Today's text scam: $1,000 Wal-Mart gift card

[navychop]

It seems that a huge number of people are receiving a scam text msg today on their cells. Says, in effect "Congratulations Wal-Mart shopper you have just won a $1,000 Wal-Mart gift card" and says to click on a wmartworld link to claim the prize. DON'T CLICK ON THAT LINK.

It is a scam. They are harvesting cell #s that work with text msgs to sell to other spammers. And there may be more unpleasantness also. Just started today (it seems) so there is still some investigating going on for fraud. It is from many different originating numbers, so I guess we can assume those originating phone #s are randomly generated.

We will see a lot more of this, as unlimited outgoing text messaging makes it irresistible to spammers.

If you rec'd one of these and clicked the link, please report here what happened.

 

[KE4EST]

If it ain't one thing it is another.

 

[Ilya]

I received that text, but didn't click on it. $1000 looked too high to be true.

Sent from my iPad 3 using SatelliteGuys

 

[isaacmorseMI]

I received it as well, obviously I didn't click on it...

 

[navychop]

Be interesting to see if this gets widespread enough to warrant a mention in the general news media.

 

[cave1376]

I've gotten similar text. Some say I've won an IPad, or a $500 Outback Steakhouse gift card or Khol's gift card.

The local news did a segment on the Wal Mart text scam a few weeks ago. Some people who received the text were sceptical about the text, others thought it was a legit text and went onto the website.

 

[yaz96]

I clicked on it and WON!!!!!!!

Gift card to show up any day now......

 

[pro96]

Clicked it and won a micro** satellite.. wish it would of been wally`s world

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

 

[Claude Greiner]

I got it also

Im so sick of spam

 

[navychop]

It's going to get a LOT worse, and soon. It'll force me to pay for unlimited messaging. Right now, it's cheaper for me to pay the twenty cents each, we do so little messaging.

Anybody know of a way to block incoming text messages unless they're on a white list? For an iPhone, especially?

 

[cardinalrooter]

Received two Wal-Mart offers, both with different area codes

 

[yaz96]

It's going to get a LOT worse, and soon. It'll force me to pay for unlimited messaging. Right now, it's cheaper for me to pay the twenty cents each, we do so little messaging.

Anybody know of a way to block incoming text messages unless they're on a white list? For an iPhone, especially?

Same here. My wife and I both have no MSGing, but we have just recently in the past month, just been SPAM blasted on our messaging. I called T-Mobile and they said other than their MSG blocking service for $4.95/mo for 10 numbers, there was nothing they could do. I said the numbers are random, they said sorry........

 

[A Man of Extra Dimension]

I got tired of that junk and called Verizon and had all text functions removed from our phones. The only problem is our grandkids don't know how to talk on the phone...

 

[kissil]

I received one for a $1000 gift card to Best Buy last month. It said I had the winning entry in a contest that I had no memory of entering. That was the first red flag. A quick Google search later and my concern was confirmed that it was a scam.

 

[navychop]

Yep. It's great how quickly these things appear online.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I received one for a $1000 gift card to Best Buy last month. It said I had the winning entry in a contest that I had no memory of entering. That was the first red flag. A quick Google search later and my concern was confirmed that it was a scam.

I got one of those. It says (exactly),

"Your Entry Last Month has WON! Goto (scam website) and Enter you Winning Code: 5555 to Claim Your Free $1000 BestBuy Gift Card."

The two big indicators are that A: you != your, and B: The company is Best Buy, not BestBuy. I've had some Walmart ones too.

 

[navychop]

As they get better with spelling and grammar........

 

[markfp-1]

I won't be clicking on it. I don't need a measly thousand bucks. Any day now I'm expecting a check for $30 million from a very nice man in Nigeria.

 

[yaz96]

I won't be clicking on it. I don't need a measly thousand bucks. Any day now I'm expecting a check for $30 million from a very nice man in Nigeria.

Nice!!

 

[cosmo_kramer]

I received one of these yesterday, but for Target instead...