I do recognise that a lot of it is probably just playing up for the joke, but I assume it has to come from somewhere. I regularly see posts where basically Person A sends an odd image/message, then follows up with “wrong number, sorry” and Person B responds with “wait stay”.
Do Americans, as a rule, not save phone numbers? Or is it purely a bit that has become a trope?
I don’t think this happens much in real life, I would assume most people use contacts. Though it is a commonly used format for fake text messages meant as memes.
It’s a old meme from before cell phones. You used to just, like, memorize your friends’ phone numbers.
I remember when you could call a local number without the area code. Once area codes were required, there was a short period of time with a lot of wrong numbers dialed.
You also used to just pick up the phone when it rang. Before caller ID, the phone would ring and you’d answer it every time, never sure of who might be on the other end.
it’s purely a joke. I’ve maybe had four or five wrong-number calls. 2 were drunk women- sounded college age and were trying to order some sort of take out. The others … I was being screamed at in mandarin. I could be wrong, but the mandarin-speaker gave me “grandma got a hold of someone’s cell phone” vibes.
This is ignoring the DOT compliance services that keeps calling because the prior owner of my cell phone number was a construction company with commercial plates on their trucks- and who went bankrupt. The Compliance people were worse than the collections agencies. those stopped after 2 years… I’ve had this phone for over a decade now.
What phone and OS do you use and do you still get security updates?
Not everything you see on the internet that doesn’t apply to you is a US thing. This is purely just a meme and doesn’t actually happen anywhere.
True. When I accidentally sent someone a message because a person in my contacts changed their number without telling me I didn’t get a cute reply. It was literally for me to fuck off. People are so fun and kind.
I just talk to people and go along with it and see how much they say. I had a really long conversation with someone who thought I was ‘Tiff’ one time.
I am always wary of this behavior. So I basically try saying vague things about something only that person would know and if the answers are not in line then I assume they are no longer the right person.
As long as you aren’t malicious I don’t think it’s horrible though sadly in today’s world this should probably be protected against. You could very easily take advantage of an unsuspecting person.
They’re fake. People make them in photoshop or get a friend to send them the text for the meme
You can just make them online pretty easily: https://ifaketextmessage.com/
The “wrong number sorry” thing is a joke. The joke being that the person intended to send that absurd image to anyone at all.
It’s basically just “meme fluff”; Low-effort padding around an actual joke in order to draw attention to the joke for people with short attention spans. Same as those “who did this 😂😂😂” things, or when people put “nobody: / X:” or “pov: XYZ” or “X isn’t real, X can’t hurt you” in front of an image. It doesn’t add anything. It’s often just done to freeboot a meme without it being detected as a repost/stolen content.
No idea what you are talking about. Have you ever considered the idea that maybe you spend entirely way too much time on the internet?
It’s not a specific US thing and it happens because people save the numbers.
It’s less likely that someone types in a wrong number these days, but wrong number calls/messages still happen when a number is reused.
It’s good practice for operators to allow a period in-between reuse, but it can still happen between people who don’t get in touch very often.
Also, prepaid simcards reuse the same numbers very quickly, because the operator only reserve about as many numbers as they need. So if you’ve stored the number from someone using a temporary prepaid simcard, it might very well be someone else on that number whenever you try to call them back just a month later.
Do people not keep the same number when they change phone companies?
It used to be an optional paid extra. I was always too broke for that.
When people change cities or provinces/states thwy typically change numbers.
What is a prepaid sim card?
The ones you buy for burner phones.
In Australia when you register a simcard you have to provide a drivers licence. As I understand it in the US you can just buy a simcard thats valid for X days or X call value whichever comes first. No ID required.
Wait, you don’t have prepaid SIMs? That’s wild.
Yeah but they still require some form of ID to register the sim before it can be used.
Its hardly a foolproof system because you just need to key in a drivers licence number, but theres a name or company associated to every number.
Oh holy shit this makes so much sense… I’m also Australian and I’ve always wondered how a prepaid sim would help drug dealers in TV shows and movies and such because I just never thought that requiring ID to activate any sim card might not be a thing elsewhere
It’s a new trick from scammers. They engage you that way and try to get money or gift cards from you.
(Bad) Reddit has a complete subreddit about it and people post how they string them along etc … it is hilarious.
Ain’t no way this ain’t trolling
Why?
My phone number is the same as the tech support number for a crappy dashcam company - except the last two digits are transposed.
I get a few calls and texts each month for them.
When I’m in a good mood I copy and paste a helpful response telling them the issue. When I’m annoyed, I just block the person.
My old land line was almost the same number as an entertainment venue whose number spelled TICKETS. People would sometimes dial 1 instead of 4 (corresponding to the letter I), and get me. Usually on weekend mornings, grr, but fortunately it didn’t happen too often.
It’s not really that surprising that people have typos when punching in phone numbers. Though it’s less common than it used to be, probably because you can see the number on your phone before you actually hit send. Back in the old days you just punched numbers on the keypad, or God forbid turn to the dial, and hoped for the best. Yes my mother bought on purpose a rotary goddamn phone. It was just the one in the kitchen, and she liked it cuz it looked all antique-like. The thing was uncomfortable as hell, and I much preferred the normal one, at least until cell phones finally exterminated 99.99% of residential landlines.
It used to be in-between uncommon and common… maybe a few times per year? Probably more common for people working in locations requiring an employee to find a replacement of they needed a shift off, and therefor consulting a list of numbers they dial manually. Even if we did save numbers, our world was smaller and we might save someone as Sue. But then we meet another Sue at a party at Doug’s house, so we save them as Sue from Doug’s. But then the first Sue starts dating Doug.
It’s a UK thing too! Just check out this Cure song
