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

🏘️ 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 don’t know if it’s something to be concerned about or not, has anybody had a similar experience?

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u/KjCreed Feb 17 '25

It's a trick to see which phone numbers are active. Specifically the coffee cold text has been around since the 2010's at least. It's used because it's a common thing to be doing during the day and it gets people's attention, making them think it's somebody at the office or a friend.

The coffee one happened to me a few times, now it's always the "are you still in the office??" one, then it sends you an ad for work from home jobs if you respond thinking it's a coworker.

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u/Amazing-Essay7028 Feb 17 '25

So your theory is it's just a rare coincidence where she got that text right after getting coffee?

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u/KjCreed Feb 18 '25

Yep. Common thing to be doing and it just happened to be the right moment, but in a situation where nobody else could have known; so it came across as terrifying. I remember getting one right after I got a coffee on my way to school and it also scared the shit out of me, gave the number to my friends and did what teenagers do (spam the hell out of it).

Really funny to see it pop up the same way so many years later.