Any info on this scam?

I have no Information or anything on this but around 2 or 3 months ago I would get these texts from emails that would say stuff like this


It would always be a website containing my phone number then following that it would contain wired symbols or characters. And when I would click on it (after turning on a vpn of course) it would be a CNN article it would always be a different article ranging from news about the president or some type of medicine. I have no clue why I was getting these messages and why I’ve stopped receiving them but if anyone has any information on this please let me know thanks.

My guess would be that the links were trackers that gather info about your phone number, such as the device type, location, browser type, etc. Probably had a lot of redirects before ending on those CNN sites.
Most likely you will be getting some future scam calls/texts with some convincing details to make the scam seem real.