I texted my friend last night telling her Happy Halloween. Literally, all I said was "Ew. You spoopy!" with a photo of me making a grossed out look on my face attached to it. Incidentally my dingus friend will order stuff like loot crate and WoW subscriptions but never stays on top of her cellphone bill (she has no landline phone either...), so I guess her service was deactivated and her number was given to someone else. They got my text instead.
Instead of inquiring further or assuming that this person got the wrong number, the person assumed I was pranking them and proceeded to internet stalk me using my number.
"[Insert my full name here], I suggest that you not fuck with people you don't know." They then proceeded to list personal contact information, such as an address, city, zipcode, state, etc. Little do they know, the information was actually wrong. They got the name correct. But the location is totally wrong.
I responded with:
"A polite 'I believe you've got the wrong number' would have sufficed. A single text does not constitute 'fucking' with someone. Especially considering I sent that text over a day ago. However, you have proven to me that you have basically gone out of your way to find my personal information and have in essence stalked me, which does constitute harassment. Otherwise, you should know that cellphone numbers are recycled and the chances that you have someone's old number are highly likely."
I did it to make them feel stupid because I'm sure googling my number made them feel tech savvy and smart.
Again the address was actually wrong, but they managed to find my name which if I look up my number does not come up which means they probably paid a little bit of money to find out my name. Probably a scared 30-something housewife who overreacted and thought she was being slick. Those websites even tell you to agree to terms saying that you are not looking up this information with malicious intent, you will not use it to harass or stalk the person. And incidentally that is exactly what this person did.
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Kapwned started a blog post Tip: Don't do what this person did...Tip: Don't do what this person did...
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I have experience with this as well as my sister's ex used my cellphone number once to track down my family and stalk and harass them. Resulted in my parents having to call the police because he threatened to kidnap the kids (he lost custody of them and has zero legal rights to them). So on occasion I will look up my name, email, and number to see what pops up because I don't want it happening again.
And years ago I got a phone call from a woman on my cell asking me why my number was in her huband's contact list. I said I didn't know because I didn't know him. She was like "Like bullshit you don't, he has your number for a reason!" and I said I honestly didn't know her husband. She then told me she better not catch my number on his phone again or I would regret it.
But yeah I kind of scolded my friend for not staying on top of her cellphone service. Both she and her boyfriend have steady incomes with mild spending money so it shouldn't be that hard to make a bill payment (especially considering it's a prepay for a non-smart phone). She needs to be within reach for emergencies and professional purposes.