Mind the scam...

PJBDerby

My wife received messages from friends this morning asking if she really had been sending out texts from a new number, as the writing style/grammar of the messages was not normal for her and so on.

It appears that a number (07773 459452) has been sending messages to friends of my wife, saying "Hi this is XXXX XXXXX on my new number." Once the person replies, the next message they receive asks them to purchase a £20 phone top up voucher as a favour, pay you when I see you etc. One of her friends, far too good natured for their own good, replied saying they would buy the voucher shortly and pop it round. The mystery number replied to that with "sorry am not in, can you just text me the voucher number?" And there is the scam in essence, I think. That voucher code has been purchased and is active, so can go on eBay, Gumtree and the like.

The reason for my post is to firstly ask for people's thoughts on how numbers of my wife's friends (no indication they have my wife's number, only her name) and how they're making the connection between the friend and my wife (Facebook?).

Secondly I'm interested to see if anyone knows what our options are with Orange (called mystery number, goes to Orange voicemail) or the police?

Finally has anyone else been a target and/or victim of this same scam? Hopefully not, and I hope that posting here can also serve as a warning to anyone else who receives a similar message. This link suggests we are not the first: http://www.whosenumberisthis.co.uk/07773459452

zagfles

Has she ever sold an old phone without deleting the contacts? Maybe some dodgy smartphone app puporting to manage contacts?

anotheruser

Or just a lucky guess from the scammer?

Chimper

Does she use a smartphone where the contact details are stored online?

With Android if the Google mail account is hacked then the hacker would have access to the user's account name, and details (names and numbers) of all their contacts.

CM4

I got a text this morning saying "did I get my new number? Emma" I do know an Emma, so asked why she had a new phone - got reply "long story". Then said " with getting a new phone, lost all my contacts. Could you text me all the numbers u got of people we know" That's where I was suspicious as I don't know any people she does, and she wouldn't know my number anyway. Spoke with my friend and no she hadn't lost her phone, so i guess this is where this scammer gets the numbers!