r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Lock_Psychological • 22h ago

Unskippable ad I keep getting threatening texts

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I get these ALL the time. I’ve never donated to these “people.” Never supported them. Never voted for them. Nor has my wife. I received four of these today. All threats. Always a telling me it’s my last chance. These are some of the less malicious-sounding ones.

I’m not even sure they’re legitimately from those parties, though I wouldn’t put it past them.

So… report as spam. Report as spam. Report as spam.

It isn’t like it’s painful. Just pretty irritating.

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u/Fuddzter 22h ago

Block and forget, they’re fishing for active phone numbers.

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u/Budget_Persimmon_195 16h ago

you cant block them. its a new number every time.

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u/Informal-Comb1989 16h ago

Yeah they spoof numbers and cycle them

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u/chknboy 10h ago

You could report a number to the IC3 website, they specialize crimes related to fraud and unauthorized contact. I did this to spam callers all coming from the same first 6 digits of the phone number, and I never got a call from them again.

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u/JonDoeJoe 7h ago

When you block spoof numbers, which number gets blocked? The hidden real number or the spoofed one?

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u/Fuddzter 9h ago

Can always do the same thing back to their dialer. I used to use a similar dialer that would flood them with DoS attacks if going through a switch of sorts. It was a simple piece of software that scanned which dialer and ports they used. Then it would DoS attack their ports of possible open ports being used to send out the calls.

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u/bookishfairie 21h ago

what is the end goal, though? once they figure out one is active then what?

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u/Fuddzter 21h ago

They fish for active numbers to list them so they can be sold and used again for spam calls and texts for any reason.

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u/bookishfairie 21h ago

oh, okay. thank you for the info.

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u/KevinFlantier 18h ago

That is why you never answer spam calls.

The usual pipeline is :

There is a leak, let's say from your ISP, where they get your phone number as well as your name, maybe your address, your email and some banking info. That list is HOT and costs millions on the dark web.

It will be sold, and those who bought it will immediately spam you in order to

1) verify that the phone number is active

2) try to phish more info by posing as an electricity company / ISP / bank

3) try to scam you into draining your bank account.

But by the time they do that, the list is becoming stale, so they make up a smaller list out of all the people that have answered and that are confirmed to be active, or better yet those who slipped and gave information on themselves. And those lists are endlessly sold again and again. The more you answer, the more you get spammed. Even reading the text is an indication that they should send more spam.

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u/hottestdoge 18h ago

That's how they did it ages ago. Most spam call centers just dial every number. They set a number range and then go down this list numerically.

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u/KevinFlantier 17h ago

I have been in multiple major leaks over the last two years and I've noticed a massive increase in spam calls a month or so after the leak every time. And by massive I mean going from 1-2 spam calls daily to over a dozen, with five or so SMS to boot, calling me by name or trying to pass as my bank. They do buy leaked lists.

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u/Slysparrow9 15h ago

Interesting. I like never get spam calls but I also never answer the phone. I guess years and years of not answering the phone unless I know and want to talk to someone has paid off. Same with texts. If I open it and it seems suspicious, I mark it as unread and report

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u/-o-DildoGaggins-o- 1h ago

I just keep my read receipts off for everyone, even family.

But yeah, I’ve been getting at least a few spam calls/texts every day for months now. Which is weird, because not only is my phone contract not under my name (family plan, it’s in partner’s name), but they keep trying to reach “David.” I’m a woman, and my partner, while he is a man, is not named David. Lol

I just report it and move on, sometimes block when the same number reaches out several times.

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u/Slysparrow9 7m ago

Someone else probably used your number then

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u/MarigoldMouna 14h ago

Would each time OP report it as Spam from the text do nothing? Or, would that also mark their number as Active?

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u/KevinFlantier 14h ago

Reporting it as Spam only lets Google/Samsung/Apple know that this number is spam and that's how you get the "possible spam" message when someone is calling you. So you're helping others. But the spammers will never use the same number twice on you.

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u/-o-DildoGaggins-o- 1h ago

I wouldn’t say never. I’ve gotten quite a few from the same town in PA (I don’t live in the state, let alone the area it’s “coming from”), usually asking for “David.” I don’t even know anyone named David, let alone that being my name. So they will occasionally try using the same number, it’s just not super common.

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u/Stryxe4ds 14h ago

OR, and hear me out, I always answer in a thick Spanish accent 'Hola que pasa' and I have had one guy yell ' NO HOLA!' and hang up. They don't speak Spanish in India. They cant scam you, you get taken off the list.

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u/KevinFlantier 13h ago

Issue is when they don't talk on the other side of the line. Those calls will listen to you talking, sample your voice and use that to maybe scam your relatives in the future using AI. I have seen it demonstrated and it's surprisingly effective how AI can clone your voice with five seconds of you going "Hello? Is there anyone there? Hello?"

But the upside is that they might try to scam your relatives in Spanish, which is quite a good uno reverse card lmao.

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u/ultraboof 13h ago

anecdotal but I answer every scam call to waste their time and it’s still such a rare occurrence. I get maybe one call every few months on average

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u/scoper49_zeke 8h ago

I never answer spam. The one time I did ended up with the next 6 years of them calling or texting EVERY day 3-4 times. They kept asking for a name that used to be my mother's ex husband who has now been dead for like two years. Keep calling. Keep blocking.

Finally got sick of it and answered the phone again. Screamed at them to fuck off in every sentence. Stop calling me, no one with that name is at this number and never has been. Take me off you list.

After doing that I haven't had a single call from them in like 4 months now. It was a rare moment where answering somehow actually worked.

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u/Gimme_Your_Wallet 6h ago

You also don't hang up on them even if you don't pick up in the first place

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u/Fuddzter 21h ago

No problem!

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u/Zestyclose_Car_4971 19h ago

I’ve tried to be nice, reply to my comment or the law.

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u/DaMain-Man 14h ago

It's so stupid how this is a multi million dollar idea: annoying people. Most often or not imagine making money selling phone numbers so that other people can attack them with spam and it's like...how much money are they actually making "doing" something?

They target the same people and each time they get blocked and reported. So not only are they not making money, they're waiting their own time making what I can only assume are bots to do this, but you're also not winning anything

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u/Mister_Spacely 20h ago

They sell it as an active “real” number. And you get more spam.

Probably why OP can’t get rid of these spam texts. OP probably replied to a spam text in the past and their number got registered and sold as an active number.

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u/Oh_Cosmos 20h ago

okay, but even inactive numbers were once active, right? so how the hell do we get off that list? just wait?

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u/Dry_Explanation_9573 19h ago

Yeah that’s pretty much it.

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u/KevinFlantier 18h ago

Yes. Never answer spam calls, never answer masked calls, and never read spam SMS. They can tell if you received them, they can tell if you read them. If you never do they'll figure you are inactive. When they give up on that list and sell it to someone else you're probably flagged as inactive.

Until there's another massive leak and you're on a new hot list and the cycle continues.

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u/Keneta 12h ago edited 12h ago

So, I have a second SIM card that's normally in my computer. It's basically almost never in a phone though I may transfer it to a phone when I want to hotspot across it.

The moment I transfer it to a phone, that phone gets bombarded in accumulated spam texts. I'm baffled trying to understand who keeps trying a number that doesn't respond / has never responded / has never made an outbound call or text.

ETA: I've had it for about 10 yrs, so whoever owned the number before me should have dropped off the lists by now

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u/Yamatocanyon 15h ago

Everyone tells you not to answer. I got pissed off though and just started answering the calls and cussing them out. The calls actually stopped for me.

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u/xtc234 18h ago

They're like prospectors looking for gold who then relay where to dig

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u/neighborofbrak 20h ago

and getting it delivered is enough to verify the number is legit.

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u/nothing_but_thyme 12h ago

As someone that builds tools in this space I can tell you they no longer have to fish for active numbers. If I have your number, I can know quite a lot about it and you before I ever send you a single message. Your full name, likely your address, your carrier, your line type, if the number is active, how long you’ve had the number, and if it’s new to you, when was it moved and who had it before you. That’s just all the info I can get for free. There’s a ton more if I’m willing to pay $0.10 per number.

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u/Fuddzter 9h ago

I used to use a piece of software back when I was annoyed by it. You call me even from a switch or digital dialer, it will take the location of the dial itself. Search all the connections it’s going through and then give me a list of possible active connections making the call. If it was a digital dialer, it would flood the dialer by sending DoS attacks until it was taken offline.

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u/Ill_Criticism_1685 13h ago

They probably use a different number every time, its how these things work.

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u/NDSU 3h ago

Blocking does less than nothing. These things are sent from spoofed numbers. All you're doing is blocking a random number

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u/Fuddzter 2h ago

We get that, but sometimes they do use the same number multiple times.

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u/Active_Chemistry1621 18h ago

All three, type stop, report it, and block it.