A Question About LINE

[Bangkok Barry]

I have, over a period of time, received several LINE posts from strangers, always with a photo of a young woman, saying they have found me by phone number. Only two people in Thailand, other than my wife, have my phone number, both male. So how is this possible? Some accompanying messages ask if I am still a tour guide or own a restaurant. I block them, but how can people find me by my phone number when it isn't available except to a few?

[Alldar]

You are not receiving spam calls? They call me almost every other day. How can they know my number? Same thing.

[NotEinstein]

TiT - everything has a price, so an enterprising individual looking to hook the unsuspecting into some fiendish scam will buy a list of numbers.

With regards to LINE - is your account set to allow others to find it by number?

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:14 AM, Alldar said:

You are not receiving spam calls? They call me almost every other day. How can they know my number? Same thing.

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It isn't the same. Phone companies sell your number to advertisers, or Bots call thousands of numbers until they snare someone.

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:24 AM, NotEinstein said:

TiT - everything has a price, so an enterprising individual looking to hook the unsuspecting into some fiendish scam will buy a list of numbers.

With regards to LINE - is your account set to allow others to find it by number?

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It is, but if no-one that I don't know has my number how can they find me by number?

[NotEinstein]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:31 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

It is, but if no-one that I don't know has my number how can they find me by number?

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I've had a few similar LINE messages - they don't know you, they just have numbers that they spam.

[Foxx]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:31 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

It is, but if no-one that I don't know has my number how can they find me by number?

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They just try every number from 000 0000 to 999 9999 and hope to get lucky.

[richard_smith237]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:31 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

It is, but if no-one that I don't know has my number how can they find me by number?

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it’s sold by ‘someone’…. 
 

I get the same style of message… 

- block & delete & that’s it.

 

I also get the ‘group message’ thing with 100’s of stranger in  the same group followed by everyone ’exiting the group’….

 

Not sure what they hope to achieve or how the scam works though.

 

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:36 AM, Foxx said:

 

They just try every number from 000 0000 to 999 9999 and hope to get lucky.

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Strange, when they aren't selling anything. Or maybe I don't get that far with them before deleting...

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:37 AM, richard_smith237 said:

it’s sold by ‘someone’…. 
 

I get the same style of message… 

- block & delete & that’s it.

 

I also get the ‘group message’ thing with 100’s of stranger in  the same group followed by everyone ’exiting the group’….

 

Not sure what they hope to achieve or how the scam works though.

 

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I got a gambling group site and black was disabled. But I was able to delete it though.

[Alldar]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:30 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

It isn't the same. Phone companies sell your number to advertisers, or Bots call thousands of numbers until they snare someone.

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So you just confirmed that many different people know your number. Not only 3 people in Thailand. So that's how they have your number and can write you. Problem solved.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

You probably have heard of this but could be a so called pig butchering scam where the young girl contacts you as though it's a legitimate contact but wrong number  - you reply out of curiousity - a friendly discussion ensues maybe over weeks or months - with hints of romance because you are different to other men - then they ask for funds or discuss how much money they make from x investment and then you send funds . They'll even call you but they wont be the pretty young thing from say Singapore but from a call centre in Phnom Penh. Saw a thing on it where the senders of messages often get abused by big bosses in the process too - on low pay.

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:09 AM, Alldar said:

So you just confirmed that many different people know your number. Not only 3 people in Thailand. So that's how they have your number and can write you. Problem solved.

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People who contact me are not advertisers so would not have bought my number. As far as I know. Of course, those who contact me might be a front. Maybe I should carefully pursue one of them sometime to see where it leads.

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:11 AM, Fat is a type of crazy said:

You probably have heard of this but could be a so called pig butchering scam where the young girl contacts you as though it's a legitimate contact but wrong number  - you reply out of curiousity - a friendly discussion ensues maybe over weeks or months - with hints of romance because you are different to other men - then they ask for funds or discuss how much money they make from x investment and then you send funds . They'll even call you but they wont be the pretty young thing from say Singapore but from a call centre in Phnom Penh. Saw a thing on it where the senders of messages often get abused by big bosses in the process too - on low pay.

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You're probably right.

[Alldar]

How do you know what is their intention in the end? So why don't you ask them where they have your number from?

[Photoguy21]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:07 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

I have, over a period of time, received several LINE posts from strangers, always with a photo of a young woman, saying they have found me by phone number. Only two people in Thailand, other than my wife, have my phone number, both male. So how is this possible? Some accompanying messages ask if I am still a tour guide or own a restaurant. I block them, but how can people find me by my phone number when it isn't available except to a few?

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The obvious way is that these people have bought lists of numbers and use them. I continue to get messages and phone calls from people I have no idea who they are. The obvious way for them is buy phone lists. If you have their number you can do a reverse look up and see who it is although many numbers are not listed.

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:15 AM, Alldar said:

How do you know what is their intention in the end? So why don't you ask them where they have your number from?

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I asked one and they said it was from s friend. Which it wasn't.

[Alldar]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:27 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

I asked one and they said it was from s friend. Which it wasn't.

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Will be some sort of scam obviously. I don't know why it is so surprising.

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:19 AM, Photoguy21 said:

The obvious way is that these people have bought lists of numbers and use them. I continue to get messages and phone calls from people I have no idea who they are. The obvious way for them is buy phone lists. If you have their number you can do a reverse look up and see who it is although many numbers are not listed.

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As far as I know there is no way to trace the phone number of someone contacting you on the LINE app.

[bkk6060]

I get messages from some group in Bangkok including photos to have sex with women.   

[steven100]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:36 AM, bkk6060 said:

I get messages from some group in Bangkok including photos to have sex with women.   

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many old members here might want more details

[Liverpool Lou]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:07 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

how can people find me by my phone number when it isn't available except to a few?

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Those messages are not to you, they're to a phone number that happens to be yours; they haven't found you, yours is just one of thousands of numbers that are randomly called.

[Liverpool Lou]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:45 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Strange, when they aren't selling anything. Or maybe I don't get that far with them before deleting...

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That's it, engage them and they will get around to it.

[Liverpool Lou]

  On 6/13/2024 at 11:29 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

 

As far as I know there is no way to trace the phone number of someone contacting you on the LINE app.

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You're right, it is not possible legitimately, unless he has someone bent in the phone company.

[NotEinstein]

The only weird thing about these LINE messages that I get is that they are in English, native level, when the vast majority of LINE users are obviously Thai.

[Bangkok Barry]

  On 6/13/2024 at 12:26 PM, NotEinstein said:

The only weird thing about these LINE messages that I get is that they are in English, native level, when the vast majority of LINE users are obviously Thai.

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Good point.

 

[Foxx]

  On 6/13/2024 at 12:26 PM, NotEinstein said:

The only weird thing about these LINE messages that I get is that they are in English, native level, when the vast majority of LINE users are obviously Thai.

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Nope, and not "obviously".  The majority of Line users is Japanese.  Approximately 86 million monthly users are Japanese, against 47 million Thai.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/line-users-by-country

[NotEinstein]

  On 6/13/2024 at 1:01 PM, Foxx said:

 

Nope, and not "obviously".  The majority of Line users is Japanese.  Approximately 86 million monthly users are Japanese, against 47 million Thai.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/line-users-by-country

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Obviously I meant in Thailand, with Thai numbers......

[BangkokHank]

  On 6/13/2024 at 10:37 AM, richard_smith237 said:

Not sure what they hope to achieve or how the scam works though.

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Send me 20,000 baht and I'll explain to you how the scam works.

[treetops]

Your number may be a recycled number that was owned by a tour guide and restaurateur in years gone by.  I would think a potential scam is more likely though.