Wrong Number Scam

This is my June 14th, 2026 update to my web page on "The Wrong Number" text scams.
Wrong number text scams will not be going away any time soon, so plan on many more updates to come.
A wrong number text scam is an example of social engineering.

Social Engineering

When someone is trying to sell someone else a product or service in person, he or she may use social engineering to close the deal and/or to get a customer to spend more than he or she otherwise would otherwise have spent.
For example, an exotic dancer may have absolutely zero interest in hearing about a customer's personal life, but experience has taught her that convincing customers that she does care about them can dramatically increase her compensation.
People who have been scammed online want to believe that whichever scam that they fell prey to was highly sophisticated.
In reality, a great many internet scams are basic social engineering.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of venues where scammers use social engineering to prospect for victims:

A wrong number text scam is when a scammer "accidentally" texts the wrong person, with the goal of ensnaring the recipient into a scam.
I cannot tell you with absolute certainty what kind of scam a given "wrong number scam" will lead to do, but a very good guess would be some kind of cryptocurrency themed scam.
If you make the mistake of replying to a wrong number scam, at some point the scammer may text something such as "fate has brought us together".
He or she will then mention that he or she has an uncle and/or professor who knows about cryptocurrency trading.

Often, but not always, a wrong number scam will begin with a text that includes a photo of a scantily clad woman.
This would be difficult to explain to 15-year-old me, but I do not find incoming texts with pictures of attractive women to be at all pleasant.
Such texts almost always mean that someone intends to scam me.
In my particular case, it is not merely almost always but simply always.

Example

Below is a scam text that has been popular with scammers in 2026.
This particular scam text was not accompanied by a graphic of an attractive scantily clad woman, but it is nonetheless a scam.
"I've tried texting you, but you never answer. Have I been blocked?"

Do Not Reply To Scam Texts

There is no value in replying to a wrong number scam.
The scam message may have been sent by an automated process.
Even if you feel compelled to reply with a stream of expletives, all that replying can do is confirm to the scammer that your number is live.
Depending on the scam operation, you may be handed off immediately to a human if you answer the text or an automated script might continue on its own.
If I want to see images of attractive women who have no interest in having a romantic relationship with me, there are roughly 70 years of Playboy content on the internet.

Betrayal?!

After falling for an internet scam, a victim may have an unwarranted feeling of betrayal.
Why is it unwarranted?
Feeling betrayed by a scammer is likely feeling betrayed by a politician.
Just as the interests of voters and politicians are not aligned, neither are the interests of victims and scammers.
Just as a politician will lie to get your vote, so will a scammer lie to get you to deposit money into a fake trading website.