Scammers and smartphones

[Lorelei]

I have a smartphone that I hardly use (otherwise relying on my old non-internet Nokia and landlines). I've shared the smartphone number out of necessity with only two places: my bank and a company that does blood tests. Recently, I received two identical scam text messages from different senders saying I had a parcel that couldn't be delivered because the address was incomplete and asking me to go to a link and complete my postal address. So I deleted and reported them.

What I'm wondering is how the scammers got the number. Does it mean that a place you've shared the number with is insecure, or do the scammers have some kind of system that generates random numbers?

I recently came across this interview with a guy in the UK who'd been contacted (on his smartphone) by scammers posing as the fraud department of his bank. Part of why he'd been drawn in by them and thought they were who they said they were (losing 50,000 pounds, which the bank later reimbursed) was that they were able to tell him exactly how much money he had in his account and give him an accurate rundown of his recent ATM withdrawals. How could they have known that?

Adam Rickitt opens up on being scammed out of £50,000 in bank fraud

[Franklan]

These "wrong address" SMS are generated randomly, actually, a lot of people are getting them, this started about 1 or 2 years ago. You're not the only one.

Just delete, and carry on.

[Fraufruit]

Yes, just like spam emails.

[LeonG]

If you are not sure about something, just go to your bank in person or call them on their official number, not the one specified in the text. It is possible that a scammer somehow got a hold of some of your info to parrot back to you.

I have also gotten things in the post that looked iffy. In one case, the company verified that it came from them. In the other, which was a bank, they said they could not verify because it did not state the employees name, dept. or branch, the contact telephone number was a cell phone and the signature was not readable.

[snowingagain]

The UK scam the OP linked was different. It was targeted. I think that the bank settled so fast, repaid and such, was they they must have found a data leak. UK has weird stuff though. Many banks including Barclays allow you to find you PIN online in the app if you have forgotten it. I am not keen on that. I also really hate all the apps that make paying "easier". Most of the time I do not realise I have signed up for stuff like "no TAN needed" or the PayPal equivalent. Really fuck off. I want to get notification for payments. I do not want it "easier".

[kiplette]

yup. Don't want Whatever Pay on my phone, either. Altogether too easy, which isn't necessarily good for money out.