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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?

#211

Post by benrapscallion »

hyperdimension wrote: post #144
tornato7 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some years ago I was selling an expensive aquarium on Craigslist, a scammer ‘paid’ me with a fake PayPal payment before asking to come pick it up. So I convinced him that I was the manager of a Red Lobster restaurant and it was an old lobster tank that we were selling. I told him to show up during business hours and tell the manager he’s there to pick up the lobster tank. The next day I got some ‘on my way’ texts and…

How did you know the PayPal payment was fake? Was it an edited screenshot, or did they actually spoof a 'you received money' email from PayPal? I ask just on the off-chance that you got a seeming-real email from the real PayPal, and I'd like to know what to look for if so.

I believe this scam works by then reversing (withdrawal) of the PayPal funds.

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

#212

Post by benrapscallion »

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…

Only a bot can fight a bot. I expect altruistic counterbots to come to people’s rescue by engaging the AI. Maybe a GAN?

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

#213

Post by nobody9999 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #158
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 have the idea (maybe wrongly) that people don't often use the USPS for scams because committing fraud by mail is a federal crime, and the postal service actually has inspectors with police powers who don't fool around once they get on the scent.

>I have the idea (maybe wrongly) that people don't often use the USPS for scams because committing fraud by mail is a federal crime, and the postal service actually has inspectors with police powers who don't fool around once they get on the scent.

Apparently, mail fraud[0] (via USPS) and wire fraud[1] (electronic communications) are both Federal felonies punishable by a fine and up to 20 years imprisonment.

Perhaps the difference would be FBI investigating instead of the postal inspectors?

More detail here[2].

N.B.: IANAL

[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1341

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud

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

#214

Post by ajsnigrutin »

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.

Slovenia too :)

> Block reason: Access from your Country was disabled by the administrator.

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

#215

Post by benrapscallion »

rickreynoldssf wrote: post #176

If you get a text (not What's App) reply with "Do you know what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989? Ask Winnie The Pooh, A Free Tibet or Uyghurs". That'll trigger a few Chinese monitors, or at least scare the scammers into thinking so.

Or: Thanks for contacting the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau. This is Special Agent Jones. How can I help you?

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

#216

Post by sircastor »

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…

I’m a new WhatsApp user. My exchange students and Au Pair use it as their primary communication. I have been fighting tooth and nail to avoid giving it access to my contacts. You can’t do much without that, even though it’s totally adjacent to purpose of the service.

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

#217

Post by kube-system »

rglullis wrote: post #90
kube-system wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email is the least of my problems. If you know of any good filters for SMS, phone calls, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, etc, I'd be very interested. I have to mute all of them because it is a constant stream of garbage from all of them.

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.

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

#218

Post by WalterSear »

kccqzy wrote: post #175
WalterSear wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a wallet drainer. Connect it with your wallet and empties it. https://blog.confiant.com/how-one-crypto-drainer-template-fa...

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...

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

#219

Post by kube-system »

seoaeu wrote: post #168
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.

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.

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

#220

Post by kube-system »

SoftTalker wrote: post #158
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 have the idea (maybe wrongly) that people don't often use the USPS for scams because committing fraud by mail is a federal crime, and the postal service actually has inspectors with police powers who don't fool around once they get on the scent.

It’s illegal to scam people electronically too. People often scam internationally to evade capture. Email is just considerably cheaper to send internationally and easier to spoof the source.

How many letters do you have to send before you find someone stupid enough to believe that they have to pay the IRS via gift card and that the IRS return address is in Russia? If anyone has tried, they went bankrupt on postage.

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