"Sony text message scam"

skinny90

Hi all,
I don't know if this is a consumer issue yet so sorry if it's the wrong forum.
Basically I received about 5 messages from a foreign number claiming I had won a free prize of Sony Ireland,I knew straight away it was a scam for a number of reasons the main give away was the hyper links <SNIP> the thing is I went into meteor and basically before I even finished my sentence they knew what had happened as many of their customers had already reported it,
I asked if I was charged for the messages and they said I wasnt.i have a number of concerns, why did I get the message in the first place ie has their been a breach of data protection leading to me receiving this message or even more would it be down to an app that requires your mob number ie viber

foggy_lad

skinny90 wrote: »

Hi all,
I don't know if this is a consumer issue yet so sorry if it's the wrong forum.
Basically I received about 5 messages from a foreign number claiming I had won a free prize of Sony Ireland,I knew straight away it was a scam for a number of reasons the main give away was the hyper links <SNIP> the thing is I went into meteor and basically before I even finished my sentence they knew what had happened as many of their customers had already reported it,
I asked if I was charged for the messages and they said I wasnt.i have a number of concerns, why did I get the message in the first place ie has their been a breach of data protection leading to me receiving this message or even more would it be down to an app that requires your mob number ie viber

most likely some kind of autodialer which would send texts to thousands of sequential numbers most from the same operator

dudara

I've seen similar threads recently in the Three forum, so it looks like this is happening across the board.

wodiddilyhoo

I received the same kind of message today, asking for my address so they could ship my free gift to my home. The number was +<SNIP>. I was wondering if anyone knows is it meteor or sony that I should be reporting to and is there any way of preventing the company from spamming me with similar texts in the future?

ABajaninCork

My husband & I got the same texts from the same number. I did text STOP back, and have not got anything since. But it's only been a week or so.

And yes - it is across the board. We're on O2 and a few of our friends on other networks have had the same thing.

gugleguy

i deleted it. the senders of these messages probably don't have great means and have little to loose if they are nabbed, or whatever.

ejmaztec

This website seems to list the various scam numbers. The one telling me that I had won an I-Phone was listed when I did a search a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.smswatchdog.com/text-message-from/13478638950?l

I didn't want an I-Phone anyway:(.

monkeypants

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I did text STOP back

I'm not sure if this'll achieve anything other than confirming to the scammers that the number exists and is in use.

ABajaninCork

monkeypants wrote: »

I'm not sure if this'll achieve anything other than confirming to the scammers that the number exists and is in use.

I know that if you text STOP to premium rate numbers then by law they have to stop communicating with you. As this is a foreign number, I am not sure the same applies, but did it anyway. Like I say, we've had no further comms, so hopefully, it's worked.

irishbloke77

I got the same text message from Sony, whilst my wife got be from Apple. Both came middle of last week about a day apart. Just ignored them

Davidth88

I have had this ( the Sony one with a bogus/phishing website ) also , plus you won't believe my luck ..... I won the Spanish lottery 3 times recently !!! Each one was an increasing number .... just ignored/deleted them

The number they came from was not an Irish one.


Pure scam of course.

run_Forrest_run

I got it too, from apple. I laughed and then deleted it.

Scon

Is anybody here signed up to the hailo taxi app? I'm not saying that they have anything to do with this but am just curious as I started getting these texts immediately after signing up with them with my phone number. Probably just a coincidence of timing.

miller50841

Consumer watch has these numbers on their site.

Its a foreign number.
+1<SNIP>
You are a winner. You were chosen to recieve a free gift. Go to <SNIP> and tell us where to ship your free gift.

Looks and smells like a scam to me.

Elbarto is probably at the other end waiting for you to give all your details:D

RoboRat

I work to a simple rule of thumb, if I win something and never entered a comp its a scam.

as I said, simples.

pinkhardhat

I got the Sony one a few days running, tweeted Sony and they got back ASAP saying its nothing to do with them, and the website mentioned in the text is not an official Sony site.

Don't have Hailo app either.

foggy_lad

foggy_lad wrote: »

most likely some kind of autodialer which would send texts to thousands of sequential numbers most from the same operator

polymath

It clearly looks like a definite scam. Just ignore it or change your number if it gets too annoying

Doom

Sony are also investigating this too, its on their website

miller50841

Got 2 texts off 2 different numbers and worded slightly different and also site address different no point me posting it as for some reason they take it all off on this?