GroupMe scam messages
I have been getting a few random scam messages from GroupMe, here and there. These are pretty easy to identify as scams, and GroupMe is often full of them, and they usually come in two types.
- A message sent to a group offering free, ludicrously expensive technology, and asking for a direct message
- A direct message sent to try and phish for a phone number
Interestingly, I haven’t seen a GroupMe message try to redirect to a link before. It seems these messages are first to find willing participants who send in a phone number first.
The group messages tend to be easy to spot, and it’s a matter of the moderators of the group chat deleting the message first. I imagine that these bot accounts are just trying to collect a long list of phone numbers, and other direct messages might be trying to find viable GroupMe accounts.
So far, here is my collection of GroupMe scam message screenshots.
Very similar to Discord random DMs, which I might need to document in a separate Substack posts.
Ok, a couple things here! It’s the same question, same formatting, and interestingly there’s two different names here! The account is Amia Wilson, and the messaging thing is Naomi Campell. Weird. I hypothesize that this is the accounts changing names frequently to avoid detection by GroupMe’s filters, or to avoid user reports.
Dang, a free mural? Of my profile? This one is also kinda weird. It almost reads like a Instagram bot comment instead, because Instagram has enough artsy vibes that it could legitimately be used for a mural? Though maybe the scam is that someone confused will respond with a polite message trying to figure out what the heck ‘Jessie’ is talking about.
It’s interesting to compare these messages to the ones from other platforms, like Facebook and Discord. Maybe if I collect enough of these messages, I can make a beautiful graph of it someday.