One of the cell networks here in NZ is running a long-term promotion: texting is free on weekends to other phones on that network. It’s a genius bit of marketing, but I don’t know how the heck they afford it.
Anyway, it’s given birth to an entirely new phenomenon – new to me at least.
Four times this weekend I received texts from unknown numbers. The content was text-speak for ‘hi, who is this?’. They were all from different numbers at different times of day.
(One of them’s in the title; another read ‘Hae!Wad u up 2 hu dizb??…’, I deleted the other two before I realised this was a phenomenon worthy of note)
So, I figure there are only a few possible explanations:
* my number is written on a wall somewhere with an encouragement to text me
* the cellphone virus we’ve all been dreading is here, and it communicates like a fourteen-year-old girl
* there are people out there who take advantage of free text weekends to randomly text any number they can think of, and see what response they get
It is a bit odd to me that out of nowhere I get four texts from different numbers in the same weekend. That’s a pretty incredible hit rate if it’s people entering numbers pseudo-randomly, which leads me to suspect that the third explanation isn’t the true one.
I didn’t text back to any of them in case they were some weird spider trying to harvest active cellphone numbers or something. I dunno. Also I didn’t care enough.
So, anyone else experience this? Anyone know what it means?
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This, over on the new-look Xenodochion and Matt M’s LJ, is extremely worth a look and a ponder, combining amusing cute kid story with epistemological exercise: Part 1 and Part 2
7 thoughts on “Sup hu dizb?”
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I had a weekend where the same person texted me over and over again saying, to the effect, “Guess who this is.”
When I refused to respond they started saying: “If you text back I’ll tell you who it is.”
I work on the principle that if people really want to know me they will tell me who they are. After 4 days of spam, they seemed to give up and go away confirming to me that it wasn’t someone I know with a new cell phone number and just some &**$% trying to $%%$# me off.
Actually, when I was in India, cell phone spam was rife. The complany sending updates about details, and selling it’s lists of subscribers to thrid parties who would them spam you even more.
It’s only a matter of time until we get cell phone spam here. I wonder if the ones I got would have added me to some kind of list if I had replied.
Thanks for the mention of 24 things too…
I have also been thinking of whether I can come up with 24 things I hope for.
At a party a couple of months ago, Rachel kept getting txts from a random kid. She eventually got fed up and called the kid and politely asked her not to txt her anymore — apparently she was the only kid at an adult’s dinner party and bored out of her tree.
Free txting weekend has made for some inane txt conversations with strangers when I’ve put in someone’s number wrong, sort of like this:
Me: “Hey, should I come over now?”
X: “Maybe, who are you?”
Me: “It’s Joey!”
X: “Who?”
Me: “Wait, is this Jeremy?”
X: “No it’s Whitney.”
Me: “Whoops, sorry. Me dumb stoner.”
X: “Drugs? Um, wanna come over anyway?”
Me: “I better not.”
Etc.
This conversation would have stopped much sooner if the txting was not free.
Ah I remember Whitney 🙂
“It’s a genius bit of marketing, but I don’t know how the heck they afford it.”
Text messages cost them next to nothing. Maybe .08 of a cent. Most days of the week they charge .20c. That is a huge profit.
Have you got an NZ Vodafone mobile then? It’s not your UK one? Does it have a “nice” number? I had more here about why it’s unlikely to be text spam from NZ since VF and Telecom are unlikely to let any in but, meh, it wasn’t that interesting.
i haven’t had any random weekend texts in a while. but my favourites usually ask “r u a chik”? i think it is an awesome pick up line.
David – yeah,it’s a Kiwi vodafone mobile. The number doesn’t conform to any pattern of any kind that might make it an obvious choice, not that I can see anyway.
I dunno. It’s all very strange. It was the four in one day from four different people that confused me. It might just be chance, it might be four people for some reason sharing my number between them. It struck me one explanation might be that one person/entity is spoofing my number somehow and sending simple greeting texts out – and these four folk were the ones who responded.
Basically, I can’t come up with an explanation for it that doesn’t seem unlikely. Which is why I’m curious.