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Ask HN: Who are you”, “Who is this” texts

7 points by supportengineer ↗ HN
I've been getting these kinds of texts more often. They are probably scams or phishing, but It got me thinking, If your phone or the cellular phone network was inadvertently making extra copies of texts and sending them to the wrong people, how would you ever know?

22 comments

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cowsup
> If your phone or the cellular phone network was inadvertently making extra copies of texts and sending them to the wrong people, how would you ever know?

Timing of the texts, contents of the messages.

If I text my friend "I'll be there tonight," and then I get a strange text within an hour saying "Who is this?" then I would raise an eyebrow, but likely not engage.

If I text my friend "sounds good" and then I get a "Who are you" text an hour later, that's not as relevant to what I wrote, so not worth a second thought.

If I text my friend "Hey, Lisa says she lost your number, is it cool if I give it to her?" and then I get a text a day later saying "Who is Lisa," I'd be very concerned.

seeknotfind
Some people would invariably reply with screenshots and resolve the confusion and then take it up with their carriers. For instance, how sometimes you realize a text didn't get sent at all. Makes me wonder which all other ones didn't.

Of course the carriers and co have reasons galore to prevent and test these properties themselves.

Also don't use SMS.

cpfohl
The correct response to this is always, “I told you to use a burner! The feds know about this number!”
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Arrath
Welp now I know what to say, thanks!
twiceaday
Seems like the correct response is no response because you don't want to confirm that the number is in active use? They must at least record a bit that you replied, which makes your number a more valuable commodity.
cpfohl
This is the actual correct answer, yes, but I figure if I can get them trying to scam me then they’ll spend less time trying to scam my grandpa… I’m probably wrong these days; it’s probably a ScamGPT instance, but it brings me joy.
theshrike79
This is why I always answer telemarketers if I'm not waiting for an actual call.

1) answer

2) go mm-hmmm to their first question

3) phone on mute and set it on the table and go about my day

I think the record for a telemarketer monologue is a bit over 3 minutes before they figured out I'm not responding. That was 3 minutes they weren't scamming anyone else to subscribe to whatever. I'm practically a human Tarpit for telemarketers =)

cykros
I'm glad someone else is on the same page. When I get the "Is this Roger?" or whatever texts, it's always "Yes. I got the merchandise you requested. We'll handle the trade off behind the loading dock at midnight. Make sure to come alone."
tschwimmer
You're overthinking it. It's almost always a foot in the door tactic to begin a conversation. The "mystery" of wondering why someone would text "who is this" to a random phone number is more disarming than "hey" or launching directly into the scam. Sure, it's not a very good strategy but since these messages are sent automatically at massive scale, it only has to be marginally better to be a worthwhile strategy.
netsharc
Scammers could probably using random numbers to call/text potential victims, and the RNG has ended up generating your phone number. Or the scammer might not even be using an RNG.
pxue
Could spammer be spoofing random people's numbers?
xcavier
I've seen an increase in strangers messaging me on WhatsApp. When I ask them how we know each other, they tell me a friend passed on my details and said I was a good person to know, they're new to the city etc. If I press on the details, they eventually say something along the lines of "Oh, I mistyped the number I was given - I was meant to text someone else" (in some scenarios they go straight to this line when I ask how we know each other). Invariably they then say "you sound like a nice person, let's chat". Classic scam setup.
DougN7
I’ve engaged a few times just to see what they’re after. Eventually I tell them I know what is going on, they are a thief, and suggest they change their life so their mother can be proud of them. They REALLY do not like hearing that.
cpfohl
They get real cranky when you pretend that you don’t have a WhatsApp account to switch to.
tamimio
Hook it to chatgpt and let them both have an endless conversation :)
xtiansimon
Signal to noise. If it’s important, then they’ll call.