I got a weird phone message saying “I left the chat”. I’ve never been involved in a chat. Anybody know what’s going on? Should I be worried that somebody’s been listening to my phone calls?
Ignore it and flag it as spam. It’s probably the start of a pig butchering scam (or read a story about them). They’ve been increasingly common since COVID.
Also possible that they typed the wrong phone no.
But previous posts above are important too. If someone realizes they have a live one on the other end of a phone number, it may lead to all sorts of spam, scam, and other annoying messages and calls. The best tactic with such stuff is always ignore it, don’t respond.
Yeah, ignore it, they want you to call back and pull off something nefarious.
I’ve been getting a lot of text spam recently.
Them: Hi
Me: Who is this?
Them: Who do you think it is?
Me: Block
It’s mostly to a burner number i bought for canvassing, so I’m not too worried about them knowing there’s a human there, because there won’t be for long.
Even then, why would you care if a person you didn’t know left a chat you weren’t in? Hope they figure it out, but not your problem and not worth the risk… being nice will only get you phished and defrauded.
If an unrecognized number texts you something confusing out of the blue, it’s a scam. If one calls you and doesn’t leave a voicemail, it’s a scam or someone looking for political donations. Block and move on.
I’ve gotten calls from a series of half dozen numbers that according to assorted posts are associated with a collection agency. As I block each one, it went from one or two local numbers to another area code to an 800 number. They did leave a voice message once or twice telling me to call and quote a certain file number. I just don’t answer, and my phone gives the caller ID name as my buddy “Likely Spam”.
First, I don’t have any debts I know about - and having just paid off the house, with a HELOC (zero balance) for half its value and all cars are paid for, I don’t think it will affect my credit score. (Do they have “credit score” numbers in Canada?) Second, if I owe something worth going to collection over, they would have my name and address and I would get something more than a random phone call.
All I can think of is that someone is trying to build a list of cell phone owners, preferably with personal details. The only reason I see for doing that is not legitimate.
If I get an unknown number calling, usually without identifying name associated, i will answer after 3 or 4 rings if I’m in a quiet area - no background noise. Don’t say anything and their autodialer hangs up after a few seconds, assuming a dead line, instead of passing you to a call center human or playing a recorded message. A legitimate human with a valid reason to call or wrong number will eventually go “hello, hello?” An autodialer listens for a human to answer so their live human does not waste time listening to dialing and ringing and probably nobody answering, since most people say “Hello” when they answer a call.
I’ve twice gotten calls from people trying to collect debts that weren’t mine. Both were decades ago, and technology might have changed. Like, those were both before cell phones. But i believe both were legitimate and both had the wrong phone number.
One was for a specific car loan, and after talking to them a couple of times, they were convinced they had the wrong number and stopped. And then a year later i got another call, presumably from a new person who hadn’t read all the notes. They stopped after reaching me once. I believe that person had moved and my work number had been his landline.
The other was for a guy who had borrowed money and given out a fake phone number. They believed they had the wrong number after taking to me briefly.
They didn’t sound like spam, but they were also obviously not for me. Like, the call opened by asking for a name who didn’t use the phone. They were very specific. I think spammers tend to be vague (“hello, Grandma”) to make you think the call is for you.
I still have a landline, which uses nomorobo, which filters out robodialers, including some legitimate ones. (The red cross calling my husband about an appointment he made.) My cell phone has a handy button i can press whenever i get a call from a number not in my phone book, “call screening”. It works very well. In particular, most unknown callers hang up when it comes on. The bookstore telling me that the book i ordered has come in will start saying that to the recording, and then i press another button to answer the phone.
I would get a lot of text messages - I have numerous overdue parcels from Canada Post, FedEx, Amazon, UPS, etc. Not to mention problems with my accounts at Amazon and my bank (or any main Canadian bank). “Click here to deal with this”. My number was part of a block allocated to a cell provider, it is very obviously a cell. My wife still has her number from the mid-90’s from the phone company, It’s mixed in with mostly landlines. She almost never gets this spam.
Maybe Canada is blessed with less frantic marketing, but we get very few robocalls and such on our land line. Perhaps too because it’s been unlisted since we got it 20 years ago, and we still use the genereic robot answering machine voice.
My parents used to have that screening service. Unrecognized number? Say your name and wait…
I don’t know if the screening is a standard android thing, or a feature of the pixels, but it’s great. Also, huh, my phone number used to be a landline. Maybe that’s why i don’t get a lot of spam texts.
If it’s a text, it’s likely a scammer trying to entice you to respond. If you respond with something like “I think you have the wrong number”, they’ll say something like “Oh, sorry. Thank you. You must be a nice person to take the time to respond.” They hope this leads to a back-and-forth where they gain your trust and slowly lead the conversation to a romance scam, investments, or something like that. Other similar opening lines are “I’ll be there soon”, “I can’t make it”, “What should we cook for dinner?”, etc. The scammer is hoping to connect with a well-intentioned person who will respond that it’s a wrong number.
I think it’s only automatic on Pixels, but you can manually screen them on certain other Android phones: Screen your calls before you answer them - Phone app Help
It’s amazing. My phone’s blocked dozens of calls and hundreds of spam texts in the last few weeks.
“Just got back from Hawaii. Got time for a barbecue tonight?”
I was tempted to reply along the lines of, “No, especially if I’m to be the pig on the barbie.” But since I’m in one of my occasional bouts of lucidity I simply blocked and reported the number (I presume to AT&T) and deleted the text.
Heh. It might be fun to make a SDMB sacrificial pig, where we all vote on what to reply next to the scammer… like a thread game 
One thing less legit collection agencies do is call you for a debt your neighbor owns, in the hope you will go over and mention it, thus shaming him into paying. Or call you for a debt the former residents owe, same thing. They are allowed to ask if you have a forwarding address, but they cant mention a debt specifically.
I get a text supposedly for the USPS telling me they have a package addressed to me, but with an incomplete address. However, the USPS doesnt have my phone number.
The one I got once was “Your money transfer has been sent.”
Yesterday I got, “Are you ignoring my message?” I thought, Yup, and blocked it.
I just got, “when are we meeting?” Weirdly, Google didn’t flag it as likely spam.