Text message from 1-302-504-8487, probable phishing scam

I just got this text message:

577@noreply.com (wellsfargo) Please Call at 13025048487!

It looks like it’s from Wells Fargo. I don’t have any accounts with them so I didn’t call it back; instead I did a search for the # and found a post, dated today, here:

http://mrnumber.com/1-302-504-8487

The poster did call the # and got an automated service asking for information to reactivate a card, including the card #. This sounds a lot like a phishing scam to me so I’m reporting it here.

I suspect there will be more of these as the holidays approach. People who do have these cards won’t want to take a chance that the card might get denied when they’re trying to get their shopping done, so they’ll be more likely to call that # to be sure it stays active. The best advice I can give is, if you get a message like this one don’t call that number back - even if you do have a card from that bank. Instead, call your bank – or the # on the back of the card (as far as I know they all have one) – and talk to a live human about it. You’ll get more reliable information that way.

I want to mention one thing about that message – it reads a bit weird. “Call at” is not something I would normally say, and I don’t think many other people would either – at least not in the US. It sounds to me like it was written by a non-native speaker of English, and it reminds me a lot of some of the wording I see in the scam ads on Craigslist. I believe a lot of those scammers are operating outside of the US – which is why they’re so hard to catch – so it’s not hard to believe others might be as well. (If anyone reading this is familiar with this kind of syntax please make a comment. More information about this is always a good thing, and if I need to correct this post I will.)

Scam reported at FightTheScams.com