You Received A Text From An Unknown Number? Here Is How To Stop It
As technology became mainstream and started growing more and more in our daily lives, there has been an increase in internet scams and telemarketing scams. So why does this happen and how can you, as a consumer of technology avoid it as much as possible? Today we will help make it easier to understand and avoid these scams.
These spam/scam messages usually involve a phone call or a text message asking for your information, or in some cases asking for money by pretending they are a relative of yours. They prey on the kindness, curiosity, or the lack of technical literacy of some individual in order to trick them for their own benefit.
The scammers search all over the web (and the dark web) for people’s phone numbers, emails, and any other data that can help them pretend to be someone else for their own benefit. From there they can either breach a data center network and get their customers’ information, or they can buy it from websites you might use all the time such as social media (looking at you Facebook) and other shady websites people might accidentally stumble and use.
Another factor contributing to the rise in spam texts and calls is the ease and affordability of technology. With the advent of automated dialing systems and bulk messaging software, scammers can target large numbers of people simultaneously with minimal effort and cost. They can use techniques like spoofing, which involves manipulating caller ID information to make it appear as if the calls or texts are coming from a legitimate source, further deceiving the recipients.
It may seem difficult to fight back on these scammers, but you can help keep yourself protected by being careful with what information (such as phone numbers and emails) that you provide to websites. Finally you can also use a call filter service that usually comes with your current carrier plan in order to minimize the need to interact with these scammers yourself.
In conclusion, If you have responded to any of these messages, you are not in any immediate danger. However, you could be validating your phone number to the data sellers/scammer so they’ll have a more accurate list of contacts. Our recommendation is to block any numbers that may seem suspicious and use a good call filtering service.
UPDATE: We recently found out about incogni, a company that promises to get rid of your public information from the internet as much as it could. They do that by contacting data brokers and requesting that your information be deleted from their data base and will handle all of the nasty work for you. Of course this service isn’t free but its great to see a company willing to battle the data brokers.