There has been an increase in the number of text messages that you will get these days from persons claiming that they
accidentally sent you credit and are asking you to send it back. You will get this from persons on both mobile networks. I don’t know if it makes much sense to report these individuals since our local services – law and mobile – either don’t care or don’t have the resources in place to deal with these types of fraudulent activities.

This post is intended to help you identify what a scammer’s text will look like versus one that’s actually from your phone company.

SCAM TEXTS

DISSECTING THE TEXT

These scam texts can basically be broken down like so:

With these texts above you will notice that they’ve typed out the full message that you might receive from the provider. Below you will see what an actual text from your service provider will look like.

ACTUAL SERVICE PROVIDER SMS

While it is possible that you may have actually received some credit on your phone the best way to know is by checking. Simply dial *120# from your handset to see whether or not you have additional credit. This only works if you knew how much credit you originally had. Still – the SMS you get (text message) should show your current balance. Just make sure it matches.