MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers of a scam where strangers pretend to use “wrong number” text message responses to gain personal information.
The scam would begin with someone receiving a text message that may look something like this:
Hey is this John? It’s Amanda. We chatted on Tinder before when I came to visit my cousin but we never met irl. I’m back in town if you want to meet up this time, are you free?
The BBB said the recipient may reply to these texts with a “Sorry, wrong number,” but the stranger will respond anyway and ignore the answer. They may give the respondent a compliment and may encourage them to sign up for a website to receive explicit photos, which could involve giving a credit card number.
The BBB warned giving out a credit card number puts the person at risk for fraudulent charges and identity theft.
In order to avoid falling victims to this scam, which usually involves a chat bot, the BBB had this advice:
- Ignore texts from strangers.
- Block numbers that appear to come from scammers, or are unsolicited.
- Never give personal information, such as credit card or banking information, to a stranger
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