Is this a text scam, and if so how does the scam work?

[bran]

This afternoon I received a text message that read "Sorry but who is this?". It came from a number that starts +27 which is the international code for South Africa.

It smells suspicious to me, but I can't see how it would work. I mean it's not likely that anybody would reply to that with their full name, date of birth and bank details is it?

Ahh! Sneaky! I almost admire it, it's quite a compelling opening message.

I feel quite smug that I have avoided thickness by your definition. Obviously there is still some denseness (if not thickness) because I couldn't work out the scam for myself.

Did you send it to me Mutt?

It must cost them to send the message though, so they would need to be sure of a fairly healthy percentage of thick people replying to be sure of making a profit? Or do the messages get sent for free in bulk through the internet? I'm imagining a text version of Skype, but I have no idea if such a thing exists.

You can probably get deals which cost under 1/2 p per text. Given the low actual cost of texts (TalkMobile has a 'bonus' where paying a fiver gets you 700 texts - they state they have a 'fair use policy' - it's a limit of 100 per day), it would be not unreasonable to expect that just a few responses might help them target individuals, perhaps with a sob story, or the 411 scam (need to transfer millions out of a bank, but it needs some hundreds from you first, of course).

I got this text last night! Mine had a smiley face as well. Knew when opened this thread it'd be about this. Didn't reply.