Be sure to warn friends and family about this one, because it is especially bad for people who don't keep track of new scams 😡

Just a reminder: the "con" in "con man" is short for confidence. The scam begins with gaining your confidence so that you willingly give them what they want.

All these scams come to the same solution: Don't ever send money to anyone you don't know, and never met in person.

A sad indictment on gullible people! Who in their right mind believes some unknown random stranger is trustworthy.

I never get past phase one because when ever I get text messages for someone else, I just assume its some sort of phishing scam and I ignore it...the same reason I don't answer phone calls if I don't recognize the phone number

Actually this kind of scam has been going on for years by now. Not many have been using it though, because most scammers think it's not something to profit out of it very quickly or you don't get any profit at all. It's sad, but people randomly messaging you "by mistake" don't just want to be your friend at all.

One major red flag is someone who tries to be too friendly, and get too close to you emotionally, when he or she lives thousands of miles away. I tend not to trust anyone too much, unless I have had a face-to-face relationship with that person at some point.

Luckily I'm so incredibly lonely that if someone tries to befriend me I will immediately be suspicious about it.

I got one of those texts. I answered with..'I'm sorry. I’m busy right now helping someone from committing suicide. Are you OK?'  They left me alone.

As a complete a-hole I'm always wary when somebody doesn't immediately reject me it's the first sign that something's not right.

It would be hilarious if someone hooked up two of these scammers to talk to each other for months and then they scam each other

This is awful, but I'm glad there's as many people like you trying to prevent scams as there are perpetrating them.

I’m lonely since my wife died, but I’m not stupid. As you said, when someone gets a wrong number and you never hear from that person again everything is cool. When that person tries to start a conversation, I hear alarm bells going off and I know right away this person is up to something. Whatever that “ something “ is, I want no part of it. Just use common sense, and if something doesn’t feel right, a gut instinct, listen to your gut and block the person. If the person persists, I’m going to say a few things that I can’t repeat on your channel. Too put it politely, don’t mess with me. Thanks ThioJoe for the heads up. I appreciate it.

I have been on financial sites where the scammers post a comment telling everyone to click on to make money...pretty brazen, and SO easy to spot.  Desperate measures, for sure.

This can't happen to me cause I don't trust no one even in person 😂. I don't even trust my boss when he says he's gonna pay me to "be there 8 hours a day and do what he says", so far he has but I'm waiting for the moment in which the checks stop coming and he skips town.

really weird to hear there's people who actually engage in conversations with the wrong number. i'd probably not even bother answering. i don't even pick up calls from numbers i don't have saved

This is nothing new....I've bbeen getting texts like that for years now.  I never reply...once you reply they will never stop talking. BLOCK THEM!

This is hilarious, I got precisely this scam like 2 months ago. The person texted me randomly, and indeed they are very friendly! Of course, you can tell it's a scam, but you almost feel bad to tell them to get lost because of how nice they'll act. Oh yeah and that infamous 'acquaintance is fate' phrase seems to be like their trademark.

this is actually happening to me right now, like the last 3 months happened 2 times or more  some random Chinese girls starting to chat as wrong number ....wow
thanks

There is a special place in hell for scammers