# What are these weird-looking scammy texts all about?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 23, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306 "2020-09-23T12:48:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306/1 "2020-09-23T12:48:38Z")

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In the past couple months I’ve gotten between a half dozen to a dozen texts from an unfamiliar number that consist of just a nonsense string of symbol characters, always palindrome-style, with a link in the middle. Something like this:

(###--@&--#!-- [link] --!#--&@--###)

The symbol character part usually goes on even longer. Of course I don’t click on the link in the middle, and I delete the message immediately, but I just wonder, who would be dumb enough to click on such a weird-looking link? Do people click on it just out of curiosity, maybe?

Anybody else get texts like that, or got any idea what the deal is?

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306/2 "2020-09-23T14:39:26Z")

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I think it’s just to pique your curiosity. I received one that knew/used my first name and claimed I had a UPS package that was being held for me. The link was surrounded by characters. I didn’t click the link.

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**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306/3 "2020-09-23T19:05:49Z")

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I think some of the special characters, (“ **Great new DEALS on CBD\_Oils** ##”) are to get past some spam filters. I assume the filters are looking for the enclosed word, and the random characters surrounding it cause the filter to skip over it.

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**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306/4 "2020-09-23T20:04:11Z")

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These are texts, not emails. No SPAM filters involved.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-weird-looking-scammy-texts-all-about/921306/5 "2020-09-23T20:09:51Z")

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> [@solost](#):
>
> These are texts, not emails. No SPAM filters involved. -

Maybe it’s just sheer habit. Or the texts are also being e-mailed.