INDIANAPOLIS— Sorry, wrong number.
A text message scam is circulating in Central Indiana in which the sender appears to be looking for romance, but they appear to accidentally text you by mistake.
When you respond “sorry, wrong number” the sender tries to continue the conversation and sends a picture of a young woman.
While the texts may seem innocent, the Better Business Bureau warns scammers are seeking your personal information, money, or even explicit pictures.
“They asked if I was Ivan. They said their name was Veda and that we matched on Bumble, but I’ve never had Bumble so I already knew it wasn’t me,” Sadie Roussell said.
Roussell politely responded they have the wrong number.
“Then she continued talking to me, which I already thought was weird saying like, 'Holy cow, how did I just message a random guy?' And then sent me a selfie,” Roussell said.
Even though Roussell stopped responding, the texter kept trying to engage.
Jennifer Adamany got a similar text message.
"It had a message that said 'sorry I didn't respond,’” Adamany said. “It had a young woman who was not fully clothed."
Jennifer works for the Better Business Bureau Serving Central Indiana, and so she knew not to respond to the message.
“Even if you know it's a scam attempt and you want to string them along, you're letting them know your phone is active,” Jennifer said. “They might come back to you with a different type of scam."
Jennifer said scammers are taking this approach because it appears an innocent mistake.
“Although some of the pics they send are definitely not innocent,” Jennifer said.
Bottom line, the scammers want your money, your personal information or something else.
"They might want to solicit photos of yourself they can use for blackmail,” Jennifer said.
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How To Stop Scam Texts
- Do not click the links or engage with the scammers
- When in doubt, delete the message
- Contact your wireless provider and ask them for help in stopping unwanted messages and calls
- Purchase an app like Robokiller or Norombo
- Protect your mobile phone by setting software to update automatically
- Protect your accounts by using multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication makes it harder for scammers to log in to your accounts if they do get your username and password
- Forwarding phishing texts to your provider at 7726 or “SPAM.”
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