Facetime/Twitter scam?

[Patty Winter]

I was working on my MacBook earlier this evening when I got a message
that my iPhone had an incoming Facetime call from "1 (404) 04". I
declined it, but later when I checked my iPhone there was a voicemail
message from the same number that said, "Your Twitter confirmation code
is 477532."

I can block calls from that number, but does anyone know what this is
about? Why would someone try to initiate a Facetime connection with
my phone, and what would be the purpose of sending a fake Twitter
confirmation code (whatever that is)?


Patty

[Chris]

Twitter has recently introduced two-factor authentication, so that's what
the voicemail is about. Check your account if you have one with Twitter.

If you don't have a Twitter account, then it's possible someone has given
your phone number by mistake or could be a scam. Either way best to ignore.

No idea what the FT issue is about or even if it's related?

[Lewis]

In message <o0gstb$pv3$1...@dont-email.me>

What makes you think it was a fake twitter confirmation?

+1 40404 is the shortcode for Twitter (you can post to twitter by
sending an SMS message to that number).

Probably someone misskeyed their confirmation number and that was your
number.

--
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.

[Patty Winter]

In article <slrno2oom2....@snow.local>,

Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>
>What makes you think it was a fake twitter confirmation?

Because I don't have a Twitter account.

>+1 40404 is the shortcode for Twitter (you can post to twitter by
>sending an SMS message to that number).

Ah, interesting.

>Probably someone misskeyed their confirmation number and that was your
>number.

Okay, it was probably an honest mistake, then. But why would a Twitter
confirmation have attempted to initiate a Facetime session?


Patty

[Patty Winter]

In article <o0h5fm$hi0$1...@dont-email.me>, Chris <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Twitter has recently introduced two-factor authentication, so that's what
>the voicemail is about. Check your account if you have one with Twitter.

I don't have a Twitter account, which is why this was very suspicious.

>If you don't have a Twitter account, then it's possible someone has given
>your phone number by mistake or could be a scam. Either way best to ignore.

Will do. Maybe just a mistake.

>No idea what the FT issue is about or even if it's related?

It must have been related because it had the same phone number (or
as Lewis pointed out, it was actually a shortcode) as the voicemail.


Patty

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-11-16, Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:
>
> In article <slrno2oom2....@snow.local>,
> Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>
>>What makes you think it was a fake twitter confirmation?
>
> Because I don't have a Twitter account.

It's likely someone gave the incorrect phone number (yours) when
requesting a Twitter access code.

> Okay, it was probably an honest mistake, then. But why would a Twitter
> confirmation have attempted to initiate a Facetime session?

Perhaps it was just a normal voice call, and FaceTime on the Mac was
offering to take the call there rather than on the phone itself.
(FaceTime can do voice-only calls as well as video calls.)

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-11-16, Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:

> In article <o0h5fm$hi0$1...@dont-email.me>, Chris <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>Twitter has recently introduced two-factor authentication, so that's what
>>the voicemail is about. Check your account if you have one with Twitter.
>
> I don't have a Twitter account, which is why this was very suspicious.
>
>>If you don't have a Twitter account, then it's possible someone has given
>>your phone number by mistake or could be a scam. Either way best to ignore.
>
> Will do. Maybe just a mistake.

I think there's a club for that. : D

A friend of mine routinely gets emails from all sorts of different
organizations destined for a person (or perhaps persons) with the same
name. Last week, she got this somewhat alarming message:

"This is a system generated message informing you that the above-named
person is a federal prisoner who seeks to add you to his/her contact
list for exchanging electronic messages. There is no message from the
prisoner at this time."

And about an hour ago she got an offer for an apartment in Sitges, Spain
for 160,000 euros. : D

[Patty Winter]

In article <e93nl6...@mid.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>On 2016-11-16, Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:
>
>> Okay, it was probably an honest mistake, then. But why would a Twitter
>> confirmation have attempted to initiate a Facetime session?
>
>Perhaps it was just a normal voice call, and FaceTime on the Mac was
>offering to take the call there rather than on the phone itself.
>(FaceTime can do voice-only calls as well as video calls.)

Oh, okay.

I've never seen that happen before, but then, I just upgraded from
an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5s (and thus also to iOS 10) and also just
upgraded my MacBook to Sierra, so perhaps the Facetime handoff capability
is a result of one or both of those changes.


Patty

[David Empson]

The main question is what software your devices were running before.

An iPhone 4S is able to support iPhone call forwarding to FaceTime on a
Mac, but the iPhone had to be running iOS 8.1 or later, the Mac had to
be running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later. The feature has to be enabled
on the iPhone, and the iPhone and Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network
and signed into the same iCloud account.

The SMS fowarding feature would have also worked (same requirements
except it only needs Internet access, not being on the same Wi-Fi
network).

All the other Continuity features (e.g. AirDrop, Handoff, Instant
Hotspot) require an iPhone 5 or later and a new enough Mac (mid 2012 or
newer), because they use Bluetooth 4.0.

This covers the system requirements for most Continuity features:

https://support.apple.com/HT204689

This covers AirDrop:

https://support.apple.com/HT204144

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[Patty Winter]

In article <1mwv7ht.1yksbln1v0a43vN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>,
David Empson <dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

>Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:
>
>> I've never seen that happen before, but then, I just upgraded from
>> an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5s (and thus also to iOS 10) and also just
>> upgraded my MacBook to Sierra, so perhaps the Facetime handoff capability
>> is a result of one or both of those changes.
>
>The main question is what software your devices were running before.
>
>An iPhone 4S is able to support iPhone call forwarding to FaceTime on a
>Mac, but the iPhone had to be running iOS 8.1 or later, the Mac had to
>be running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later. The feature has to be enabled
>on the iPhone, and the iPhone and Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network
>and signed into the same iCloud account.

My old iPhone was running iOS9, and my MacBook Air was running El Cap
until a couple of weeks ago. The MacBook is from 2015 so is new enough
to support all that. So I guess this will all happen again occasionally. :-)


Patty

[Jolly Roger]

If you dislike getting calls on your Mac, you can disable call
forwarding on your phone in Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices.

[Patty Winter]

In article <e96f08...@mid.individual.net>,

Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>On 2016-11-17, Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:
>>
>> My old iPhone was running iOS9, and my MacBook Air was running El Cap
>> until a couple of weeks ago. The MacBook is from 2015 so is new enough
>> to support all that. So I guess this will all happen again occasionally. :-)
>
>If you dislike getting calls on your Mac, you can disable call
>forwarding on your phone in Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices.

Oh, I don't mind it. It just catches me by surprise. I rarely use my
cellphone, so my MacBook alerting me to an incoming call has only
happened a couple of times and is still a novelty. :-)


Patty

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-11-17, Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:
>
> In article <e96f08...@mid.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>>On 2016-11-17, Patty Winter <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> My old iPhone was running iOS9, and my MacBook Air was running El Cap
>>> until a couple of weeks ago. The MacBook is from 2015 so is new enough
>>> to support all that. So I guess this will all happen again occasionally. :-)
>>
>>If you dislike getting calls on your Mac, you can disable call
>>forwarding on your phone in Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices.
>
> Oh, I don't mind it. It just catches me by surprise. I rarely use my
> cellphone, so my MacBook alerting me to an incoming call has only
> happened a couple of times and is still a novelty. :-)

I have yet to find it very useful, myself.