weird spam texts

[BoodaGazelle]

For a very long time I have been getting spam texts about once or twice a week. That doesn't surprise me, but there is something specific that seems weird to me, and I wanted to see what people think about it (and whether anyone else has seen this).

The texts are almost always the same.

Hi this is Alex. I am inquiring about the house you have for sale at 1928 Wolford Rd. Are you interested in selling?​

I started out totally ignoring, then switched to saying I would sell for $1M. Then I tried begging STOP... and now back to ignoring.

The thing that kills me is that this doesn't make sense, even as a spam. Do they really expect me to say "wow, how did you find me? I am going to put my house at [address] on the market"?

The wording is almost the same each time.. sometimes the address is different, but the street is always the same (it is in Clearwater, FL).

Is this typical for spam texts?

 

[nap470]

I have received spam texts in the Chicago area stating that they would offer me top dollar for my home. Not overly specific. I immediately block the caller. I have received other, non-home related spam texts also. I guess technology moves forward...

 

[CDRE]

Yup.

Forward the spam message to your phone carrier using 7726 or SPAM. When I do this with T-Mobile, the carrier replies with "Thank you for reporting spam. We'll take it from here."

 

[target2019]

Responding to spam texts like this is a mistake, IMO. Now the mobile number is confirmed as a match for the address.

If I see anything like this I mark as spam and block the number.

 

[Aerides]

when you begged to stop, did you simply send a reply with only the word STOP or anything else?

Most text programs are supposed to recognize it, but will only act if it's just that command.

Yes, if that doesn't work, report to your carrier.

 

[REWahoo]

Do the texts always come from the same number? If so, doesn't your messaging app allow you to block that number?

 

[teetee]

Block is the way to go. Replying anything just adds your number to their database.

 

[Time2]

I keep getting postcards wanting to buy a property I don't own and never have.

 

[braumeister]

Forward the spam message to your phone carrier using 7726 or SPAM. When I do this with T-Mobile, the carrier replies with "Thank you for reporting spam. We'll take it from here."

That's what I do, every time. I get probably 3-4 spam texts a week, always from a different number, frequently in my own area code. Easy to identify and report.

For some unknown reason, about half of them address me as "Ray" which is a long way from my real name.

 

[statsman]

Responding to spam texts like this is a mistake, IMO. Now the mobile number is confirmed as a match for the address.

If I see anything like this I mark as spam and block the number.

Yep. Even responding with a STOP can be a mistake.

 

[BoodaGazelle]

Thanks to all... I should have said that they do *not* come from the same number, or I would have blocked it.

Yes, I did try texting back simply STOP, but that only works for automated systems. This appears to have people behind it.

As far as reporting this... well I have a Tracfone, so there is not just one carrier...

I still think that this spam-text strategy doesn't make sense. Are they mass sending basically the same text to lots of people in my area (the numbers are relatively local to me)?

 

[BoodaGazelle]

re: STOP

Yep. Even responding with a STOP can be a mistake.

I do realize that, and waited a long time before trying it.

I just don't see the point of this strategy!

I wish there were a way to filter texts with a text-string, like most email packages have. I have an iPhone, FWIW, and use their text package.

 

[Jerry1]

I’ve seen spam and wondered the same thing - what is the strategy. Ultimately, I figure it must work or they wouldn’t do it. The cost of mass electronic communication is so low that the response rate can also be very low and the cost still outweigh the benefit. If it’s actually a real estate agent one sale would be worth it. If it’s a bit more nefarious, confirming numbers must have enough value to make it worth it. In this case, as Target 2019 pointed out, the phone number is now connected with the address. That’s probably worth even more.

 

[anothercog]

I get voicemails like that on my cell. Usually from Florida. I just delete.

 

[scrabbler1]

I get an assortment of annoying junk texts on my cell phone. With the extended election season now behind us, at least I have stopped getting those related to the Georgia senate runoffs and some others for congressional races in another New York county about 50 miles and 10 districts away.

But I still get others. Some are from a real estate agent who lives far away. When I replied STOP I did get an actual response from someone apologizing for sending it to me. Others I forward to 7726.

Other junk texts are emails sent as texts so they have a "to" and "from" shown in them, including an email address of the sender. But the phone numbers associated with these texts contain only 9 digits and always start with 410-xxx-xxx. Forwarding them to 7726 is worthless because the sender's number lacks 10 digits. Those include bogus warnings telling my bank account info or Paypal accounts have been suspended and ask me to call a number to "restore" my services. (Yeah sure!)

Then there are these frequent texts which show no info for the sender. They include only a small file for me to "get" or download. I can't reply to them, obviously, or forward them to 7726. At least I don't get charged for them, as I pay a little for every other text I send or receive. Lately, these junk texts have been arriving in the middle of the night, waking me up. I asked my carrier, TracFone, if they had anything to do with this. The rep knew nothing about it.

I have a low-end cell phone and very low-cost plan from TracFone, so I can't block any phone numbers.

 

[W2R]

The spam texts that you all are discussing sound so bland! I get spam porn texts about 3-4 times a week and these are my only spam texts. I don't go to porn sites or any "iffy" website, so I'm not sure what triggered them. I just delete and move on.

 

[statsman]

I get voicemails like that on my cell. Usually from Florida. I just delete.

Anyone get a voicemail with no phone call or missed phone call? I get those once every couple of months, and they are always spam or in a language I do not speak or understand.

They are from "California", which in of itself doesn't surprise me as we've kept our old phones and phone numbers when we moved from there. I just find it surprising to get the notification to check my voicemails when I have no indication someone was trying to call me.

 

[scrabbler1]

Anyone get a voicemail with no phone call or missed phone call? I get those once every couple of months, and they are always spam or in a language I do not speak or understand.

They are from "California", which in of itself doesn't surprise me as we've kept our old phones and phone numbers when we moved from there. I just find it surprising to get the notification to check my voicemails when I have no indication someone was trying to call me.

I get those VMs from time to time. Sometimes, they are in English, sometimes in a foreign language. When they are left in my VM system, I don't know the caller's number although a callback number will give me an idea if one is left.

Someone in Bogleheads told me I can call the VM system from my land line to retrieve messages and delete them instead of burning up minutes on my cell phone (I pay per minute) just to listen to the garbage and delete it).

 

[prudent_one]

I keep getting postcards wanting to buy a property I don't own and never have.

I get postcards asking to buy my plot of undeveloped land (including the taxing authority's block/lot number).

It's a 18" wide strip of land the runs the length of our home property, bought years ago to get around something built too close to the property line. I guess these people don't actually research before wasting postage.

 

[CaptTom]

I wonder if it's different with different carriers. I think I can remember 2 spam text in the few years since I've switched to Google Fi.

A couple of posters mentioned TracPhone. I know people with SmartTalk and they never (or hardly ever) get spam texts.

 

[target2019]

Thanks to all... I should have said that they do *not* come from the same number, or I would have blocked it.

Yes, I did try texting back simply STOP, but that only works for automated systems. This appears to have people behind it.

As far as reporting this... well I have a Tracfone, so there is not just one carrier...

I still think that this spam-text strategy doesn't make sense. Are they mass sending basically the same text to lots of people in my area (the numbers are relatively local to me)?

It sounds like you're a target of smishing:
https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-what-is-smishing.html

 

[FIYes]

I have Tracfone and I have gotten two spam texts in the last month. Usually I only get a couple per year. They don’t have a number attached and appear to have an email address.

I get the occasional spam call, maybe one or two per week. Like others have mentioned I use my house phone to check voicemails so that I don’t burn up minutes. My house phone gets 2 or 3 spam calls per day! Super annoying. I do occasionally miss calls that I would answer, but if I don’t recognize the number, I don’t answer.

 

[Katsmeow]

In the last 2 weeks I have started getting a lot more spam texts. Not sure why. I do get the real estate ones! A bunch of them call me Lucky. At first I thought it was because I did sell a house last year (my mother's house after she died) and I got a lot of inquiries from investors (mostly by mail). But, the recent ones are for cities I don't live in, etc.

I do usually block them. I didn't know about the forwarding to SPAM. I will try that. I also set up my iphone so that it keeps texts from unknown numbers separately. I do have to look at them but I don't get alerts on them so that helps a bit.

 

[Mauser]

We have Strait Talk, and never used to get much spam. But starting a month or two ago, it has been going nuts, both phone calls AND text. Must have been one of those data breaches or foreign hacks that we have been hearing about that compromised us?

Our phones use a Straight Talk SIM card for the AT&T network, and just in the past month both of us have gotten strange texts around the monthly renewal date that have "AT&T" in the message and saying that the payment failed. It didn't, and the rest of the text is mostly garbage, with a link that the fools hope I will click on.

On a related note, we live in the mountains with very weak signals, so we often get voice messages for calls that never ring - but that is just to be expected, and the content of the message is the real value to determine if it is spam or not - NONE of our voice messages have ever been spam.

On the other hand, I never answer any phone call that I do not recognize - They must either be in my contact list or show proper information in the caller ID. I just decline the call and wait for the VM. If they do not leave one I always immediately report the number as spam. The big thing these days seems to be for the scum to use fake phone numbers in the caller ID to use local area codes and prefixes to fool you into thinking it must be a real call. HAH! Maybe I have missed some real calls, but I do not care. I hate all telephones anyway.

We are forced to have a home line as part of the Internet package, and I leave a phone hooked up to use only in an emergency (but we never have). The spam calls on that number are so bad (3 or 4 a day last time I checked), that I just turn off the ringer so I never have to even hear it. It is too bad that we have to do that since the local community uses the phone company databases to make emergency contact calls in case of forest fires, but I will NOT deal with the spammers if I do not have to. I guess I'll have to watch for my own damn fires.

 

[Katsmeow]

The big thing these days seems to be for the scum to use fake phone numbers in the caller ID to use local area codes and prefixes to fool you into thinking it must be a real call. HAH! Maybe I have missed some real calls, but I do not care. I hate all telephones anyway.

They absolutely do that. My cell has an area code for the area we used to live in. So when I see that on a call I know it is almost certainly spam. I don't accept calls that I don't know who it is and send them all to VM.

But the spam texts are actually more annoying.