Spam text messages on watch but not iPhone

[Bichon]

This afternoon I've received a couple of spam text messages on my Apple Watch that WERE NOT received on my iPhone.

I have a stainless steel watch so it has cellular capability, but I have never purchased service for it. Are cellular watches without a service plan still assigned a different phone number than my iPhone (for emergency 911 calls) that the scammer may have randomly guessed? If not, any others thoughts about what happened?

 

[jz0309]

This afternoon I've received a couple of spam text messages on my Apple Watch that WERE NOT received on my iPhone.

I have a stainless steel watch so it has cellular capability, but I have never purchased service for it. Are cellular watches without a service plan still assigned a different phone number than my iPhone (for emergency 911 calls) that the scammer may have randomly guessed? If not, any others thoughts about what happened?

no phone # without activation/plan.

I've seen messages coming in on AW before they arrive on the phone, but, how do you know they're spam? identified by your carrier? by the iPhone? processing messages might take some time on iPhone ...
I have certainly seen emails on my AW that didn't show up in my inbox but rather were in the spam folder (gmail)

 

[Bichon]

I know they are spam by the content. Someone saying they are from Kelly Services with a part time job that pays $500 for a few hours a week - please respond to this WhatsUp number. I probably should have said "scam" instead of "spam".

This was in Messages, not email. And hours later, the messages still don't show on my iPhone, only on the watch. Very puzzling...

 

[Chizep]

I just experienced this same exact situation. And my setup is very similar to yours. I do have a data plan on the watch though. In fact, it is my daughters old phone number. But Verizon told me it won't receive texts to that number, it's strictly a data plan with no SMS capability (and I've had the watch for about 1.5 years.) First time this has happened.

 

[jagfan]

This afternoon I've received a couple of spam text messages on my Apple Watch that WERE NOT received on my iPhone.

I have a stainless steel watch so it has cellular capability, but I have never purchased service for it. Are cellular watches without a service plan still assigned a different phone number than my iPhone (for emergency 911 calls) that the scammer may have randomly guessed? If not, any others thoughts about what happened?

I have experienced the same in the past couple days. The offending texts have never shown up on my iPhone. My Apple watch does not have cellular capability.

 

[Lab34]

Hi, just to say, I have the same problem since a couple of days too (since 10.5 but maybe not related). My watch is not cellular, the spam is nowhere on my iphone, only on imessage on the watch. This is weird.

 

[Lab34]

no phone # without activation/plan.

I've seen messages coming in on AW before they arrive on the phone, but, how do you know they're spam? identified by your carrier? by the iPhone? processing messages might take some time on iPhone ...
I have certainly seen emails on my AW that didn't show up in my inbox but rather were in the spam folder (gmail)

The content is clearly scam, something saying I have a parcel blocked somewhere, and I have to connect to a suspicious url to resolve the issue... the sender is a dumb gmail address... I don't have a message content blocker on the phone.

 

[rob2bob]

I know this is an old thread... but today I have had similar scenerio. A spam/junk iMessage showed on my iPad and not on my iPhone or my Mac. Weird. (Messages configured the same across all 3 devices.)