The text message may start with an innocuous, “Hey, George. We’re gathering up a team for 18 holes. You in”? Or it may be a bit more suggestive such as, “I was thinking we could watch a movie and my hand might just fall onto your lap, tee-hee” Sometimes it may appear as a Tinder (online dating app) proposal such as, “Hey, we matched on Tinder. How are you?” Or you may receive a text saying, simply, “Hello.” Most of us would simply respond, “Wrong number” or, “Who is this?” If you were to do that, the scammer will attempt to carry on a conversation with you. “She” may send you a sexy picture or ask you general questions designed to build a relationship with you and gain your trust.
Sometimes these very attractive, talkative scammers (who, in actuality, are probably large, hairy guys from another country) will try to get you to join an online dating app, appeal to your lonesomeness, gain your trust, then “borrow” thousands of dollars from you. Sometimes they will send you a dirty picture and ask you to do the same. If you were to do that, they might threaten to send your dirty picture to all your friends unless you send them some money.
These scammers sometimes can lure you in because they have some inside information about you that makes them appear to be more legitimate. This is probably the result of data breaches or even legitimate online directories such as Whitepages.com that list your name, address, and phone number, income, and children’s names.
Regardless of the scenario, a random text from a stranger should immediately invoke extreme skepticism. I do not recommend you engage with them. Replying can often put you on a “live number” list that will result in being inundated with these messages.
My wife has been getting a few phishing texts that read something like, “Your credit card has been charged $1800 for a new iPad. Please click the following link to dispute the charge on Amazon” followed by a link to some website. If you were to click on the link, it will ask you to sign into your Amazon account. If you were silly enough to do that, you’d be giving up your sign-in information to scammers who will then ACTUALLY try to order an expensive iPad from your account. The link can also contain a virus or other malicious code so please don’t click on it.
The bottom line is that scammers know that emails are often filtered and many of us have wisened-up to email scams. Text messages, on the other hand, are a little more personal which makes them appear a little more legitimate which makes them most effective for scammers. The fix is to simply ignore the text or, better yet, “long press” on the text message and block that number. Be careful out there.
Jim Fisher owns Excel Computer Services in Florence. Reach him at www.ExcelAL.com
