hollydolly
SF VIP
- Location
- London England
I'm the same.. SB... I absolutely flatly refuse to do anything financial on my phone...
Is anyone else receiving these types of texts?
- Thread starter seadoug
- Start date
I never bonded with my smartphone, still have the same old Android, and although I don't use it much at all, there is still some spam coming in. I never trusted the security, and with poor vision, it's not wise to type in financial info and risk making a costly mistake.
But, there are many people with different lifestyles, who do everything on their iPhones, don't rely on home computers at all. My older sister gave up her landline years ago and does a lot on her phone. I still have my landline, and prefer doing anything important on my desktop computer. I'm old school, never embraced technology, but do appreciate having access to so many things and so much online information. I don't trust AI though.
Timewise 60+
Senior Member
I don't have a phone! In my job many years ago I was required to have a phone. I learned then, that when I retired, I did not want to be that "available"! Therefore, I am not! Thank God...
I hope this isn't the start of something that's going to become common. Marriages could be ruined over something like that.
Don't you worry about being able to call 911 in an emergency?
Timewise 60+
Senior Member
No!
The selling of consumer/donor names and contact information is actually pretty old. It's been going on since at least the 90s. I used to work at a nonprofit that regularly sold lists of their donors to like-minded groups, and I noticed a long time ago that once I placed an order through a catalog I soon begin to receive catalogs from companies that sell similar products. And hospitals—or perhaps state governments?—clearly sell at least some information: As soon as I had my first child I started receiving a flood of catalogs focused on clothes and toys for infants.
With respect to unsolicited texts saying something along the lines of "Hi, [name]! I missed you at the party!" and so on, those are usually the start of a pig butchering scam, which is getting increasingly common. And once you reply to one you flag that you have a live number, and they get more common. I just block and delete. Some people text back and string them along: scambaiting.
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Oh, sorry, @Della; I haven't had enough coffee yet!
These are scams where an allegedly beautiful woman—often Asian, for some reason, but almost always a male scammer, or a groups of them, in some different country—sends an allegedly mistaken text and then strikes up a conversation with the recipient. If the person responds, they continue the conversation and eventually persuade the person to invest in cryptocurrency. I have a friend who has been contacted by several "gorgeous women" via Telegram. He's shared some of the texts and photos one of them sent.
These scams can get unbelievably detailed. Apparently, not only voice calls but even FaceTime visits can be faked, either through sophisticated technology or a female accomplice.
Here's a link: Pig butchering scam - Wikipedia
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