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Dan Ketchum for Spokeo, Stacker
Published: April 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Dan Ketchum for Spokeo, Stacker
Whether you’ve fallen for text message scams in the past or even just side-eyed a slightly suspicious text, there’s no reason to feel embarrassed—according to the FTC, text message scams shook Americans down for about $330 million in 2022 alone.
In the past few years, copycat banks, phony gifts, and fake-out package deliveries were the scams du jour, but 2023 saw a new contender: the wrong number text scam.
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This new breed is pretty sneaky, as scammers start with a tricky “wrong number” text and pull victims into a friendly rapport, but if you know what to look for, you—and your bank account—can easily slip out of the situation scam-free, Spokeo explains.
Typically, text message scams target your personal (i.e. financial) info pretty quickly. For instance, bogus “bank fraud prevention” texts pressure victims to make bank transfers on the spot, fake “gift” scams outright steal credit card numbers to cover small “shipping fees,” and fake package delivery notifications do the same with bogus “redelivery fees.”
On the flip side, wrong number text scams are a slower burn. Here, scammers develop a simple “wrong number” text into a friendly, ongoing correspondence that gets increasingly personal as time goes on. Once they’ve built enough trust—which can happen over days, weeks, or even months—the scammer will drop a request for private personal info, often by wrapping it in an emotional plea. This is called “making the pitch,” and it’s not a pitch you want to hear. 
It’s that personal info that leads the scammer to what they really want out of you: your money.  
According to the FBI, “The scammers behind the fake wrong-number text messages are counting on you to continue the conversation. They want to exploit your friendliness. Once they’ve made a connection, they’ll work to become friends or even cultivate a remote romantic relationship. It’s all a ruse, designed to get you to relax your mistrust so you’ll be more susceptible to falling for their scam, such as a cryptocurrency investment or many others targeting victims.”
Because wrong number text scams are long-form and rely on ongoing conversations, each iteration of the scam can differ wildly in terms of specific content and interactions—for the scammer, it’s almost like a free-form performance or improv. But the racket does have a basic structure, or at least a few variations, that most scammers follow.  
Commonly, these scams look something like this: 
As a flexible scam with a touch of creativity on the part of the criminal, wrong number scams can have a variety of different themes. Oftentimes, fraudsters will simply become catfish of sorts and try to cultivate long-distance, long-term friendships with the victim, but in some cases, that friendship may even develop into a long-distance relationship or romance.  
Other common tactics include roping victims into some form of investment (cryptocurrency is a common one), or pretending to be under duress in a fake emergency situation (“I’m stranded at the airport with no money,” “my sister’s in the emergency room and needs help,” etc.).
On the note of emergencies, sometimes the scammer will start with that ploy right off the bat—they may mention a hospital appointment or a health issue as the topic of the text, or in passing. This can be a tactic to generate sympathy immediately, or to follow up on that note with a more urgent text later.
Look, wrong numbers happen in the real world—that’s why this scheme is so effective in the first place. Especially when the hoax takes such a seemingly friendly form, it’s natural to wonder how to identify a fake text message scam from a wrong-number scammer. These scams can be particularly tough to spot, because they don’t include the things victims have been conditioned to look out for, like faux messages from official organizations (like the IRS or a bank), immediate promises of money or prizes, or suspicious links.
That said, red flags do still exist, sly as they may be. The number one red flag is the texter attempting to carry on the conversation after you’ve told them they have the wrong number. Sure, stuff like this develops into Lifetime channel rom-coms or cute Buzzfeed headlines about one in 10,000 times, but it’s just not worth the risk with scams like this afoot. 
Much of these scams revolve around cryptocurrency investment, so if that comes up early or out of nowhere, be wary. As Erin West, deputy district attorney in charge of the high technology crimes unit in Santa Clara County, tells NBC News, scammers are “broadening the way they will entrance you into the same scam. They are all scams, and I think they are all crypto-investment scams.”
If you’ve already engaged in the convo, someone you’ve never met in person who isn’t explicitly—and beyond a shadow of a doubt—part of a trusted organization asking you for personal or financial information is more than a red flag, it’s a five-star red alarm. Don’t do it, ever. 
Alongside spotting red flags, a few smart habits and tactics can help keep you safe, not just from wrong-number text scams, but from text message scams in general. The FBI and other pros recommend:
Because as different and diverse as we all are, just about everyone on the planet has at least one thing in common: no one likes a scammer.

This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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