Spam/phishing texts and WhatsApp messages

[Sojourner]

I've been getting some strange texts and WhatsApp messages recently, and my best guess is that they're an odd, new form of phishing. Just got one now on WhatsApp from "Cristy":

Hi, Charlie. Are you happy with the design of our company?

And yesterday I got this strange one as a regular text message:

Hey William, I didn't get your work papers, are you still busy?

Prior to maybe six months ago, I might have thought these were "wrong number" messages, wherein the senders made an honest mistake sending them to me. But having seen an increasing number of these kinds of texts over the past few months, I feel like this must be a new strategy for trying to get people to respond and eventually click on scam links, etc. etc. I've been getting roughly 2-3 of these messages each week (sometimes as regular texts, sometimes via WhatsApp), and I've never responded to any of them.

Has anyone else been receiving messages like this?

 

[MichaelB]

Has anyone else been receiving messages like this?

I have, for over a year, both iMessage and WhatApp. Most have no links and ask for a response. Reporting them to Verizon does nothing because the same number is never repeated. I just delete and forget.

 

[tulak]

I get these. Less on iMessage, more on Whatsapp. It’s annoying, but I delete and move on.

 

[Sunset]

I don't get these now, did get one about a trailer, I ignored it.

Instead I've gotten lots of emails of folks in other countries wanting to split large sums of money with me that's sitting in a bank.
They even said besides relatives, a good friend qualified to inherit the money.
It's the same old Nigerian Prince type of email scam..

 

[Sunset]

We did generate a unique voicemail instead of using our voice or the default answering machine response.

Now the scammers phone and listen to it and then hang up. Sometimes they call back right away to hear it again.

I'm thinking of making it longer or asking them to press 3 to speak to Harry, press 4 to speak to John, etc. .. really drag it out.

 

[big-papa]

Yeah I'm glad that the company that texted me on whatsapp cares what I think of the new custom suit they say I just bought. Block & delete. Rinse & Repeat. Yes, it's whack-a-mole.

 

[big-papa]

We did generate a unique voicemail instead of using our voice or the default answering machine response.

Now the scammers phone and listen to it and then hang up. Sometimes they call back right away to hear it again.

I'm thinking of making it longer or asking them to press 3 to speak to Harry, press 4 to speak to John, etc. .. really drag it out.

For years, my outgoing message has been "Hello" then a 5 second pause before I start the message that I'm not available.