New phone scam - receive random "hey this is ..." texts from random people?

[Anonymous]

In the past couple of weeks, I've received several "Hey, this is Mark" or "it was great to see you today" messages from random numbers. I generally don't get a lot of wrong number texts, but have probably had like 6 in the past 2-3 weeks, which is more than the past 2-3 years.

Is this a new phone scam? Has anyone else noticed an uptake of random texts from people you don't know?

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is absolutely a scam. They want you to respond to tell them they have the wrong number, then they know it is a good/real number.

I block all texts like this.

[Anonymous]

It's an old scam.

[Anonymous]

I send nudes back.

[Anonymous]

It’s a scam. It can be the start of a pig butchering scam. I responded in the past telling them they had the wrong number, and they tried to start a conversation and send selfies of young Asian woman. Their goal is to rope you in and steal your money, even if it takes a long time to do so.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_butchering_scam

[Anonymous]

I fell for one.

The text said "Hi, Dr. John, is your office open tomorrow? My dog is in bad shape. We need to see you ASAP."
I felt bad for the dog's owner, so I texted back "Wrong number."
They started writing back, "This can't be wrong. I just got the number this morning. Who is this?"

I knew then it's a scammer.

[Anonymous]

I'm tempted to respond: "omg FINALLY Mark. You need to pay me my money now that you're finally ready to own up. Certified check to my PO box, only. I'm fed up with your BS."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I send nudes back.

And if it turns out to be a child? Risky.

[Anonymous]

I just got one today that just said, "Hello." Had the same thing happen about a week ago. I don't respond.

[Anonymous]

I got a text that was pretty clever. It said. ‘Hey there (X) I wanted to bring your mom some of my homemade dumplings, is she around later today’.

I responded ‘sorry, wrong number’. It seemed like an honest mistake.


And then the person texted ‘oh my apologies - you seem like a nice person’ followed by a photo of an attractive young woman. And a ‘do you live close by?’

Which I then blocked. Not my particular kryptonite. But there’s a lot of lonely and/or horny people out there. Send out enough messages and someone will bite.

[Anonymous]

It’s a scam. Don’t respond. John Oliver has a good segment on this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pLPpl2ISKTg

[Anonymous]

Just block. Definitely a scam. Scammers freaking everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm tempted to respond: "omg FINALLY Mark. You need to pay me my money now that you're finally ready to own up. Certified check to my PO box, only. I'm fed up with your BS."

HA! This made me snort-laugh.

[Anonymous]

"Hi Gwen, Long time no see! How have you been!

[Anonymous]

I got one from an out of state number saying Hi Dr Smith, I need to bring Bobby in because of a toothache