Interesting way to deal with scammer, but then sometime they spoof their number so the victim got double victimised.
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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There was a period where I kept getting phone calls from people angrily asking me to stop calling them. I think a scammer was spoofing my number :/
Same here. I've had multiple angry texts and calls from people I've never contacted before.
Yeah, i too get a phone call with people asking why i'm calling them, they sounds annoyed.
I got a few of those. One memorable one in particular was from a guy that was raging hard.
"If you don't stop fucking calling me, I'm going to come to your house and kill your whole family."
Okay, chill dude... I'm not doing it. Clearly someone is faking my number. Just block me and move on.
"NO! I'M SICK OF MY PHONE RINGING ALL DAY LONG! YOU NEED TO STOP OR WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IS YOUR FAULT!!!"
Okay... So I'm gonna go ahead and call the police now... Have a better day, man.
It was like the start of a damn horror story.
how would scammer know its them?
I was thinking the same thing
What? Like a scammer would message multiple people and not just me personally?
Artisanal scammer with personalized service 😍
They’d have to be using some legit phone number and not a spoofed one, that’s for sure. So if this were actually a legit screenshot the other comments saying the scammer is using a spoofed number are actually wrong.
one per recipient?
I mean, it’s possible but I doubt it. Maybe if they’re very organized.
I actually do this with email so I know who sold/leaked my email address when I get spam. But this is doing it on the opposite side of equation with phone numbers so I doubt it.
i mean it would be useful for followup but i don't think it'll be worth it unless new numbers are effectively free for them
How did the scammer in the picture know that it was this specific person who did it, out of the thousands they daily spam with their message?
And most scammers use spoofed numbers anyway. The number you see isn't the one they're actually calling from.
So the random number you put on the Craigslist ad is probably either a dead number, or belongs to some random innocent person who has no idea why their phone is suddenly blowing up.
The image in the post is the actual scam, you can see the fake hyperlink as well.
Yes, but even assuming the origin number was real (it almost certainly isn't), they spammed countless others. If they got counter spammed, they'd have no inking which victim caused it to happen. Unless the person told them, which according to the picture didn't happen. Or they told the Craigslist people his own real number to let the spammer know who sent them, which seems like an even worse idea.
It is a fake story.
Well yes, that's my point. It was not an image of the reply.
The image includes a subsequent "what have you done?" which even if you believed everything else, would not have happened.
That was part of the scam message. The first was supposed to be text sent by the system and the second was balmming the user on it.
They don't use their own number
Yep, its a spoof number. So practices like this are dumb and only hurt a regular person not involved
This won't work they just spoof other peoples numbers so you're fucking over other people.
Listen to the advice above ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️and don't do it, scammers spoof the ANI to look like a lagitamate number from your area because people are more likely to click, so you will be sending to a real person not the scammers (if the number is in use). If enough people complain about you, your carrier might kill your service or other carriers mighty block you. Also since your making fake listings you could end up with the cops involved.
lol the cops will absolutely not get involved if you throw up a fake listing on Craigslist wtf are you talking about?
"Officer, they made a listing to sell tickets to Taylor Swift's wedding, but when I asked to buy them, they didn't have the tickets!"
"And how much did you pay them?"
"Nothing. They didn't have the tickets!"
"Okay, then."
Seriously, though, the only way this becomes a crime is if the phone number actually gets through to the scammer and they take payment for merchandise they don't deliver. Then the person who posted the ad could be charged with participating in the scam.
More likely is that the scammers spoofed the number and some random innocent person is getting messages they don't understand.
Yeah, most likely not, I was thinking there has been some task forces on scelpers, but fake listing would not be that and only be an annoyance that would force some poor soul to get a new number. Still shitty thing to do.
Rofl "what have you done?"
I prefer to report the website to their registrar and their hosting provider. I’m in the US so reporting to the FTC is fun, and the UK’s version of the same agency (can’t remember its name) is excellent as they’ll get the website taken offline quickly.
A .-com domain? How can that work?
Assuming it's an actual question, it's a fake hyperlink. The - will prevent the app recognising a link and processing it, either for adding the hyperlink automatically or maybe scanning the domain.
Why is it blue then?
Uh, that's the hyperlink attached in the message by the scammer?
I know I can make a fake-hyper.-link in Markdown but this looks like plain text
Not using the XcQ link, clever girl
Haha, I'm a cis man but I don't mind
Maybe before your time or the original lines didn't make it to your country (based on your username), but it's a pretty famous quote from the original Jurassic Park
I don't watch many movies or shows, thanks for the explanation
RCS supports hyperlinks afaik
TIL. Thanks! https://tjthinakaran.blog/with-rcs-urls-are-dynamite/
I don't have a smartphone with a SIM, it's in my dumb phone
wouldn't know it was them specifically
They usually use phone number spoofers. You are just fucking with some innocent persons number lol
Just give them a bunch of new potential victims?
would you feel bad for them if that number was attached to a listing like "free labubus at [nonexistent address], personal pickup only"