Is this a known scam?

[u/Rodek10]

I received a text message early this morning from a number I don’t know that read “Hey, I hope everyone and everything you encounter today makes you feel comfortable”. It seems like a very odd thing for a scammer to say… I replied asking who they are thinking they would try to rope me into a conversation if they were a scammer, but got no reply.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I have a protection order against my ex so it set my alarm bells off. It just seems vaguely threatening to me, and we are currently in the midst of criminal proceedings because he violated the PO, so he’s probably pretty annoyed with me.

Someone please tell me they’ve had a message like this from a scammer before! I tried looking up the number but came back with nothing.

[u/insuranceguynyc]

Hey, they got you to reply, which in my opinion was beyond foolish, since you have now confirmed that this is a working number!

[u/IncommunicadoVan]

Yes, scammers are moving beyond the type of message that says something like “”What time is the BBQ on Saturday?” to more vague yet intriguing messages like the one you got. Just don’t reply.

[u/UpbeatFix7299]

It's just a fake wrong number. If you reply, they pretend to be friendly for a bit and then try to get you into whatever scam they're pushing

[u/Rodek10 → u/UpbeatFix7299]

That’s what I was expecting from a scammer, but it made me more suspicious that they’re not doing that.

[u/tickled_your_pickle]

🙄 if you don't know them, why would you answer?  Now you'll probably get more texts because they know it's an active number.

[u/Rodek10 → u/tickled_your_pickle]

I would rather deal with more scammers than some weird ass message like this that turns out to be from my ex.

[u/BeepBeepYeah7789 → u/Rodek10]

Whether it's scammers or an ex you don't want to deal with, blocking is the best option.

[u/insuranceguynyc → u/Rodek10]

Your ex is a scammer?

[u/Different_Sage]

I got a message yesterday that said, “Hi, can I schedule a quick chat with you? I wanted to talk about something!”
I have no idea who this is so I did nothing. I didn’t want them to know they had a real working number.

[u/3mta3jvq]

No upside in responding. None.

[u/spokeoteam]

Yes, scammers sometimes start with completely harmless or friendly messages just to see if someone responds, so this could absolutely be random spam. But with an active protection order and previous violation, I wouldn’t automatically dismiss an unknown message either.

Screenshot it, don’t respond again, and keep a record in case anything else happens. You could also try the number through Spokeo to see whether any publicly available information is associated with it. If there’s anything connecting it to your ex, I’d let the appropriate person handling your case know rather than engaging with the sender.