Every now and then, we’d get this seemingly random text messages about a supposed relative checking in on us and updating us with her new number — “kamusta na kyo dyan? eto na pala new number ko. plx txt back“.
A lot of people still fall for this kind of scams (see how they make money out of this here). In a recent text message of this kind, I thought I’d indulge the scammer and play along to see how much effort they’d put into this.
0915.214.8613: E2 n new # ko. Kmusta n kyo dyan lahat.Anu blita dyan. Txtbk.
Me: Ok naman te. Eto mejo ok na rin. San ka now te? tagal mo di nakabalita a.
0915.214.8613: D2 ako s work. Plodan muna ako at wla plodn d2.
Me: Magkano te? papuntahan ko sa labas kung bukas pa.
0915.214.8613: 150 ang plod mo.
Me: Ok te. Teka lang ha.
Me: Musta sin kua wil jan te? Tsaka si bunso?
0915.214.8613: Ok lng naman sla d2, kmusta mo ako dyn.
0915.214.8613: Nsn n ung lod ko?
The whole conversation took about 64 minutes in total (I delayed most of my responses). That’s 1 hour of time the scammer wasted for nothing — an hour he could have used to really scam others.
Was thinking — in a more crowd-sourcing kind of way — if others can also take some time and waste this scammers time, then it might just frustrate them and make them think their MO isn’t cost effective. Imagine if at least 100 people pretend to have a conversation with a scammer for one day just to make them busy, the promise of Php150 load might seem un-interesting.
Do you have your own text scam story to tell? Aside from SIM card registration (see Senate Bill here), I can’t think of anything else to help curb this problem.
before having a cellphone got hyped up in the market, ang mahal ng SIM card before. ngayon for 50 pesos makakabili ka na.
I remember 1 SIM card before is worth P500 and the cheapest load before is P300 call and text card that was way back year 2000-2001 I think, now you can buy a SIM for P10, and and in Smart you can make utang of P4 load
you know what makes this people good in scamming other people? 2 things, greed and stupidity. people fall for their scheme because there is usually money (or package) involved and without thinking they give in to the request of the scammers of sending them load.
good thing that we can give them a taste of their own medicine since they are also greedy and stupid.
i’ve received a lot of texts from scammers. the first one i’ve received, I almost went out at 10pm to buy load for the sender, thinking it was my mother abroad… good thing i was too lazy that time, and something at the back of my mind said it was kinda weird, since my mother never perfected the usual texting style…
Your suggestion is a good idea to stall these scammers…
Twitter: KrianOrbito
says:
dapat kasi ibalik na mahal ang SIM at dapat need ng registration just like postpaid. kung magiging Php1k siguro presyo ng sim malamang mag line sa lang sila for as low as 299 (via Globe). dapat lahat ng CP user naka rehistro ang sim para matigal na mga scammers. whats stopping this mobile companies from doing this sim registration
I usually just reply by saying how they’re the scum of society and that people like them who victimize people out of their hard earned money are the reason for our country’s hardship
The scammer got scammed. hehehe
pls see my blog, i just have 4 entries there. you can read my blog regarding the text scam since i was a victim before.
my blog is kumakaliwa.wordpess.com
ive tried this before din sa ganyan na scammer din, sinasabi ko napa load kona 300 pa nga pinaload ko sayo. hehehhe
HAHA.funny
haha had a similar experience not too long ago, and i think i made the scammer really REALLY frustrated. we had a good laugh with this experience
i told him i’d buy a card and send him the pin and he replied in an instant “sige antayin ko isend mo na” then i sent a message that contained:
“############# #########
o ayan tita yung pin ng card,
paki-kiskis nalang ha?”
and the scammer never texted back.sweet. hehe
bwahaha. that is hilarious!
either naka UNLI TEXT or ALL TEXT yang mga scammer… so your advise at the end of your article is useless.
Twitter: bipharv3y
says:
i once have Globe blocked a spammer telling me I won in their Charity sweepstake draw. Na-blocked naman kasi after a week I tried to call the number pero d na maka-connect. BTW, sa Globe CS ko siya nireport thru email. Actually, from Globe FB account ko ata nakuha then after reporting different case there eh nagreply sila thru email. So from time to time pag may problem eh nagrereport ako sa CS nila. Sumasagot naman sila at mas ok kaysa thru phone.
I just ignore them. Giving them more than three seconds of thought and they would’ve won by some degree by taking too much of your time and effort.
i got a scam message like this before: this is how our conversation go…
scammer: hello. kmusta na kayo lahat diyan. eto na new # ko.
me: kuya robert, ikaw ba yan?
scammer: oo, ako nga. kumusta na kyo? padalan niyo naman ako ng load dito sa # ko
me: o cge, wait ka lang. kumusta na pala pagiging hosto mo sa japan?
(no reply after a few minutes)
scammer: o, nasan na load ko?
me: atat ka naman masyado. di ka ba binibigyan ng load diyan ng mga customer mong mga matrona at bading?
(scammer never replied again)
bwahaha.
Twitter: AlwinAguirre
says:
that was funny! might give that a try someday… LOL!
haha.. I had a similar experience once, pero nung nangamusta na yung scammer sinabihan ko ng sobrang daming problema. tameme sya. LOL
some of the problems I mentioned was Ate got pregnant and eloped due to shame, bunso and Mama were not talking anymore, I suspected Kuya of being a drug-addict because of sudden change in behavior. hahahhahahahah HE NEVER HAD THE GUTS TO ASK FOR LOAD! =))
Twitter: jediekins
says:
argh! badtrip kahapon na scam mom ko! kasi meron siyang pang smart load. may nagtext na pari daw siya nag paload ng 600php!! eh mom ko friendly at marami siyang friends. at may pari friends din siya. tapos yun niloadan niya.kainis. kapatid ko kasi ni update phone ng mom ko without backing up the contacts kaya yun na isahan mom ko.
grabe kapal ng muka niya nagkunwari pang pari. di man lang natakot kay God. lols aanhin naman niya ang 600 load? eh diba hindi na na cconvert into cash yun?