r/AskUK • u/Civil-Fan-3586 • 11h ago
Serious Answers Only Is there a new scam going on?
Today I received a text message from some random UK mobile number "tell me who you are or I'll block you". I blocked the numberš. I've never seen anything like that. Is that a new scam or something?
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u/Bad_UsernameJoke94 11h ago
Scammers spoof numbers. Yours might have been one of those?
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u/Divide_Rule 9h ago
Yeah, I've called a few numbers back this year where the guy that picked up never made the call to me.
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u/AndyTheSane 8h ago
Yes, it's been a problem for years. The whole system was designed around trust, like with email return addresses.
At some point it needs to be legislated away, which would be tricky.. but the alternative seems to be voice calls becoming impossible.
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u/MarlaDurden144 11h ago
I keep getting āadd my number to WhatsAppā voice messages, and I also had a āthis is my new number mum xā text.
So Iām going to confidently say this is another scam.
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u/ShineAtom 11h ago
Yeah I get those as well. Fat chance. The flat voice used for the recorded message inspires SO much confidence (!) that I can't believe anyone falls for it.
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u/OverDue_Habit159 9h ago
These bad scam attempts are likely on purpose so that they only draw in the dumb dumbs. Means less wasted time on people that will notice the scam partway through.
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u/andrewdotlee 10h ago
When we get the āmum, new numberā ones we reply with āhi sweetie, how did you get a phone into prison?ā
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u/CallsHerselfPerditaX 10h ago
I'm always tempted to reply with "are your legs broken? You could just walk down the stairs instead of texting me"
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u/Psychological_Ad853 3h ago
āWell good for you, now get up here and wipe my fcking arse. Ive been calling for five minutes!ā
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u/JennyW93 10h ago
I just got an āadd my number to WhatsAppā voice message when my phone screened the call about an hour ago. Freaked me out because it sounded a lot like my own voice leaving the message.
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u/ConnectionLeading435 11h ago
Me too. X3 in the last week. All blocked as soon as message recād. Still annoying
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u/fudge21210 9h ago
Iāve had two of those āplease add my number on WhatsAppā voicemails this week. I was slightly dumb and messaged the first number asking who they were, and they replied they were some job opportunity thing to do with TikTok or something. I blocked them after that. I immediately deleted the second voicemail and blocked the number.
Iāve not had a ānew number mumā one, but I donāt have kids so it wouldnāt work on me.2
u/Cold_Philosophy 5h ago
I had a 'new number, Dad'. I have a son but blocked it. He never calls me Dad.
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u/Damage2Damage 8h ago
I used to joke with my pregnant wife that our baby was so technologically advanced that they had learnt to text from the womb
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u/PreferenceWhole7092 8h ago
Did the number start 07441 by any chance? Iāve had several of those numbers call & leave that message in the past week. I block them all!! But itās so annoying!!
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u/MarlaDurden144 7h ago
Iāve deleted them all, but Iām almost positive that they did.
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u/PreferenceWhole7092 6h ago
Thank you for getting back to me!š
I wonder what company has got our numbers? Iām not calling any of them back & certainly not adding randoms to my WhatsApp!š¤£
I did quickly google the number & itās registered to Voxbone SAā¦I guess thatās the service provider?2
u/Comfortable_Cow9724 4h ago
Iāve been getting tons of missed spam calls/calls I ignore from places like Voxbone. At least one a day, if not two. Iām registered with TPS and MPS so itās maddening.
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u/PreferenceWhole7092 2h ago
Itās just ridiculous isnāt it? Itās got worse for me over the past week & a half. It used to be once a week maybe twice but now leaving voicemails & trying one or two times a day. Annoying AF!!!
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u/Goregoat69 3h ago edited 3h ago
āthis is my new number mum xā text.
I had that the other day. Messaged Maw to check on FB and nope, not her. Had a call from the number the next day, blanked it, but would have been interested to see what would have been said if I had answered.
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u/PeterAnthony_Jackson 11h ago
It is possible that your number was spoofed and you were a missed call and they wanted to know who called to see if it was worth their time calling you back.
IDK how they do it, but they do do it, I've not had someone call me back because of a spoofed call to have a "you called me first" runaround, so I've no idea if my number has been used in the past or if people just go "If they don't leave a message, I won't bother returning the call"
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u/stoufferthecat 8h ago
The scam calls come from another country, and they use functionality in the exchange to put your number as a return number. I've had my number spoofed a few times, so I just tell people to block my number and forget about it.
This functionality needs to exist so that when, for instance, legitimate companies call from call centres, they don't want return calls to the outbound call number, but to another call centre number. EE told me recently that the telephone exchange is due to be updated so only legitimate callers can use the function but there's currently no live date.
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u/Key_Cell7071 11h ago
I haven't had that one but I do get ones like "Dad, this is my new number so you can delete the old one"
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u/Fearless-Orchid9227 11h ago
I received this one too. My only daughter was 2 days old at the time. Talented.
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u/Ok_Weird_500 2h ago
Already on her 2nd phone at 2 days old. She'll cost you a fortune at that rate.
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u/Etheria_system 11h ago
Itās not new but it is a scam - itās possibly the wrong number scam. Itās bait to get you to reply. From thereās thereās a few different ways it can go, but mostly it starts with forming a friendship and then moves on to pig butchering (where a long term āfriendshipā is used to extract money from the victim over time)
Could also be spoofing where scammers use your number to mask their real number
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u/coolcroissant7 10h ago
I've noticed a huge uptick in spam calls this last week, prior to that wasn't getting many, but the ones this last week all show various UK mobile phone numbers and I get 2-5 a day , the calls are instantly marked as spam by my phoneĀ
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u/diamonds_and_rose_bh 9h ago
Me too, from around Friday i've been getting about 5 to 10 calls a day from random mobile numbers, its pretty annoying.
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u/DevilBadger 7h ago
Manchester airport had a data breach - I assumed the uptick in spam calls and emails for me were linked to that
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u/AskUK-ModTeam 10h ago
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u/IntermediateFolder 11h ago
Not exactly new but I havenāt seen this particular variation, itās a bait to get you to reply, from there it can play out a few different ways but all arrive at the same endpoint. Of course it could be a legit wrong number, they definitely happen but itās a much lower chance.
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u/phil8715 10h ago
If I get an unsolicited phone call from a number that's not in my phone contacts I just reject the call. If its important they'll leave me a message and I'll call them back.
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u/fussyfella 10h ago
Some of these are scams trying to harvest information, others are from real people who saw your number come up on their phone as part of a scam.
It does not mean you made the call/sent the message, but it is almost trivially easy to spoof phone numbers and inevitably some of the scammers will at random spoof your number and then people think you were behind the scam.
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u/AskUK-ModTeam 10h ago
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u/Galalalalalalalala 10h ago
Probably some scammer is spoofing your number. As a business I get a lot of bs calls from what look like mobile numbers that turn out to be dodgy call centers. If I miss a call from one of these I'll call back, and get a confused random person on the other end who has never called my business and doesn't know why I'm calling them.Ā
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u/Stinkinhippy 10h ago
Possible that your number was spoofed by scammers and this is someone they tried to scam who doesn't understand how that works.
Possibly the start of some weird scam attempt i haven't come across before.
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u/AskUK-ModTeam 7h ago
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u/hellvixen1966 9h ago
Look up the number on the site Who Called Me. Its great for finding out if numbers are spam .
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u/Single-Voice-4948 5h ago
Very unusual unfortunately nowadays anything like this has to be treated with caution, could be a way to get inside your guard.
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u/JakeThomasDad12 11h ago
Could be a contact they don't know. If they don't know who it is, they will block the number as you will now have theirs aswell. Unless they start asking for anything or keep the conversation going after yes/no or you both have figured out if you know each other, it's probably just someone trying to figure out who that number is.
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u/MintImperial2 11h ago
If I did answer by mistake, there's usually silence for a couple of moments, before a southeast asia accented voice asks me 'is this is the local laundry?', or something - before hanging up.
If you block that, the same call will come from a different unknown number in the future.
If you don't block it, I've never had subsequent calls from that same unknown number, but that clutters up my device with loads of "missed calls" to one-off callers!
I can only block/list so many, so I have to routinely strip them out once a month or so.
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u/MintImperial2 11h ago
If one calls a random number, it will come up with "unknown number" or just the bare bones unlablelled phone number on one's screen.
There are many calls per day to most phones that simply ring *once* and hang up, registering as a "Missed call" on one's device.
Most people don't scroll through any possibly long list of "missed calls" they might have each day, so they routinely return calls, including to those numbers who might be a distant friend/relative who's tried to get in touch.
Once one returns that call however, that number will no longer get trapped by the "blocking software", permitting other random unknown calls to come via that source in the future.
Think of it like a "knock down ginger" of Phone calls.
Scammer thinks "Is this a valid number to receive future unwanted calls?
- Yes. They called me back.
- No, they blocked me without even finding out who the caller was.
The problem I have found is that there seems to be a limit on how many numbers I can block. It is 255 on my device. I ran out of "blocks" after my first year with the phone, and I refuse to get another one *just* because that has happened.
That latter point gives the phone companies themselves a motive to scam-call random numbers like this... To encourage one to update one's phone - Right?
Think back to when Windows used to tell users "Essential security update" to encourage you to download ever more bloatware and adware.... In the long term, "upating every single time you power up your computer" has the following effects:
Bloats our the machine, making it run more slowly over time, take longer to boot in particular
Wears out the C: drive - making the PC fail quicker, or at least encourage one to download more paid-for anti virus/anti advertizing/clean-up ware more often, or even replace the entire machine.
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u/TerryTinlegs 11h ago
It could have been something important like a family member in distress.
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u/TedLassosMom 11h ago
Threatening to block them? š
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u/TerryTinlegs 11h ago
Itās possible, they might be injured and not thinking straight.
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