# Cell phone scam: what's the scam?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 26, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554 "2010-08-26T17:06:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/1 "2010-08-26T17:06:24Z")
I just got a text message on my Verizon cell phone:
“To avoid interruption of your Verizon Wireless service, please call 888-821-0284 or press the send key on your phone. This is a free text message.”
I did not call, I did not press send (I have not yet contacted Verizon yet, either). I googled the 888 number; from the results, I found [this page,](http://www.yelp.com/topic/los-angeles-verizon-scam) where someone else got the same text message. As they’ve noted, this appears to be a scam, But I don’t yet understand _what_ the scam is.
Anyone know?
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### Author:  [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/2 "2010-08-26T17:08:08Z")
> **[888-821-0284 / 8888210284](https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-821-0284)**
> [@](#):
>
> Okay, you guys seriously need to think. If you have a verizon phone, dial 611. That takes you directly into Verizon. Ask them. I got the ame message and called 611. the girl informed me that our cc had expired and we had forgotten to give them the new number. No what, she was right.
>
> If all I did was look up stuff on the internet and deleted the message, I wouldn’t have a phone.
>
> Morons
I like this guys signature.
ETA:
> [@](#):
>
> I called Verizon customer service @ \*611 immediately after receiving the text. I talked to a CSR and she confirmed it is a good number belonging to their financial services department. It took a couple of minutes to check, but the CSR was able to confirm it. I will still be leary of these texts in the future, but apparently this is a llegit Verizon text.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/3 "2010-08-26T17:46:48Z")
Thanks for the info. I did plan to contact Verizon directly, but before doing so I wanted to understand more about what I might be dealing with.
After being bombarded for years by phishing emails with generic warnings of account suspension and requests for password verification via suspicious URL’s, I was suspicious of such a generic text message; there was absolutely no specific information about what the problem was, and that’s usually the first hallmark of some kind of phishing scam.
I did call Verizon after posting here, and it turned out to be just a billing error that needed to be sorted out.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/4 "2010-08-26T19:44:13Z")
Does this describe the scam:[ul]
[li]Verizon sends a message to customer, but in a format that resembles common scam messages.[/li][li]Customer thinks it’s scam, ignores it.[/li][li]Since customer has not responded, Verizon cuts off customer’s service.[/li][li]Customer calls Verizon about non-working phone.[/li][li]Verizon gets info from customer, restores service.[/li][li]Verizon charges customer reconnect fee, because “we notified you, and you failed to respond”.[/li][li]Customer, needing phone service, pays fee.[/li][li]Ka-ching for Verizon![/li][/ul]
Yeah, there’s a scam here – being run by Verizon.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/5 "2010-08-26T20:43:21Z")
When I’ve had problems like this, I’ve usually gotten a call from an actual human at Verizon, and they’ve always been understanding when I say I want to call them back before giving out anything like credit card numbers.
But of course, that could be a scam, too. And really, if there’s some sort of problem with your billing, they pretty much have to contact you, and no matter what format or medium they use to contact you, scammers are going to copy it, so their legitimate communications will _always_ look like scams.
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### Author:  [@US\_Bureau\_of\_Labor\_Statistics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/US_Bureau_of_Labor_Statistics)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/6 "2010-08-26T21:48:27Z")
Be wary about anonymous online forums’ explanations such as 800notes; in the past I’ve heard of scammers peppering the first couple of Google results for their phone number or business with good (and fake) reviews. The first wave of defense against scams was “search about them and see if it looks legit,” so they adapted to that. Note that the 800notes page is a mixture of very positive and very negative reviews and is far from consensus.
I would absolutely call Verizon billing first, using a number they’ve put on your physical bill, before replying to this, to verify. Better safe than sorry.
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### Author:  [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/7 "2010-08-27T20:34:43Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> Does this describe the scam:[ul]
> [li]Verizon sends a message to customer, but in a format that resembles common scam messages.[/li][li]Customer thinks it’s scam, ignores it.[/li][li]Since customer has not responded, Verizon cuts off customer’s service.[/li][li]Customer calls Verizon about non-working phone.[/li][li]Verizon gets info from customer, restores service.[/li][li]Verizon charges customer reconnect fee, because “we notified you, and you failed to respond”.[/li][li]Customer, needing phone service, pays fee.[/li][li]Ka-ching for Verizon![/li][/ul]
>
> Yeah, there’s a scam here – being run by Verizon.
Hats off to you, sir! You are a true marketing genius!
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/8 "2010-08-29T05:30:36Z")
The way to do a scam of this is pretty easy, actually. When someone calls the number, the guy on the other end pretends to be Verizon, explains that there is a problem in the billing, and requests to get your credit card information again. A lot of people will fall for this, not realizing that the real company would go to great lengths to authenticate themselves, if they’d even ask for that sensitive of information at all.
And, yes, contacting the company directly from a published phone number is the best way to check these types of things, although looking up the callback number isn’t a bad idea, either.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-scam-whats-the-scam/551554/9 "2010-08-30T11:49:43Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> The way to do a scam of this is pretty easy, actually. When someone calls the number, the guy on the other end pretends to be Verizon, explains that there is a problem in the billing, and requests to get your credit card information again. A lot of people will fall for this, not realizing that the real company would go to great lengths to authenticate themselves, if they’d even ask for that sensitive of information at all.
>
> And, yes, contacting the company directly from a published phone number is the best way to check these types of things, although looking up the callback number isn’t a bad idea, either.
As it happens, I chose to call the 800 number on my phone bill, rather than the (different) 800 number that appeared in the text message.