OK I have a profile on a dating site (for gay people) and twice I’ve gotten this or a very similar message
[note: I changed the numbers, so if you try it I don’t know what you’ll get]
For starters this guy is supposed to be in Chicago, but who in America says “mobile” they say “cell phone” or “cell.” Also there is never a pic attached to the sender of the message
I don’t have a cell phone, so I don’t know anything about texting or whatever
The mangled English and the request to “take it off site” makes me think scam.
The spelling makes me think idiot.
That type of thing is often how you sign up for texting services. Have you never seen an ad on TV about getting jokes texted to you by texting a certain numeric code to a certain number? Or getting on a ringtone list?
The scam is to get you to sign up for the “dating” service or whatever it is. Sending the messages as described will result in an expensive reoccurring service billed to your phone bill. Googling the number in the ad should turn up what you’d really be signing up for.
It’s definitely this. When you text the number it adds a special charge to your phone bill. This charge can be anything from a quarter to pretty much any amount you want. People use it for legitimate uses like telethons and fundraisers, (I know a radio station around here had something like that going recently) but it’s also a good way to get a bunch of extra charges added to your phone bill without your consent. It’s the new way of doing 419 scams.
Forewarned is forearmed
Thanks