatsApp, but I have received these weird messages via iMessage on my iPhone as well. I'm not sure if that's because I have a really old iPhone (iPhone 6). I generally block these numbers.

It would be good if iMessage could create a "fraud/spam" marking for a message/contact similar to what email has today. WhatsApp seems to have a "report" button. fwiw - I have received more weird texts on iMessage and very little on WhatsApp.

I've also noticed that these scammers may have access to data from other sources as well. I'm moving at the moment and out of the blue receive a call asking me if I have a house to sell. I just said no and cut the call. But there is most likely a massive data gathering operation behind the scenes as well.

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

#258

Post by jhugo » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:53 AM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #184

spicybright wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow. I got EXACTLY the same message, only with a sick dog and an asian woman in a car. I did the exact some response you did too. So weird.

A bit over a year ago, I received over SMS a photo of a young woman using her mouth to lift up her shirt and reveal her bra. Her face above the very bottom of her nose is not visible. This was followed by the text "hi, is this Grèg frm Sañta Barbara?.? It is Jennifer." Clearly some sort of scam is afoot, but I don't know what it is. And virtually no effort has been made to be at all convincing, given the diacritics.

Being less convincing saves the scammers time, because you won't reply unless you're easily fooled.

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

#259

Post by californical » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 7:13 AM UTC

ska wrote: post #201

jameshart wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong numbers generally used to be caused by misdialing. Nobody dials numbers any more.

Nobody dials their friends numbers anymore. Calling a business though? A colleague had a problem where their number was 1 digit off from some delivery number (maybe pizza?) and got calls all the time. Someone else erroneously has their number (different area code) in the google info for another business, same problem and took a while to fix.

Hah, there’s a Seinfeld episode about this, where Kramer is one digit off from a movie showtimes hotline, and he fully plays the role and starts answering everyone’s questions about which movies are showing!

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

#260

Post by jedberg » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 7:15 AM UTC

chefandy wrote: post #126

For a while I grew quite fond of wasting phone scammers time. I’d pick up, talk suuuuuuper slowly— like Emo Phillips speed at one syllable every one or two seconds— interrupt with irrelevant questions or anecdotes, and overall just see how long I could keep them on the phone without giving them any information. The best strategy I found was telling them that, yes indeed I did remember owing the IRS or whoever money a…

I did that once while I was driving for an hour. They had already interrupted my podcast with the call and I didn't have anything better to do, so I engaged.

They eventually caught me when I didn't give the same fake SSN twice.