How do scammers get our cell phone numbers in the first place?

How do scammers get my cell phone number in the first place? Jordan asked us "in those text message scams, how do they get my phone number in the first place?"

REGINA -- Following a number of recent stories about scammers trying to steal our information through text message schemes, a few of our viewers, including Jordan, were #JustCurious about how they get our cell phone numbers to begin with? It’s not like there’s an old school book or a website where we’re all listed, right?

SaskTel calls this type of fraud scheme “smishing”, like phishing, but with SMS on your phone.

Here’s how it works:

After finding a target area, in this case Saskatchewan, the fraudster would look for the two area codes – 306 and 639.

Then, they’re looking for the NXX, which is telephone company speak for the next three numbers in the sequence. Those sets of numbers go into a computer, and they start sending those pesky information seeking messages to us from 0000 to 9999. The video above will explain that a little better.

What we don’t know, is how to stop them entirely.

Bell, which owns CTV News, offers up a few suggestions on its website Support.Bell.ca.

SaskTel does too at support.sasktel.com.

Their message to you: Be skeptical. Follow up before you click and offer up any of your information.