I Just Got a Text Message from Myself. How Is That Possible?

It just happened this morning.

I noticed my phone light up with a notification that I had an incoming text message.

But when I opened the screen, I was caught off guard by who the message was supposedly being sent from.

Get our free mobile app

It was me.

My name. My cell phone number.

The message read:

Free Msg: Your bill is paid for March. Thanks, here's a little gift for you

Also included was a link, which I quickly concluded was not in my best interest to click on.

As it turns out, I was not the only one this was happening to.

BestLife is reporting that countless numbers of Verizon Wireless customers are reporting similar experiences. So many that there's been a term coined to go along with this type of text.

It's called 'smishing', combining SMS (short message service) and phishing, which is what scammers do to try and get personal information out of you so they can steal your identity.

And while that's bad, there is good news.

Verizon says that receiving one of these suspicious texts doe not necessarily mean your device has been compromised. But just to be safe they are asking you to report the texts as junk on the messaging app you're using.

The texts are crafty enough that they even avoid Apple's iMessage feature, which filters unknown messages into a separate file. If you tap the sender details, you'll be redirected to your own contact card.

Verizon did make an announcement on social media that they are 'working to get a resolution.'

So what about that link accompanying the text? What happens if you DO (which you absolutely should NOT) click on it?

Chris Welch, a reporter from The Verge, did just that and he was redirected to a Russian news site, Channel One Russia, as were others who clicked on the link as well.

It just had to be the Russians, didn't it?

TRENDING FROM RESULTS-TOWNSQUARE MEDIA SIOUX FALLS:

15 Ways You Can Help People in Ukraine Right Now

As Americans watch events unfold in Ukraine, many wonder how they can help. Below is a list of organizations responding to the crisis in Ukraine along with information on how you can support their various missions.

LOOK: What are the odds that these 50 totally random events will happen to you?

Stacker took the guesswork out of 50 random events to determine just how likely they are to actually happen. They sourced their information from government statistics, scientific articles, and other primary documents. Keep reading to find out why expectant parents shouldn't count on due dates -- and why you should be more worried about dying on your birthday than living to 100 years old.

LOOK: Milestones in women's history from the year you were born

Women have left marks on everything from entertainment and music to space exploration, athletics, and technology. Each passing year and new milestone makes it clear both how recent this history-making is in relation to the rest of the country, as well as how far we still need to go. The resulting timeline shows that women are constantly making history worthy of best-selling biographies and classroom textbooks; someone just needs to write about them.

Scroll through to find out when women in the U.S. and around the world won rights, the names of women who shattered the glass ceiling, and which country's women banded together to end a civil war.

Filed Under: scam

Categories: Articles