Upgrading Phone Triggered a SCAM Txt - How??

Question

So the phone associated with this account is owned by me because I pay for it. But the phone is used by my daugther and we ensure that the phone is totally private to her, I have no access/oversight at all, just as it should be. I just upgraded the phone and kept the number. So the new phone was delivered to me and then I posted it to her. The exact moment, to the second, that she activated the new phone I received a txt on my own phone (on a my private number) from a new unknown number saying “Hi Dad this is my new number xx”, this was then followed up the next day with the request to pay her bills cos the new phone change over has blocked her bank account and could I pay until she sorted that and then she would repay me. The “xx” on the first txt tipped me off and I had already checked with my daugther and knew it was a scam BUT… How could someone know to the second that she had switched on the new phone?! I cannot believe it was a chance cooincidence, so where did that information come from?

Decembersangel72 · Accepted Answer

Hi​@ffskittyI have had the exact same text message of“Hi Dad this is my newnumber xx”FYI, I amNOT a Dad and also, I’m FEMALE!Unfortunately, scammers are getting very good at what they do and I’m sure it wasn’t the case that they sent the mesage as soon as she ‘switched on the new phone’but that the message was sent to hernumber and that then got through once it was activated.Mobile phone numbers are sold to anyone and everyone, by numerous websites/companies, for their own gain and scammers will also send texts to random generatednumbers that they know willconnect to ‘real’ numbers more often than not. Unfortunately this will only become more prevelant over time.The only thing you can do is to ignore and block any unknown numbers like this one.OR, as I have done,send them a completely ridiculous reply to ‘play’ with them and then block them!My reply was…..‘Hello you havecontacted the the fraud department of Derbyshire Police, how may I help you?’And then I blocked the number!(I also answer ‘scam’ calls with a similar phrase and it’s amazing how many hang up straight away!)So sorry that there is no ‘fix’ for this.If it’s any comfort, I have not had any more similar texts since and the phone calls have died off as well!x x

Tom · Answer

Hi ​@ffskittyI’m quite confused here, are you sure that the person texting you isn’t just texting a wrong number?Tom

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