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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?

#261

Post by tornato7 »

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.

It was a fake ‘you received money’ email.

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

#263

Post by londons_explore »

brewdad wrote: post #202
londons_explore wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual scammers tend to not pick up the actual goods. It's hard to turn a profit by reselling an expensive aquarium tank that's probably pretty unique and they don't come up for sale frequently. I suspect you fleeced a real buyer

A real buyer would have made a real payment.

With paypal, finding out what is a 'real payment' is actually pretty hard - they do these odd 'echeque' payments which are reversible for a number of days. they also do 'buying a product' payments which can be reversed through a buyer-usually-wins process, and 'friends and family' payments which are mostly-but-not-entirely irreversible.

They all come with differently styled legit emails, which blend right in to the fake spam emails also claiming to be from paypal.

I can totally imagine confusion occurring.

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

#264

Post by Sakos »

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

Clear to whom? Have you ever worked with the average user?

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

#265

Post by mcv »

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…

There's a lot of lonely people out there who probably would welcome a friendly conversation with a random stranger. I bet that's the target audience for this scam.

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

#266

Post by philwelch »

hackernewds wrote: post #192
londons_explore wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual scammers tend to not pick up the actual goods. It's hard to turn a profit by reselling an expensive aquarium tank that's probably pretty unique and they don't come up for sale frequently. I suspect you fleeced a real buyer

That scheme does not make any sense. What would they gain out of it

Yeah, I bet he’s thinking of the other way around where the scammer gets you to give them money but doesn’t deliver the product. In this version you deliver the product and the scammer hasn’t paid. I don’t think scamming people out of aquariums is especially lucrative but I’m not a professional.

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

#267

Post by someweirdperson »

I've got an idea how to improve the scams. Instead of trying to communicate with the victim directly, create a group chat of fake accounts, with the victim added. The fake accounts can share information, and because this is information is shared between subjects obviously trusting eachother, the victim is very likely to believe it.

The effort is higher (multiple accounts needed), but for some high-value targets might be an alternative to other scams.

Does this kind of scam exist yet? Can I file a patent, and sue scammers applying it?

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

#268

Post by pavlov »

mcculley wrote: post #103
wpietri wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Florida has been selling swampland to gullible retirees from other states for a long time.

"These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them."

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

#269

Post by philwelch »

walrus01 wrote: post #63
cool_dude85 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have, per the article, buildings full of slaves to do the selling. I doubt GPT-4 will be able to compete on price with that.

I am morbidly curious what the locations, salaries and working conditions are like. Because obviously they have to recruit people who have some basic level of English language literacy, so that commands a bit of a wage premium (even in India or Bangladesh) over truly unskilled labor.

Assuming they don’t just do machine translation.

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

#270

Post by philwelch »

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.

And then people burn the methane in their stove, thus producing CO2.
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