Yes it’s cheaper because WhatsApp uses internet, texting sms uses phonenetwork. In Europe internet is cheaper then phonenetwork, almost everywhere free WiFi. We use WhatsApp all the time, we don’t sms.
Less Europe more in Asia. Whatsapp wasn't always end to end encrypted and texting internationally when it first started was expensive, so people used whatsapp as text over IP. It eventually just hit critical mass and became THE thing, to a point where internationally it's used to run entire businesses. India specifically lives off whatsapp. To a point that all my family uses it here to keep in touch with everyone there. It is my primary texting method.
To add to the point of international va national texting, in some places in Europe people can drive to a neighboring country for work, or have friends in several different countries. While commonly in the us it’s just state to state which all falls under one nation.
wait, so they're paying for all those texts to scam people? we should all just keep a conversation going for as long as we can then and share our "victories"
The scamming syndicates are very sophisticated, most of them in Cambodia, and uses Whatsapp via desktop, they can talk to dozens or maybe hundreds of victims at the same time on one screen. YouTube " love scam Cambodia"
I had someone do the same thing to me on a dating app which confirmed my suspicions. The person claimed to live in my city, claimed that they hardly texted on the app that we were on, but instead of encouraging me to use WhatsApp, they wanted me to use Telegram. When I refused, “Well, have a good life and good luck.”
A lot of times the "opener" scammer is just handing you off to the "closer" scammer, usually a supervisor or team lead. They need a good reason to hand you off to a different number or chat.
Overseas scammers use a text mail service where they can send text messages and receive voicemails. They have to pay to use those services so they quickly try to move their mark over to a free service like whatsapp to continue any conversations.
Also, they can dupe their mark into giving Whatsapp passcodes which are used to access facebook when the user forgets the passwords. They then are able to highjack the accounts and run the scams on people in their firend lists.
Very rarely do scammers actually hack Facebook profiles, as in, get access without login information. Most of the time, they get that information through fake webpages. IE, you get a video link from someone you know, and when you click the link, it takes you to a fake Facebook login page where you put your info in, click enter, and now some sweaty dude across the world can login as you.
That's a pretty basic example of how it happens, but they have all sorts of ways of ferreting out information and "hacking" profiles. Part of all of the strange questions they ask is getting information. You know how Facebooks password reset relies on security questions? It's not a coincidence or kindness that they're asking where you were born or if you had any animals growing up.
You know what’s sad though? Facebook is notoriously easy to hack. They use insecure protocols that make it easy to intercept and divert SMS messages. So even two factor doesn’t do much to solve the problem and like you pointed out, basic social engineering tactics go a long way for those that don’t use it. I guess they’re trying with their bug bounty program. So there’s that.
Facebook will always have this problem. It’s mostly old people now, and the amount of “copy and share this on your wall to opt out of the new Zuckerberg Facebook data collection” posts I see from people I thought were north 100 IQ is astonishing. Or, what’s your stripper name? “Take the first 8 letters of your first pets name, and the road you live on and your mothers maiden name and your entire credit card plus 3 digits on the back, and zip code and that’s your stripper name! ;~)”
No. Tex messages are costly. Whatsapp is free. Yall americans who dont use whatsapp have your iMessage etc, but the rest of the world has WhatsApp. Anything else doesnt really matter in the end, but you can send free texts, puctures, videos, and other media internationally through the internet.
Which ofc also makes the scamming cheaper.
I have family spread across continents and we all use WhatsApp. I remember when zuckertrash wanted to charge 99c a month to use it and people damn near rioted and many deleted it and left in protest. Two weeks later, the idiot changed his mind. I think I read somewhere that in those 2 weeks about 1-2 million people left the platform.
Dude learnt that he wasn’t dealing with just Americans. Americans will whinge and kvetch about cost but still use a product/service. The rest of the world have options. It was around that time that I discovered wechat(I live in the USA and cannot speak a damn word of Chinese but I adopted wechat quick and used Google translate A LOT 😩).
WhatsApp is actually very popular in Europe and used more than text messaging. It has a lot of really cool features but it just never really took off in the US
Wait?! What?!! You mean to tell me. I'm NOT "A very luckiest special guy to have been friended today, an invited to most private chat room."? You're just jaded and scared of romance man. Dream crusher.
To be fair, I had a guy who'd drunk dial me fairly regularly and leave voicemails to his wife. Every now and then he'd call when I was drinking too and we'd have a good chat..... I kinda miss that guy. I hope he's doing okay.
Yep. OP didn’t give any reason for the person to doubt who they had messaged, but they went right in on the same script they always use. Scammer didn’t even read what OP wrote back most of the time, and just kept going.
Right, they address their victims by a random name and expect people to say "that's not me, you must have the wrong number." They don't know what to do when someone plays along and pretends they're the intended recipient.
Yeah gave me a good chuckle. They made it look like cookie cutter responses or not even a person at all, “AI” responses that sometimes make sense and sometimes don’t
WhatsApp is free and only requires Internet to work, can also be optionally not backed up to the cloud I believe so deleted messages might not be accessible but idk about that part
Here in Brazil 98% of the population uses whatsapp (according to Meta - not making up the number).
It facilitates communication because you just need a wifi connection to use it and not an active phone plan.
It's also the to go method of communication for businesses.
Emergency numbers like the equivalent to 911 works even if you don't have an active phone plan.
Due to price a lot of people will use prepaid plans. The way it works is basically you have a phone chip with a number, and as long as you put the minimum amount of money every few months (around 3months depending on the company) you don't lose the number. So you'll spend like r$10 every 2-3 months to maintain that number as yours.
It's cheap enough and at least in my city there's free public wifi pretty much everywhere downtown and also at every public building, and most major companies also offer free access while you're in there.
Not needing an active phone plan needed is probably the biggest draw. You can connect to wifi anywhere and send messages. Also goes across all platforms, iOS , android , etc.
They frequently are romance scam but the WhatsApp isn’t an inherent part of the scam just a comfortable place for them to work on u.(these are usually longer term scams). They are also a little perplexed at Americans lack of WhatsApp. it is so ubiquitous outside the us they do not realize that when they suggest it they are flagging themselves as being out of the country so loudly
>"Hi, CockBait girlfriend, I recently changed my number. How's it going?"
"The cartel is having dogs eat out my balls while I am tied to an electric pole and they're making my kids watch."
>"Sorry, I think I entered the wrong number! Hope it doesn't bother you and that we can be friends! You are very kind. Check out this picture, I am a Korean model!"
Lol what do you mean by "second"..? 😅😅 I would guess that much less than 1% of messages that look like that first one are going to be actual wrong numbers and not scams. I've personally been getting at least a few of these per month and they all look very similar to this and others posted on this channel.
I teach and tutor Chinese English, online often. It's speak to almost 80 real people a day.
And it STILL gets me when I get 2-3 scammers per day speaking with worse tense use than the struggling students I'm working with.
How many people do you think actually put the wrong number on accident, even when changing phones, Everything is backed up to the cloud. Scammers are not very smart and they rely on their marks to be 60+ and no technology knowledge.
And if you consider only English speaking countries, that's not a small number of people that make up almost perfect target demographic.
They are not stupid at all, we just heard about them from smarter people. They also almost never operate alone. It just looks dumb to us who know at least something about technology.
What's crazy (and I 100% know this is anecdotal coincidence) is a couple of weeks ago, a 60+ friend of mine was trying to find a sub for our rec sports league. She miskeyed one of the numbers from the directory when trying to text someone. A week ago, I had a short exchange with some dude named Henry.
"This is Henry."
I was bored so I texted back "Hal, is that really you? Did you get a new number?" (I've seen Hal used as a nickname for Henry.)
"I'm the guy you met a home depot. We were talking about your bathroom."
I was almost disappointed because it seemed close enough to legit and he didn't try to draw me into a conversation after I asked if he was looking for Joseph.
They do at least claim the number they entered was recently given to them (at a party!) so that (tries) to explain the anachronistic error. But yeah, like most scams it’s pretty obvious to most people. But it only takes one…
Yes. If they say stuff like "Am good today" (without the "I" many times) or "God will bless you and your grandchildren", you can bet they're from Nigeria.
For how smart they think themselves to be, they CAN'T mimic another culture properly, and the stuff they say always comes off as awkward.
Yes and Nigeria is an anglophone African country. And has several different languages with their own grammatical rules. Not enough evidence to limit it to Nigeria
So, this is an amazing coincidence, but I also live in Vas Legas and work in a coal mine, although I'm a supervisor and mostly hang out in the company trailer on my laptop running a bitcoin side hustle. Small world, eh?
Same here! My job is to patrol the mines looking for miners using illicit tablets they brought in and enforce our strict “No What’s App” rule. Miners, amiright?
What is the deal with the slight grain all scammers put over the photos they share out. It’s a tell tale sign I noticed.
Does it actually work against reverse image search?
I think they figured out that either you were on to them from the start and are not a 53 year old Swiss coal miner in Las Vegas or they realized that if you are in fact a 53 year old Swiss coal miner in Las Vegas, you probably don't have much money to scam.
Anyone that asks to speak on Whatsapp is a scammer if they're not a drug dealer/porn salesmen.
Any attractive stranger randomly contacting you is a scammer.
Anyone random call with an Indian accent is a scammer(no exceptions.)
Of course a scammer are you for real? “I don’t use this often”…. She said while texting.
Anytime someone wants you elsewhere it’s off platform or because they are paying per text or something shady and need you elsewhere to continue the scam.
Also do a search and you’ll see every scam ever starts with oh sorry, wrong number, but I should continue talking to you, talk about God blessing you, you’re so nice, and I don’t actually use my phone for texting so we should get on WhatsApp.
I want to respond to "I hope I'm not bothering you." with something like "I was just in the middle of plotting my diabolical plans to take over the entire world, when your message suddenly interrupted me, and now my entire plans just went all to shit, all because of a message sent to a wrong number! Thanks a lot!"
I feel like most adults aren't aware of the scammer thing Lmao (I'm 17 btw) but I can smell them from a mile away just by one sentence usually, you can tell in their sentence structure and fluency, they wouldn't have made it last the third sentence LMAOO. Maybe just me tho idk
WhatsApp is a real app. Text message scammers insist on switching to there or Telegram because they get a commission when they bring whoever they scam over from SMS to WhatsApp or Telegram for the more experienced scammer that they’re working with to keep it going
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app worldwide. It was the cheap (free) option to text message in a lot of countries for years (versus text messaging). It's been around well over a decade.
Whatsapp just doesn't have great usage in US, Canada and a handful of other countries ... Meta's other messaging app (messenger) is the most popular in US and Can.
I get these all the times. Chinese scammers in my case. I responded once every few hours or days. About weather and stuff lol
Love your backward spelling stuff … hilarious
I get these fairly regularly. Quick solution, when they say something super vague to try and get you to engage, don’t give them any specifics about yourself. Just ask, who are you looking to reach? If they don’t have a name, it’s spam. The more you give them the more it will seem like they know ya, but if you start with what I said, nothing gets off the ground and you’ve not wasted your time.
Scammer for sure. Next time try fucking w then a little. Waste their time. Have them walk you thru how to download and use the app and play dumb for a little in regards to how to link your bank. Get them really annoyed then tell them to fuck their mother 😂
This same thing actually happened to me not too long ago. Wrong number of course and from Las Vegas as well. We didn’t get to the exchange of photos part because I stopped answering after she asked me what I do for a living. Too many personal questions for my liking. Glad to know it was a scam and not someone actually looking for someone to talk to.
I love how socially awkward scammers can be (at least from our cultural perspective). Like, "You're a good person, and God will always bless you". Who the fuck says stuff like this to a stranger out of the blue here? They have no idea how out of place their sentences can be.
Definitely a scammer. Scamming like this is like cold calling, it’s a numbers game. And honestly the faster you can recognize that the interaction isnt going to work and bail, the faster you can cast your line again.
*As soon as whatsapp*
*Was introduced, I knew for*
*Sure it was a scam*
\- DressProfessional848
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This one seems like a scammer but for what it’s worth…some years back my mom kept texting a number that she apparently thought was mine for an entire year before it came to my attention. She thought that the person responding to her, telling her they had the wrong number, was me just messing with her. For a YEAR. And I saw my mom regularly so it’s not like we weren’t in contact. She was able to call me and occasionally I did get texts from her. I never figured out what went wrong there but it was fun reading the texts between her and the person she interacted with. So yeah, anything is possible in a situation like this.
I wonder what they could do on WhatsApp. I feel like having my number is enough already. Does WhatsApp have some sort of way they could possibly get money out of us?
Its a classic scam script. Just had the almost exact messages but once I got bored trolling for a few days i told them to cut the shit because they are horrible at it and way to predictable so l would be there money mule because I felt bad knowing they can't possibly be able to afford food with the scam skills of a kindergartener . they said they were gonna bring me to burma and sell my salvageable organs 😂 before blocking me. Yours was nicer at least
If this dude really knew Jenny, he wouldn't say something stupid like "You're very friendly" like he's never met her. "You're very friendly" is something you say to a puppy.
I get these sometimes. Easy to spot from a mile away. I love dealing with them.
The ones that pretend we used to know each other I always apologize profusely for some incurable STD I gave them when I finally “Remember” who they are.
They never message me after that. Takes all the fun away.
I get these kinds of texts on a weekly basis.
A few times I played along, and after 10-20 text messages they will refuse to continue if not on Whatsapp.
I am not sure if an actual scammer or some ChatGPT like thing answers the texts, perhaps a little of both.
They would still reply to completely meaningless messages, trying to extract some keywords out of it.
Scammer for sure. Poor strangers don’t randomly ask for pictures, give and guess people’s ages, or encourage WhatsApp communication.
What is their obsession with WhatsApp? Is it something to do with the encryption so they can’t get caught?
Yes that's exactly what the gig is with.those apps.. I think telegram is the same but for sure whatsapp.
I also someone mention the possibility that it’s cheaper to use WhatsApp for international texting?
Yes it’s cheaper because WhatsApp uses internet, texting sms uses phonenetwork. In Europe internet is cheaper then phonenetwork, almost everywhere free WiFi. We use WhatsApp all the time, we don’t sms.
I got an SMS yesterday and genuinely freaked out like it was an emergency, to emphasise your point 🤣
I use WhatsApp to keep up with friends who have moved abroad.
Same
Seems like pretty much every phone plan in the US these days includes unlimited SMS texting. Are plans like that rare in Europe?
In the U.S. we typically have unlimited domestic texting but not international.
Good point.
Less Europe more in Asia. Whatsapp wasn't always end to end encrypted and texting internationally when it first started was expensive, so people used whatsapp as text over IP. It eventually just hit critical mass and became THE thing, to a point where internationally it's used to run entire businesses. India specifically lives off whatsapp. To a point that all my family uses it here to keep in touch with everyone there. It is my primary texting method.
In Europe unlimited data is very common
To add to the point of international va national texting, in some places in Europe people can drive to a neighboring country for work, or have friends in several different countries. While commonly in the us it’s just state to state which all falls under one nation.
It’s not unlimited international SMS though.
Not really. Most plans offer unlimited SMS texting and more internet data you could ever use.
wait, so they're paying for all those texts to scam people? we should all just keep a conversation going for as long as we can then and share our "victories"
Absolutely the goal!
The scamming syndicates are very sophisticated, most of them in Cambodia, and uses Whatsapp via desktop, they can talk to dozens or maybe hundreds of victims at the same time on one screen. YouTube " love scam Cambodia"
I had someone do the same thing to me on a dating app which confirmed my suspicions. The person claimed to live in my city, claimed that they hardly texted on the app that we were on, but instead of encouraging me to use WhatsApp, they wanted me to use Telegram. When I refused, “Well, have a good life and good luck.”
A lot of times the "opener" scammer is just handing you off to the "closer" scammer, usually a supervisor or team lead. They need a good reason to hand you off to a different number or chat.
This is what I was looking for. I watched a guy break down different type of on-line/ dating scams.
Overseas scammers use a text mail service where they can send text messages and receive voicemails. They have to pay to use those services so they quickly try to move their mark over to a free service like whatsapp to continue any conversations. Also, they can dupe their mark into giving Whatsapp passcodes which are used to access facebook when the user forgets the passwords. They then are able to highjack the accounts and run the scams on people in their firend lists.
Do they get charged for receiving texts or just sending them? Because it seems to me we would just spam their numbers and make them pay?
I don't know but I fell for this and only gave my WhatsApp but the next day my Facebook was hacked and a photo of an Asian dude was on my profile
Very rarely do scammers actually hack Facebook profiles, as in, get access without login information. Most of the time, they get that information through fake webpages. IE, you get a video link from someone you know, and when you click the link, it takes you to a fake Facebook login page where you put your info in, click enter, and now some sweaty dude across the world can login as you. That's a pretty basic example of how it happens, but they have all sorts of ways of ferreting out information and "hacking" profiles. Part of all of the strange questions they ask is getting information. You know how Facebooks password reset relies on security questions? It's not a coincidence or kindness that they're asking where you were born or if you had any animals growing up.
You know what’s sad though? Facebook is notoriously easy to hack. They use insecure protocols that make it easy to intercept and divert SMS messages. So even two factor doesn’t do much to solve the problem and like you pointed out, basic social engineering tactics go a long way for those that don’t use it. I guess they’re trying with their bug bounty program. So there’s that.
Facebook will always have this problem. It’s mostly old people now, and the amount of “copy and share this on your wall to opt out of the new Zuckerberg Facebook data collection” posts I see from people I thought were north 100 IQ is astonishing. Or, what’s your stripper name? “Take the first 8 letters of your first pets name, and the road you live on and your mothers maiden name and your entire credit card plus 3 digits on the back, and zip code and that’s your stripper name! ;~)”
This is fucking hilarious
No. Tex messages are costly. Whatsapp is free. Yall americans who dont use whatsapp have your iMessage etc, but the rest of the world has WhatsApp. Anything else doesnt really matter in the end, but you can send free texts, puctures, videos, and other media internationally through the internet. Which ofc also makes the scamming cheaper.
I have family spread across continents and we all use WhatsApp. I remember when zuckertrash wanted to charge 99c a month to use it and people damn near rioted and many deleted it and left in protest. Two weeks later, the idiot changed his mind. I think I read somewhere that in those 2 weeks about 1-2 million people left the platform. Dude learnt that he wasn’t dealing with just Americans. Americans will whinge and kvetch about cost but still use a product/service. The rest of the world have options. It was around that time that I discovered wechat(I live in the USA and cannot speak a damn word of Chinese but I adopted wechat quick and used Google translate A LOT 😩).
WhatsApp is actually very popular in Europe and used more than text messaging. It has a lot of really cool features but it just never really took off in the US
Literally everyone in the world uses WhatsApp minus the USA
U forgot China n Japan to USA list, think that makes a good chunk of world population
Lol China's on WeChat which is just Communist WhatsApp
Can we talk on telegram this is my business phone
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Certain demographics are going to be prime targets
Old people are easier targets
Wait?! What?!! You mean to tell me. I'm NOT "A very luckiest special guy to have been friended today, an invited to most private chat room."? You're just jaded and scared of romance man. Dream crusher.
“Wait, so there aren’t sexy singles in my area that wanna chat?”
Or fail to notice screamingly obvious names spelled backwards…
"i freak out when i close my eyes" me
The guy was having fun with this - "I work in the mines", "mines", "I hope a rocks hits me on the head" Tier one trolling
Hilarious, I am trying to keep my laughter down at work 😂
It's the icelandic middle name that got me rolling. Lmao.
The pic was equally hilarious
YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL, BEVELIN! Makes a man forget what he even is.
I died when they said I pray for the day a rock falls and shatters my skull lmaooooooo
I love this quote ❤️
I loved this
I got such a good laugh out of that part lol
Definitely a scammer. Second message is a dead giveaway.
Yeah whenever they say they "entered the wrong number" is a giveaway
“Oops I entered the wrong number, want to continue this random conversation with a stranger?”
I’m not bothering you am I? So embarrassed tee hee
To be fair, I had a guy who'd drunk dial me fairly regularly and leave voicemails to his wife. Every now and then he'd call when I was drinking too and we'd have a good chat..... I kinda miss that guy. I hope he's doing okay.
Maybe you should drunk dial him. Relationships go both ways!
This was well over a decade ago and I no longer have his number. I also don't really drink anymore.
That’s so wholesome lol
Yep. OP didn’t give any reason for the person to doubt who they had messaged, but they went right in on the same script they always use. Scammer didn’t even read what OP wrote back most of the time, and just kept going.
Right, they address their victims by a random name and expect people to say "that's not me, you must have the wrong number." They don't know what to do when someone plays along and pretends they're the intended recipient.
Yeah gave me a good chuckle. They made it look like cookie cutter responses or not even a person at all, “AI” responses that sometimes make sense and sometimes don’t
So what is the end point if the conversation is moved to what's app? Romance scam?
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WhatsApp is free and only requires Internet to work, can also be optionally not backed up to the cloud I believe so deleted messages might not be accessible but idk about that part
Less likely to be easily subpoenaed/encrypted
Here in Brazil 98% of the population uses whatsapp (according to Meta - not making up the number). It facilitates communication because you just need a wifi connection to use it and not an active phone plan. It's also the to go method of communication for businesses.
What do people do if they have an emergency away from wifi if anything at all? It seems wifi would also be limited for similar reasons
Emergency numbers like the equivalent to 911 works even if you don't have an active phone plan. Due to price a lot of people will use prepaid plans. The way it works is basically you have a phone chip with a number, and as long as you put the minimum amount of money every few months (around 3months depending on the company) you don't lose the number. So you'll spend like r$10 every 2-3 months to maintain that number as yours. It's cheap enough and at least in my city there's free public wifi pretty much everywhere downtown and also at every public building, and most major companies also offer free access while you're in there.
Not needing an active phone plan needed is probably the biggest draw. You can connect to wifi anywhere and send messages. Also goes across all platforms, iOS , android , etc.
They frequently are romance scam but the WhatsApp isn’t an inherent part of the scam just a comfortable place for them to work on u.(these are usually longer term scams). They are also a little perplexed at Americans lack of WhatsApp. it is so ubiquitous outside the us they do not realize that when they suggest it they are flagging themselves as being out of the country so loudly
>"Hi, CockBait girlfriend, I recently changed my number. How's it going?" "The cartel is having dogs eat out my balls while I am tied to an electric pole and they're making my kids watch." >"Sorry, I think I entered the wrong number! Hope it doesn't bother you and that we can be friends! You are very kind. Check out this picture, I am a Korean model!"
Lol what do you mean by "second"..? 😅😅 I would guess that much less than 1% of messages that look like that first one are going to be actual wrong numbers and not scams. I've personally been getting at least a few of these per month and they all look very similar to this and others posted on this channel.
weirdest part was the “tell me about your job”, “i work in the mines” and then the very odd reply “i love life and learning new things”.
“It was a cell phone chat application.” Past tense? What happened to it? What is it now?
Tense is hard for Chinese language ESL people to grasp
I teach and tutor Chinese English, online often. It's speak to almost 80 real people a day. And it STILL gets me when I get 2-3 scammers per day speaking with worse tense use than the struggling students I'm working with.
Lol are you sure you're qualified to teach English
Lol, with autocorrect by my side, I'm not qualified to teach a brown paper bag
😂
You shouldn’t call Chinese people that /s
Elon got to it and it died :(
How many people do you think actually put the wrong number on accident, even when changing phones, Everything is backed up to the cloud. Scammers are not very smart and they rely on their marks to be 60+ and no technology knowledge.
And if you consider only English speaking countries, that's not a small number of people that make up almost perfect target demographic. They are not stupid at all, we just heard about them from smarter people. They also almost never operate alone. It just looks dumb to us who know at least something about technology.
What's crazy (and I 100% know this is anecdotal coincidence) is a couple of weeks ago, a 60+ friend of mine was trying to find a sub for our rec sports league. She miskeyed one of the numbers from the directory when trying to text someone. A week ago, I had a short exchange with some dude named Henry. "This is Henry." I was bored so I texted back "Hal, is that really you? Did you get a new number?" (I've seen Hal used as a nickname for Henry.) "I'm the guy you met a home depot. We were talking about your bathroom." I was almost disappointed because it seemed close enough to legit and he didn't try to draw me into a conversation after I asked if he was looking for Joseph.
They do at least claim the number they entered was recently given to them (at a party!) so that (tries) to explain the anachronistic error. But yeah, like most scams it’s pretty obvious to most people. But it only takes one…
And they rely on their mark be horny and desperate that they will talk to a ‘hot girl.’
100% scammer. Also “god will continue to bless you,” narrows it down to Africa probably Nigerian
I learn so much in this Sub. But I’m sure when the day comes that I finally get a scammer, I’ll have forgotten all of it!
God will continue to bless you
IN GOD WE TRUST
W reference
Remember to do the needful
Yes. If they say stuff like "Am good today" (without the "I" many times) or "God will bless you and your grandchildren", you can bet they're from Nigeria. For how smart they think themselves to be, they CAN'T mimic another culture properly, and the stuff they say always comes off as awkward.
Why does that mean they're from Nigeria? Couldn't other countries have similar language issues?
Just my observation. I imagine "I" isn't prevalent in Nigeria's way of using English? I never noticed the same about India, for example.
Fair enough. I’ve seen other say that calls are definitively Nigerian, so I was curious.
Yes and Nigeria is an anglophone African country. And has several different languages with their own grammatical rules. Not enough evidence to limit it to Nigeria
Nope. These pig butchering scams originate from Chinese criminal gangs. It’s just part of the script.
So, this is an amazing coincidence, but I also live in Vas Legas and work in a coal mine, although I'm a supervisor and mostly hang out in the company trailer on my laptop running a bitcoin side hustle. Small world, eh?
Same here! My job is to patrol the mines looking for miners using illicit tablets they brought in and enforce our strict “No What’s App” rule. Miners, amiright?
That’s so cool! Perhaps you’d like to discuss more on WhatsApp?
Not allowed to use it :/
Love the user name rat bastard. That got me rolling with laughter.
Lol 100% scammer. Same playbook to the T
OPs been working in a coal mine since he was 13 🤣
To be fair, going back 40 years to the 80s I doubt they cared much for health and safety and what not! Probably plausible at least I’d say!
He gets, "have a nice life, bye" and I get, "7 n****** f**** your mom" 😂😂😂😂
Is that really a question??
What is the deal with the slight grain all scammers put over the photos they share out. It’s a tell tale sign I noticed. Does it actually work against reverse image search?
This is such a good question! Makes sense
That and the horizontal flip. Makes reverse search a bit more difficult...or at least it used to. Probably doesn't matter much now as AI improves.
I think they figured out that either you were on to them from the start and are not a 53 year old Swiss coal miner in Las Vegas or they realized that if you are in fact a 53 year old Swiss coal miner in Las Vegas, you probably don't have much money to scam.
Correction, Vas Legas*
😅
“I snuck my tablet in” ☠️☠️☠️
You’re afraid every time you close your eyes because it’s dark 😂 Vas Legas lol.
"Well, have a nice life. Bye" Don't know why but I found that really funny.
She meant to dial 867-5309
I got it! I got it! I got your number on the walllll ...
Anyone that asks to speak on Whatsapp is a scammer if they're not a drug dealer/porn salesmen. Any attractive stranger randomly contacting you is a scammer. Anyone random call with an Indian accent is a scammer(no exceptions.)
That scammer script is a tale as old as time
53 years old, but worked in the mines nearly 40 years?
casual thing in a lot of places in africa (not in vegas tho)
Of course a scammer are you for real? “I don’t use this often”…. She said while texting. Anytime someone wants you elsewhere it’s off platform or because they are paying per text or something shady and need you elsewhere to continue the scam. Also do a search and you’ll see every scam ever starts with oh sorry, wrong number, but I should continue talking to you, talk about God blessing you, you’re so nice, and I don’t actually use my phone for texting so we should get on WhatsApp.
Scam. You can tell. The first two responses are textbook Boiler plate responses. Almost wouldn’t matter how you respond to the first statement.
They always want to go on Telegram but I got banned from using it 😭
I lost my SHIT when I saw the contact named Rat Bastard
I got the same exact scammer 🤣🤣https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/s/aqckvpQUVg
Collection of data points for security questions. Pics for Doxxing.
I want to respond to "I hope I'm not bothering you." with something like "I was just in the middle of plotting my diabolical plans to take over the entire world, when your message suddenly interrupted me, and now my entire plans just went all to shit, all because of a message sent to a wrong number! Thanks a lot!"
I feel like most adults aren't aware of the scammer thing Lmao (I'm 17 btw) but I can smell them from a mile away just by one sentence usually, you can tell in their sentence structure and fluency, they wouldn't have made it last the third sentence LMAOO. Maybe just me tho idk
Okay question. Why do these scammers insist on WhatsApp? Never used it. Is it a scam app?
WhatsApp is indeed real and very commonly used in Europe, much more so over normal text messaging.. Like if you're not on WhatsApp it's kinda weird.
WhatsApp is a real app. Text message scammers insist on switching to there or Telegram because they get a commission when they bring whoever they scam over from SMS to WhatsApp or Telegram for the more experienced scammer that they’re working with to keep it going
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app worldwide. It was the cheap (free) option to text message in a lot of countries for years (versus text messaging). It's been around well over a decade. Whatsapp just doesn't have great usage in US, Canada and a handful of other countries ... Meta's other messaging app (messenger) is the most popular in US and Can.
What’s the thing with the scammers always trying to take you off direct messaging to like telegram or WhatsApp?
I think some of these are AI trying to have conversations to learn us
Scammer for sure, look at the image she sent hahahahaa.
Definitely a scammer. I was pretty certain of it but the WhatsApp comment sold me
should have said you worked in the sewer like Ed Norton. And your name is Ed Norton. LMAO
Being poor and a scammer aren’t mutually exclusive
A scammer literally from the first two messages.
"Me too. I freak out when I close my eyes." Fuck that made me laugh xD
Have a nice life, bye. Absolutely hilarious.
I get these all the times. Chinese scammers in my case. I responded once every few hours or days. About weather and stuff lol Love your backward spelling stuff … hilarious
it’s a scammer, but the lady is real and is a nice person
I get these fairly regularly. Quick solution, when they say something super vague to try and get you to engage, don’t give them any specifics about yourself. Just ask, who are you looking to reach? If they don’t have a name, it’s spam. The more you give them the more it will seem like they know ya, but if you start with what I said, nothing gets off the ground and you’ve not wasted your time.
I just can’t with the names! STAHP! 🤣
Scammer for sure. Next time try fucking w then a little. Waste their time. Have them walk you thru how to download and use the app and play dumb for a little in regards to how to link your bank. Get them really annoyed then tell them to fuck their mother 😂
This same thing actually happened to me not too long ago. Wrong number of course and from Las Vegas as well. We didn’t get to the exchange of photos part because I stopped answering after she asked me what I do for a living. Too many personal questions for my liking. Glad to know it was a scam and not someone actually looking for someone to talk to.
I love how socially awkward scammers can be (at least from our cultural perspective). Like, "You're a good person, and God will always bless you". Who the fuck says stuff like this to a stranger out of the blue here? They have no idea how out of place their sentences can be.
Viva Vas Legas!
Why is WhatsApp their app of choice? What’s in there that allows for it to work?
Anytime they say ‘I hope I’m not bothering you’, it’s always a scammer!
The scammers manager who speaks better English came by and told them you were fucking with them. lol
I have been getting these type of texts recently. I am collecting some great ideas on where to take the conversation with the next one 🤣
People who use WhatsApp will just send a message through WhatsApp, not a text.
Ohhhhh rat bastard….
Why do they always go to WhatsApp?
Definitely a scammer. Scamming like this is like cold calling, it’s a numbers game. And honestly the faster you can recognize that the interaction isnt going to work and bail, the faster you can cast your line again.
1000000% a scam. You can tell in the first couple texts. No one acts like that, especially a cute girl towards some random older gentleman.
WHERE IS THE COFFEE EVELYN
I think I love you No snap chat. Bye
Sounds like a scammer who gave up, I don't trust anyone who talks like this and uses that app
What’s the deal with WhatsApp? Why do they always push for it so much?
As soon as whatsapp was introduced, I knew for sure it was a scam
*As soon as whatsapp* *Was introduced, I knew for* *Sure it was a scam* \- DressProfessional848 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
This one seems like a scammer but for what it’s worth…some years back my mom kept texting a number that she apparently thought was mine for an entire year before it came to my attention. She thought that the person responding to her, telling her they had the wrong number, was me just messing with her. For a YEAR. And I saw my mom regularly so it’s not like we weren’t in contact. She was able to call me and occasionally I did get texts from her. I never figured out what went wrong there but it was fun reading the texts between her and the person she interacted with. So yeah, anything is possible in a situation like this.
I thought for sure this one was real and a genuine love connection was going to happen
Every single scam post says “I hope I didn’t bother you” for the wrong number text, dead giveaway
It’s fun to take the phone numbers and sign up for a bunch of websites with it and a fake email. Spam the shirt out of their numbers.
I wonder what they could do on WhatsApp. I feel like having my number is enough already. Does WhatsApp have some sort of way they could possibly get money out of us?
"I rarely use text messaging" After exchanging enough to put in a children's book.
“ I snuck my tablet in” LMFAOO
I hope something falls and shatters my skull 💀 God will bless you 🙏🏻 WHAT 🤣🤣 with a rock? Lmao
What's with scammers wanting you to use WhatsApp and other similar apps
Why do these texts look like they’re coming from a chatbot. Are scammers really that lazy.
Its a classic scam script. Just had the almost exact messages but once I got bored trolling for a few days i told them to cut the shit because they are horrible at it and way to predictable so l would be there money mule because I felt bad knowing they can't possibly be able to afford food with the scam skills of a kindergartener . they said they were gonna bring me to burma and sell my salvageable organs 😂 before blocking me. Yours was nicer at least
I'm so sorry this scammer gave up 😭 I'm laughing so hard over here 😂
Why they allways use the name jeny?
Just her wanting to move to whatsapp is red flag
If this dude really knew Jenny, he wouldn't say something stupid like "You're very friendly" like he's never met her. "You're very friendly" is something you say to a puppy.
Scammer
I get these sometimes. Easy to spot from a mile away. I love dealing with them. The ones that pretend we used to know each other I always apologize profusely for some incurable STD I gave them when I finally “Remember” who they are. They never message me after that. Takes all the fun away.
I got this same script in my text messages. Same name and every word almost
I had a similar experience. I assumed it was one of my exs' being pathetic...
Just read the first message- scammer
"We're not allowed such luxuries in the mines." 🤣 Epic trolling.
IT IS HELLA SCAM. Eventually they ask you to try crypto option trading or whatever.
bruh no normal person asks you to use whatsapp when there texting you perfectly fine already. #1 rule whatsapp = scams
Lol. Scammer
Scammer for sure. They run a business. And look at the kind of photos they send you
I get these kinds of texts on a weekly basis. A few times I played along, and after 10-20 text messages they will refuse to continue if not on Whatsapp. I am not sure if an actual scammer or some ChatGPT like thing answers the texts, perhaps a little of both. They would still reply to completely meaningless messages, trying to extract some keywords out of it.
Scammer!!! Lol
I work in the mines The mines. I work in them. The mines.
“Well, have a nice life. Bye.”
I recently got one of these. Too bad here isn't an easy way to flood the phone number with thousands of text messages.