How does this scam work?
Wrong number scam. Which will turn into a romance or pig butchering scam.
John Oliver did a nice explanation
Basically they pretend to have the wrong number, but then start chatting with you, gain your trust over a period of months, and then ask you for money or similar.
I’ve heard these wrong number scams are used to probe for an active phone number
Basically they’re fishing for a “sorry I think you have the wrong number” to confirm or deny that there is a human on the other side so they don’t waste resources spamming inactive phone numbers
Anyways this is still really funny tho
Exactly why you shouldn’t press the hang up button when unknown caller happens. Just mute the call and let it ring out in silence. Don’t press the voicemail button either to send them straight there. It’s like social media, any interaction is a positive for their bot system and the only way to avoid making things worse is to not interact at all.
There’s an even better way to handle spam calls if you have a recent Android phone: use the automated call screening. Every time robocallers hang up immediately before saying a single word because they know if the person flags the call as spam then Google now has a recording to automatically flag future calls even if they spoof new phone numbers.
Don’t fax machines directly initiate the handshake?
I remember being screamed at by angry modem noises in ancient times when calling a fax number.
All of them are to probe for active numbers. Calls and texts. The best thing you can do is ignore them. For calls, don’t pick up, don’t hang up. Even ending the call early let’s them know your line is live.
Just ignore them and their system will mark your line as dead. I get maybe one or two calls a month now.
Sometimes when I have to answer a call from an unknown number, I’ll pick up but won’t say anything. A human will say something when they hear it stop ringing, but most bots listen for voice activity before they start their recording so they’ll just stay silent as long as you do.
In a similar vein, there is unsolicited calls from call center that dial your number automatically. If you picked up and say “Hello?” they register the sound and connect you with an agent. So I picked up my phone and stay silent every time I got a call from a unknown number. Quite enough that ends up by being hang up after 5 or 10 seconds. Actual people say “hello?” first when we don’t.
Right, but why pick up the phone at all? Simply answering marks you down on their list as an active number even if you don’t say anything. Even turning down the call is enough to let them know there’s a human on the other end. I’ve heard the best thing to do is let it ring so they think its dead.
At least that’s my assumption. So maybe I’m wrong (though the part about letting it ring out is true, I believe)
but why pick up the phone at all?
Because sometimes it’s someone actually calling for you
Yeah this is why I don’t respond. Immediately marked as spam and number blocked.
Now there was a (very brief lol) period of time where I got a few Trump fundraising texts (my guess is someone put in my number as a joke or out of malice). They stopped coming after I replied with dick pics lol
That happens mostly with phone calls, doesn’t it? They call you and if you pick up, they know it’s and active number. I’ve picket up a phone call or two that immediately hung up on me and I immediately realised I had to expect a couple scam calls or texts I’m the coming weeks.
I did this for years against a series of scam emails that kept getting through my spam filter somehow.
Then I found out there’s a guy with the same first and last name as me, with an extremely similar email address. So “real” people had been getting his email address wrong, and I was trolling his would-be clients. 💀
I’ve had someone repeatedly put my email as their spouse’s email in important situations. I’ve replied multiple times asking them to stop but they keep doing it.
I have the same name as their spouse, but you’d think you’d know your spouse’s email, or at least talk to them about it when you get a reply saying it was the wrong email!
I have a fairly unusual, albeit not unheard of, first name. As far as I can tell, I’m sharing my first and last name with 5 or so people in the US. Back in 2008 or so I nabbed first.last@gmail.com (I also own www.firstlast.com haha). Every so often one of my brethren will use my email at dicks sporting goods or something. I always finish activating the account for them and sign them up for text alerts or something. Nothing evil. I figure they can just reply “stop” to opt out.
Oh my… I had a slightly similar incident. New phone number, had a bunch of random strangers texting me (some even calling!) asking for Ethan. My name is not Ethan, I didn’t know who Ethan is
No idea what was on my mind back then, but I somehow got the contact info of this mysterious Ethan, called him (hilarity ensued since he got a call from someone on his contact list named “Me”), confirmed his up-to-date number, and promptly referred everyone looking for Ethan to the real person for over a year…
Life is strange sometimes
An exchange with a scam texter and my kid.
On one hand, I don’t want to believe any 8 year old has a phone and has that colorful of language.
On the other hand, “chuck e cheese will eat you man” with a tenor gif of chuck e cheese is 100% a statement an 8 year old would come up with
Unfortunately my parenting has resulted in an 8-year-old that has both a phone and a vocabulary like that. To be fair, he’s autistic and we use the phone as a homing device so he can play in the neighborhood more independently.
Hahaha my niece is younger than that and speaks like a sailor, there are more important things in life than to patrol colorful language of children used within the context of trolling scammers
I swear I’ve seen it on reddit before. Maybe the internet brainrot has finally come for me
I used to fuck with these people until I saw that John Oliver about them and found out many are doing this against their will
Which segment was it? I am curious now because I always fuck with the texters that get past my spam filter.
Pig slaughtering scams. Apparently lots of people go to China thinking they will get a certain kind of work then get forced into this.
