What are these mystery texts?
February 1, 2019 12:36 PM   Subscribe

Did my phone number get spoofed? All day I've been getting texts from unfamiliar numbers with just the single word "stop" -- like they're trying to opt out of text messages from me.

These are in group chats with 10-20 phone numbers, all of which I do not recognize. Is there a way to stop these from coming in?

Is there anything more I can do? I'm under the impression that numbers get spoofed all the time, but I have no idea what to do about it.

Thanks.
posted by BlahLaLa to Technology (5 answers total)
 
Not much really. Similar thing happened to a co-worker some years back...one of those "Car Warranty" scam numbers randomly spoofed her number so she started getting all these calls from people pissed at being called or scammed. It got so bad after a few days she just ended up changing her number.
posted by Captain_Science at 12:48 PM on February 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


See if you can use your phone's operating system to block each number?

My work cell phone number got spoofed by a scammer. I got a call from a very, very irate mom because she thought I was repeatedly calling and hanging up on her 11 year-old son's cell phone.

I tried to explain that she could look up my number on the internet and see it listed for my work. I gave her my boss's name and number and the name and number for our company lead . I told her that she could call them and they could verify through phone records that I was not making those calls. Or she could report the number to the police and they could do the same.

Nothing worked. I finally had to let her rant for 15 minutes until she hung because, since it was my published work number, I couldn't do FTFY and hang up.
posted by ITravelMontana at 3:04 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


> See if you can use your phone's operating system to block each number?

If I were OP, I'd create a new contact called, I dunno, "Spoof Victim," and add all of those numbers ot the contact, and the block that single contact. If new victims call/text, then they get added. You'll have all the numbers in the unlikely event of some kind of legal escalation, or opportunity for catching the actual spammer, or just reporting the spammer, without disappearing all the people who texted.
posted by Sunburnt at 5:12 PM on February 1, 2019 [4 favorites]


You might be able to fight this with RoboKiller or another spam fighter app!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:13 PM on February 1, 2019


Best answer: I just did nothing, and they stopped after a few days. Mystery not solved, but finished I guess.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:52 PM on March 4, 2019


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