// ENGADGET — MOBILE & WEB
What are wrong number text scams, and how can you avoid them?
It’s not an honest mistake; it’s the start of an attack on your wallet.
There's a good chance you've gotten a message from a "wrong number" at least once. These follow a familiar pattern: a random number asks a question addressed to a name that's not yours, so you politely respond and say they have the wrong number. Instead of acknowledging this and moving on, they thank you for being so kind and ask if you want to be friends.
While the other person might claim that it's "fate" you met like this, a terrible fate awaits if you continue talking to them. It's the start of a scam, not a friendly person looking for conversation — one of many ways crooks try to take advantage of you being kind.
If you continue talking to a "new friend" who contacts you this way via standard text message, they'll eventually ask you to move to another messaging app like WhatsApp or Telegram. There are several reasons for this, including centralizing their communication, avoiding fees associated with SMS in other countries and splitting duties among their teams. Once you connect with a person on a web-based messaging app, they'll begin to develop a "friendship" with you, checking in throughout the day.
These greetings often start with relatively innocuous questions, like asking whether you've eaten. In many cases, conversations take on a "romantic" element. These people will pretend to share in personal matters you mention to them, like the loss of a spouse. The scammers like to send pictures, almost always claiming to be Asian women living in major US cities as entrepreneurs.
They'll often hint at being wealthy by showing luxury purses or mentioning that they just got done golfing at a fancy course. After a short period of "normal" conversation, the scammer will bring up some mention of investing in cryptocurrencies, often mentioning that some member of their family has made a ton of money by doing so.
From here, they'll goad you into signing up for a (legitimate) crypto exchange platform, if you don't already use one. They'll show you screenshots of the gains you can supposedly earn by investing in their platform and pressure you to take advantage.
If you go along with their asks, the scammer will guide you through buying real crypto and then "investing" it in a platform they claim they've made huge returns on. In reality, you're sending money to their crypto wallet that you'll never see again. But a single transaction won't be the end. They'll show you fake "growth" results and encourage you to "invest" more. They'll go even further, too, often urging you to take out a loan or borrow cash from friends to put even more in.
Typically, the scam goes on until you want to get your money out. If you try to withdraw a lot, they might say there are taxes and fees to pay — which you can conveniently only cover with new deposits, not the money already supposedly in the account. Once they don't think they can deceive you any longer, they may send you a nasty message blaming you for losing your money or making fun of you for falling for the scam. Then they cut off all contact, and there's very little chance of getting your money back given the nature of crypto.
While it's an awful feeling to realize you've been fleeced, these con artists might not even stop there. Earlier this week, I got a random Telegram message from someone claiming to be a victim of these scams. They mentioned that they had been given a "list" of other victims and that one of them knew a "hacker" who might be able to help folks recover their money — with no cost unless it's successful.