This is a Public Service Announcement and a reminder to not share SMS reset codes with anyone.
This kind of scam could happen anywhere, but someone has been persistently trying to trick breeders by using the contact information publicly listed on our site.
It goes like this:
They text you as if they are interested in an animal
They tell you a code is being sent to you which you should give to them so that they know YOU are not a scammer
What actually is happening is they’re trying to do a password reset on some account of yours, such as Gmail. And Gmail is sending YOU the code to make sure you are really trying to reset your password
The Google text message clearly says “Do not share this with anyone”, but we just wanted to help spread the word to avoid anyone getting tricked.
Since the communications are happening via text message and not on our site, there’s nothing we can do to block them. We mentioned this in this the April 9 blog, but felt it deserved its own announcement.
I actually counted how many different numbers a scammer has used on me for my ads (different marketplace platform. Not MorphMarket ). The total count was
154 DIFFERENT PHONE NUMBERS ON DIFFERENT OCCASIONS!!!
After about the 100th one (not an exaggeration) I just stopped responding, then they would keep sending it over and over until I blocked them. I think it is just a robot. After around the 50th time I started only responding to the name “Bruce Wayne” to see what would happen. Then I would respond with “I am Batman” after that. If you don’t answer the question they usually stop.
They all use the same ‘script’ for their auto messages. Get some originality scammers!
Having this come through right now. Not sure how the numbers they text from, but one reaching out to me is coming from (256) 397-9948. I tried calling and no answer, though persistently texting his way through! For what it’s worth…
