Google Voice Verification Scam
This one is really tricky because you might not even realize that you were tricked by the end of it. This one usually targets people who are selling things online, such as on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist, but really anywhere that people post their phone number to be contacted. And this even includes, sadly, people who are looking for lost pets, for example.
How this scam works?
They'll first contact you and say they're a little bit hesitant. They want to verify you're a real person, or verify that you're the real pet's owner, or verify anything really. And then they'll say that they’re going to send a verification text or may also be a voice phone call, and it'll be from Google Voice. It'll say Google Voice verification text, and then a code and they'll ask you to give that code to them. And if you do, even if you don't have a Google Voice account, they've got you. Google Voice is basically a service where you get assigned a virtual phone number that ties to your main phone number, and then you can then receive calls on the virtual phone number that gets forwarded to your main number. Or you can also make calls from the Google Voice number, the virtual number. And in this scam, what the scammer is trying to do is set up a new Google Voice account with the Google Voice number, except it'll be associated to you, the victim, not them. Because when they set it up, they enter in a phone number that it will be associated with, and then it sends that phone number, of course, a verification text. And if you give that, then they can basically sign up for an account under your number. And this is basically just a way for the scammers to get a nearly unlimited supply of new phone numbers because normally, obviously, you need a specific phone number to sign up for each account. But if they're going from person to person online, they can just trick everyone into signing up and get a whole bunch of numbers. And then those numbers would be used to scam other people.
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Google Voice
Verification Scam |
So in this one, you might particularly not lose any money or anything. But still, your number is going to now be associated with some random Google Voice account. And if you do get tricked, you basically have to go through a process which is called reclaiming your number, which I believe involves just signing up for your own Google Voice account and then re-verifying with your phone number. But it'll now be switched on to your actual account that you created, and take it off the other one So, yeah, just be aware of this one, because you might not have realized that this was even possibly a scam.
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