For the record, I’m a man whose name is not Annie and I don’t even like yoga.
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.
I must have missed that Last Week Tonight. How sad that there are people out there who are that lonely.
It’s not just lonliness, they are preying on decency and kindness too.
I wouldn’t call it gullible to just assume it was a wrong number. 9/10 times I’ve received a message like this it’s just a wrong number so I would immediately assume that’s what happened.
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:
- Do some recon on the number for spear phishing
- Save money by aiming the bigger part of the campaign (possibly multiple or large texts) only towards online numbers
- Some other reason 🤷
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.
Reply with a double entendre, something either horrifying, or revolting. Just to mess with them.
My succulent oyster is winking at you ;)
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.
