by Anika LeeVan
There has been a text going around that says “Someone complimented you! See More” with a link for IOS and Android to as many as 25,000 people. People claimed that these links were connected to dangerous things, but after further research, tech gurus and police have found out that the links go to something you wouldn’t expect after all the speculation.
The links each go to Apple App Store and Google Play Store and pull up an app called IRL. Surprisingly, no evidence shows that these texts or links are dangerous.
The app is used by older teens that want to have fun with their friends in an interesting way. Any one who uses the app can nominate someone in their contacts for a title. For example, best cheerleader. If someone has your number in their contacts and nominates you, you get that text.
If you got the text, then someone with your number in their contacts has nominated you. You have to download the app to see.
Even though the app has no evidence of being dangerous, high school parent, Erica Swartz said, “I would still not let [my child] use [the app] because you should never click on links from a number you don’t know.”
Even freshman, Chloe VanOverberghe says that she still wouldn’t use it.
Swartz said that she heard about these texts on social media. But was the community doing a good thing by spreading the word about these texts or should have everyone looked into the links before they posted that it was dangerous? VanOverberghe said, “No and yes because it could’ve been something bad.”
Another spam message going around is car and health insurance calls. The calls say things “about getting better car insurance” Olivia Witters, who got the call, said
Witters said that she “answered the call, listened for a bit and then hung up because [she] knew it was spam.”
Witters also said, “I think [the calls] could be a violation of our privacy but overall I don’t think they’re dangerous.”
If not tracking, like the texts claim to do, these spam calls could be dangerous in another way. People that get the calls and don’t realize it’s spam could actually try to get car insurance from these calls, which would result in losing money very easily.
Mr Jones said “Don’t trust [numbers you don’t know] until you know.”
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