[solardev]

> What I want to know is, what's the purpose of those random texts that just say something like, "How's it been?" from a number that I've never communicated with? What's the angle there? Anyone know?

My understanding is that they will pretend it's a wrong number, but then make a joke or talk about some innocuous hobby and try to build up trust over weeks/months to eventually phish or scam you. I forget where I read it (maybe reddit?) but there was a poster who mentioned a personal experience with one such scam, basically a fake romance scam that led to them losing tens of thousands of dollars wiring money to a fake person who pretended to have fallen in love with them over weeks of back and forth texting.

It doesn't have to work on everyone to be profitable, just the once-in-a-while lonely pensioner!

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/05/why-its-not...

https://www.robokiller.com/blog/how-to-identify-text-scams

[slu]

John Oliver explained it (Pig Butchering) very well: https://youtu.be/pLPpl2ISKTg?si=yHwqzMX0r2h4mKl-

[mikesabat]

Thanks... that seems really labor intensive.

[solardev]

Labor is dirt cheap in some parts of the world, especially compared to the tens of thousands of dollars American retirees might have access to!

[Scoundreller]

My deep and probably founded fear is that I’m on a list of people to scam in 40 years when I’ll be at least mildly demented.

Hopefully my efforts to waste scammers time instead of “just hang up” has got me removed from a few high-value lists.

[zaik]

You think scammers 40 years in the future will use a target list of phone numbers from today?

[Scoundreller]

Why not? People don’t really change their phone numbers much anymore and phone numbers have become increasingly individualized.

[dragontamer]

It's done with slave labor.

It's called pig butchering. You kidnap people, hold them in Cambodia or whatever (lots of locations where local criminal gangs rule) so the locals don't bother checking for literally kidnapped slaves.

If police stop by, pay them off and make up a story about debts and punishment.

Then you use the slaves to scam others in pig butchering scams. If the slaves refuse, you beat them until they comply.

https://www.propublica.org/article/pig-butchering-scams-raid...

[janalsncm]

Just to clarify the terminology, pig butchering refers to the scam to steal money from fake romantic partners. The SE Asian kidnapping/slavery shops that run pig butchering scams are referred to as fraud factories.

[Double_a_92]

Btw this is also used as a sob-story tactic by the scammers if you eventually call them out after some time.

[willcipriano]

Yeah a lot of it happens in office buildings in places like Nigeria. People wearing business casual clothes and everything. At first glance it just looks like a normal company.

[solardev]

Thanks! That's a much better link and explanation than what I linked to.

[dotancohen]

So reply asking if they want you to notify authorities in their city. I doubt that the kidnappers are reading every message. And even if they are, better to let the kidnappers know that they are being encroached upon.

[otterley]

These outfits are often working under the protection of the local authorities thanks to rampant bribery.

[Scoundreller]

> These outfits are often working under the protection of the local authorities thanks to rampant bribery.

I don’t think I’ll ever visit Cambodia and I can call Cambodia for a few cents a minute as well as their embassies.

Their local authorities can’t block us all!

[dotancohen]

That's why the initiative has to come from outside.

[nullstyle]

It sounds like you’ve developed a very special set of skills, Mr. Neeson.

This situation is a little more complicated than to be solved by a back and forth on the hacker news comment section.

[FredPret]

Local authorities are involved. Sounds like the only outside initiative that will help is Seal Team 6.

[ceejayoz]

> I doubt that the kidnappers are reading every message.

The guy working one computer over elbow-to-elbow is gonna narc you out for better treatment, though.

[danesparza]

But with big payoffs.

[aftbit]

I have gotten three kinds of those:

1. Someone texting the previous owner of my number (John). I got all kinds of traffic for him, including debt collectors, friends, ex-girlfriends, employers, etc. I gather John ran into a spot of financial trouble, dropped his phone-number, and skipped town.

2. An old high-school classmate trying to find my mom found my number on one of those people search sites, probably associated with her address.

3. A random girl who just wanted to chat. I talked to her for a few messages, but didn't progress to a romance scam. She seemed real to me, but who knows?

[bsamuels]

3. is a romance scam. pig butchering/romance scams take place over multiple months, not one texting session

[aftbit]

Could be, yeah. I'm a bit skeptical though. This took place months ago, and the conversation ended in a pretty reasonable place, something like "nice to meet you, take care" from me. I would have expected a few more engagement attempts from her if she wanted to scam me.

[amy-petrik-214]

Well that's part of the romance scam game, you don't want to seem too needy. The best romance scammers will play a little bit of "hard to get" and a little bit of "good cop bad cop" if you know what I mean. The aloofness that you describe here was not an accident.

[solardev]

3. Ummm... hate to break it to you, but that's the start of the scam. Hope you don't fall deeper into that convo!