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Texts from unknown sender, yet they know my name

Seems this discussion stopped a while ago but I want to revive it because I switched to Verizon a couple of weeks ago, and now in the last few days I have received 2 messages from someone saying "Hey xxx" where xxx is my first name. I googled my number and name and it's not discoverable. How can someone get my phone number and text me when the number is not published anywhere?

Here are my hunches:

They are looking me up on Facebook and texting me. I just tested this though from a basic Facebook profile and there did not seem to be a way to text me as I did not have text notifications turned on.
Thousands of these messages are being sent to people all the time, and Verizon blocks them all except for the ones that happen to have my name in the message.

The most recent one I got said that they found me on Facebook. That is possible, but they would not be able to text me from Facebook. Also why would someone find me on facebook and then ask me to contact them on Yahoo messenger? I tried calling the number and it's an unknown number. I am not going to text them back because that will just make the problem worse.

As for the suggestion to just block the number - since each text comes from a different number, that's not going to help.

Comments

SydneyK

You're probably better off starting a new thread when the last reply was 2.5 years ago. Regardless, I wanted to reply to your #1 point...

Do you have your phone number listed in your Facebook "About Me" section? If so, your friends can sync and have your number in their contact list. Turning off text notifications only means you won't get text message notifications about Facebook activity, like someone liking or commenting on your post.

Anyway, this happened to me once. It said, "Hi, xxx. I want to add your birthday to My Calendar." I didn't recognize the number, but it was indeed one of my Facebook friends who had a new cell number, which I didn't have in my contacts so her name wasn't showing up.

I hope you find a solution!

BMG4ME1

Thank you for being so helpful. I have the mobile number in my profile but only I can see it (so that I can get notifications when activity takes place on Facebook). Are you saying that even if I am not sharing my cellphone number (and never have), that others can still text me? Also since I only add people I know to my Facebook friend list, I can't imagine any of them sending me a message like this (although it could be through a friend's account being hacked).

elacar99

Don't know if you've solved your mystery text yet, but I had this same thing happen to me today, and could not figure out how someone got my name associated with my mobile number through Facebook. I hadn't set up my Facebook account with my cell #, but did recently get a new cell and downloaded the Facebook app. After some research I realized that if you look under Privacy in your Facebook account settings, there is a setting for "Who can look me up?" using my phone number or email address. The default setting is "Everyone." According to articles I've read online, this can be done with all numbers associated with the Facebook account. Irritatingly enough, the only options available for this setting are Everyone, Friends of Friends or Friends. The only way to opt out is to stop using the Facebook app to receive notifications or make posts. I hit Friends, and will see if I get anymore unknown texts...

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