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What are these texts asking if I want to sell a property I don't own?

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Honored Social Butterfly

What are these texts asking if I want to sell a property I don't own?

Has to be a scam.  I get a text asking if I would be interested in selling but it is a property I do not own. Many times they say "Hey Robert" so on which is not my name. I assume it is a scam but not sure what they are hoping to achieve. I NEVER respond. 

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@Richva, thank you for this question as I'm sure others are receiving these annoying texts as well. I even get them! I chalk it up to hot real estate markets. They are just spamming everyone with these offers. Imagine if your name was Robert, (which btw, there are a lot of Roberts out there that might think this text is for them). My best advice is to block the texter. You can do this by going to the text and clicking on it (if you have an iPhone), not the link but the text, at the top you'll see the phone number in a bubble and it will have an info button underneath. Click on that, it will show you another "info" button, click on that and at the bottom of those options you'll see it say "block this caller" even if they texted you only, this will work. Click on that, and hopefully they will never text you again. Of course, they can always text you from another number, but you can follow the same steps.

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Gold Conversationalist

@Richva 

 

Could be a wrong number. I get a number of text messages (and legitimate emails) that are misdirected. Or someone randomly gave your number to a salesperson or signing up on some website (I myself have used "bob@msn.com" too many times to sign up for sites as a throwaway sign-up. poor Bob)

Or could be automated spam sent to many numbers trying to drum up business. Myself, I pretty much equate "spam" with "scam". I assume that most everyone who wants to talk to me, or who writes to me, wants something from me...likely my wallet. So I generally try not to put myself into a position where I will have to deal with extricating myself from the situation.

 

Recently I have received several text updates from Lands End confirming my order or tracking information, there was a link to click. Initially I assumed it was a scam and I didn't click on the link. Later I thought that someone may have provided the wrong phone number for their order(s). In any case, I have blocked that number (I don't use text to track shipments).

 

I recently received three emails (not all together, spread over a couple months) that might each have been interpreted as some scam but I didn't see it. I Googled some particulars in all three cases and they seemed to be legitimate but misdirected. I wrote back to each party letting them know they had the wrong party. In each case I got back a courteous reply thanking me. One instance was an email to someone who was to start their new police cadet job. Another was from a special ed teacher to a student's mother in a really small town in Arizona. Oh, and someone's medical appointment at a major hospital. I have gotten other such misdirected emails over the years so they are not all spam or scam.

 

 

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AARP Expert

@Richva, thank you for this question as I'm sure others are receiving these annoying texts as well. I even get them! I chalk it up to hot real estate markets. They are just spamming everyone with these offers. Imagine if your name was Robert, (which btw, there are a lot of Roberts out there that might think this text is for them). My best advice is to block the texter. You can do this by going to the text and clicking on it (if you have an iPhone), not the link but the text, at the top you'll see the phone number in a bubble and it will have an info button underneath. Click on that, it will show you another "info" button, click on that and at the bottom of those options you'll see it say "block this caller" even if they texted you only, this will work. Click on that, and hopefully they will never text you again. Of course, they can always text you from another number, but you can follow the same steps.

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