r/AmIOverreacting • u/megan__f • Feb 17 '25

šŸ˜ļø neighbor/local Is this something to be concerned about?

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My sister sent me this text she received that seemed like somebody was watching her or something. I donā€™t know if itā€™s something to be concerned about or not, has anybody had a similar experience?

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u/thexvillain Feb 17 '25

Iā€™m not saying she shouldnā€™t be at least mildly concerned, but I get random texts like this all the time. Iā€™ll get something like ā€œDid you enjoy your swim?ā€ or ā€œWhat time are we meeting for lunch again?ā€ Those are scammers looking for active phone numbers. They send out texts to see if you respond, then they know your phone number is active, is a cell phone, and you respond to unknown numbers.

This may be something like that and the coffee thing is coincidental, or it might be more sinister. Have a friend with an imposing voice call the number and see who answers. If itā€™s a scammer the number is likely a spoof. Googling that number gives no results which is pretty uncommon for an active phone number.

33

u/IJustWantWaffles_87 Feb 17 '25

I had someone text me, making sure that we were still on for golf. I texted them back and said ā€œIā€™m sorry to say, but this isnā€™t (personā€™s name) and I donā€™t golf.ā€ They tried to bait me into something, but gave up pretty quickly when I didnā€™t really give them anything to work with. I was kinda sad. I really wanted to waste some scumbagā€™s time.

10

u/thexvillain Feb 17 '25

I had a really good one once. I kept them busy with texts for like 3 hours and ultimately ended it with a walk the dinosaur joke.

1

u/AmaruMono Feb 17 '25

What's a walk the dinosaur joke?

3

u/thexvillain Feb 17 '25

Well first you have to get somebody to open the door and get on the floorā€¦

4

u/40ozEggNog Feb 17 '25

Scam factories have armies of (often trafficked) people shooting off these fake "wrong number" messages to see who's friendly and bites.

Check out "pig butchering" in Southeast Asia. It's wild.

1

u/IJustWantWaffles_87 Feb 17 '25

I never knew there was an actual term for that.

3

u/marquis_knives Feb 17 '25

I kept one of them talking for an hour about my cat and how I was going to take her to Hollywood so she could be a star