Do you think this scammer just hopes they will, with luck, contact someone named Annie who does yoga?
For the record, I'm a man whose name is not Annie and I don't even like yoga.
It's known, recently, as the "pig butchering" scam, and this is the telltale opener. The idea is that you respond with "hey, you've got the wrong number" and they can then open a dialog of "oh, sorry about that" and then spend weeks or months just conversing with you casually to build a "heh, what a crazy way to meet a new friend" sorta relationship. Eventually, they spring some kinda ask for money or malware on you, because they earned your trust.
Give it a google, it's pretty fucked up, and completely counter-intuitive how effective and profitable it is.
The last time I got one of these, I pretend to be exactly the person they were pretenting to wrong-number.
Lol this would not work on my misanthropic ass.
"Some bullshit"
"Sorry, wrong number"
"Oh haha weird, well I'm going to continue to talk to you and try and meet a new friend"
"Fuck off prick I'm busy."
Its a scam, when you show up to the yoga class, they will make you do yoga.
Ugh, every time...
Could also be a "ping" where they send this text to a lot of numbers, and those that respond get recorded as "alive"
Then they can either:
Reply with a double entendre, something either horrifying, or revolting. Just to mess with them.
My succulent oyster is winking at you ;)
Get these all the time, but a few days ago I got one that used a nickname I haven't used in a few years, that's pretty unique and distinct, and unlikely to be randomly used, asking if I was still on for a hobby I actually have (d&d). First time I've ever texted one of these back. Response? Picture of Asian girl with her tits out "it's Ashley, you don't remember me?"
Fucking blocked and reported. How in the hell?
A little something called mass commercial surveillance. They likely bought that info 100% legally too
The nickname thing is a little freaky, tbh, because it's not something I ever used online or in any official capacity. It's just something a few friends called me years ago.
Don’t even reply because then you’ll get even more messages as your number has been confirmed to be legitimate
No worries there. I don't plan to.
Edit: although I'm tempted to say, "did you mean my grandmother? Because she died in like 1993 and she didn't have a cell phone and she wasn't into yoga. She also didn't go by that name."
If they send it to millions of people the chances of getting one or two aren't too bad. I imagine there are a fair number of Annies who do yoga out there
You should, it's good for you
Stretching is good for you. Yoga is just ritualized stretching. I can stretch without the ritual.
I know I'm explaining the joke, but tbf yoga is a lot more about holding a stress position to gain strength than it is about stretching.
I think he's just misremembered the lyrics to Smooth Criminal.
Bud, not everything is a scam. Sometimes people just get high and type in the wrong number.
It's a scam. If you respond "wrong number" then you get "oh, I was looking for Annie, who is this?" Then try to bait you into something.
Sometimes it becomes trading nudes then turns into sextortion, sometimes it is asking for an apple gift card so they can come visit, it is just a way to get any response and then work from there.
It can be, certainly. But people do change numbers, and others try to recconect with old acquaintances, if you recently changed numbers, it might not be a scam. But as always, but wary of pig butchering.
Nah. I get these too. Once every few weeks, always from a different number. They're just looking for a response.
The chances of somebody actually typing a number to send a message (rather than choosing a contact) is vanishingly slim these days. It would have to be the first time they ever communicated with the other person.
Yeah nah, you can safely assume all texts like these are scams.
The 929 area code is in Brooklyn, NY. Are you saying they accidentally texted my California area code number to ask me if I wanted to go to Yoga with them?
Edit: Incidentally, people all over the country apparently accidentally text me random shit a lot-
My guess is that your number is either, by random chance, or means of some kind of app or something, being used as a fake number for girls to use to get rid of obnoxious guys at bars, or something similar.
Oooorrrr its a kind of pig butchering scam thing, where somehow your number got flagged as some kind of potential mark, so a whole bunch of random numbers are either bots or people following a script just throwing out random bullshit to see if you ever bite.
Wow, pig butchering is mad in the US now, I have received maybe two in the last year, dayum.
I have no idea what kind of weird shit you fell into Bud. But if it's recurring like that over and over again then they're just testing to see if you're alive and the phone number is active. Which is really weird.
With today's a modern society, it's not unusual at all to have people with out-of-state phone numbers live next door. I've had the same phone number for myself for over 15 years. They don't make you change it when you move.
Sometimes I text a wrong number on purpose, just because Im lonely and want someone to talk to.
They're looking for a response even if your name isn't Annie. You saying hey I think you got the wrong number or my name's not Annie that is engagement. They're hoping they could then talk to you from that point.
That makes sense. I guess there are people gullible enough to respond or they wouldn't do it. I just have a hard time comprehending it.
A lot of times they're looking for lonely people. Or maybe just bored people. There was a last week with John Oliver that did a pretty good in-depth dive on it.