How to Spot and Guard Against Wrong Number Scams

Most often, once some kind of friendship or even romantic connection has been established, you’ll be asked for money. Maybe your new contact is in a bit of trouble, finance-wise, and just needs a quick loan; or maybe they’ve found a fantastic investment opportunity for you, though you’ll need to act very quickly to take advantage of it.

How to Spot and Respond to Wrong Number Scams

First and foremost, you need to be on the lookout for any kind of unexpected contact over a messaging app. You might think that’s easy to spot, but fraudsters (and the AI they use) are very good at sounding convincing. They may even offer up photos and videos to help prove they are who they say they are.

Remember that the people you’re communicating with may well have done their homework on you. They may claim to be a friend of someone you actually know, or be part of an organization you used to volunteer for, in order to seem more believable. You should definitely double-check any claims like this.

Ideally, don’t respond at all, because this will mark you out for future scam attacks. If you feel like the message could be genuine—people do get numbers wrong, after all—run as many checks as you possibly can before replying. For example, if it’s related to something happening at work, check around with your colleagues.

If you are taken in by the first message, the scam should get easier to spot as the exchange progresses. The bots and the people at the other end of the conversation will try to engage you in chatting, perhaps by asking questions or maybe sharing photos and videos. Some kind of attempt to grab money or data will then follow, as the FBI warns.

Whenever you realize you’re being targeted by scammers, just stop replying. In the US, you can forward the messages to 7726 to report them as fraudulent. You can also block future messages from the number: In Google Messages on Android, tap the three dots (top right in the chat) then Block and report spam. In Messages on an iPhone, tap the header at the top of the chat, then Info and Block Caller.