If it is someone I don't know, I just answer back "I think you have the wrong person".

I once had an acquaintance send me a scathing text meant for her son. We had a text conversation the previous night so my number must have been at the top of her messages. It was a little awkward but I did diplomatically acknowledge the text and she apologized for her rant.

I've received a couple of texts that weren't for me, one including a photo, from two different people I did not know. I did not contact them. I just blocked them so I wouldn't get more texts from them. If it was something important, I probably would have contacted them and told them that they had the wrong person. (I've done that in the past with phone messages).

I've received an occasional text not meant for me since they had a name in the text that wasn't mine. Not anything earth-shaking in the content, so I just texted back 'wrong number', and let it go. Pretty sure they just entered a wrong digit.

I haven't gotten texts but did have several phone messages last week from Norma to John wanting to know if he had the used motor for her A/C. I finally called her back to tell her she was dialing the wrong number. She sounded very senior and was thankful.

I too have responded with "wrong number" and have either heard nothing back, or have received a quick, "oops - sorry!" I've only ever received misdialed texts from strangers, never from someone that I know.

Having been the person who accidentally sent a text message to unintended recipients (when it was pointed out to me) all I could think of to do was tell them "oops! please ignore and delete".

There are intentional messages that appear as if they are meant for others sent from scammers, though. I received an email recently purportedly from Amazon saying my order # (and they listed a #) had been successfully cancelled. But I had not ordered anything from them recently. Obviously they wanted me to click the enclosed link, sign in to my account and tell them that.

Texts that I have received accidently I will reply that they sent it to the wrong person. This way they know they aren't being ignored by who they thought they sent it to ;-)

I usually reply back with wrong number. Once I was actually involved with a text convo with the wrong person. I thought I was texting my SIL and the reply was something like he would have done, so I just ignored it and went on with the texting. I caught on that it was not my SIL after a bit of back and forth-the guy was playing with me, so I played back. In the end we both got a chuckle out of it and wished one another a good day.

My in-laws are traveling, and she created a group text so she could update all the kids and a few friends. Somehow she also included a very distant relative, the sister of her son-in-law. (Mom is not very tech-savvy.) The woman has been extremely rude and witchy, demanding to know who are 'you people', and that we remove her immediately. Mom doesn't know how to do that, so there were many replies to the group message. The woman kept up the snotty remarks until one of the kids created a new message with only the correct people on it.

I hope she's happy that all of these nasty people are now leaving her alone.

This just happened to me last week. I had been texting with a friend about a graduation party she was hosting for her dd. Our dds had been best friends for years, but socially for the most part had parted ways in h.s. Her dd was in to partying, and mine is not. About 20 mins later, I got a text clearly meant for her dd about some alcohol she had found in her dd's car as well as some other issues she was having with her. It was very personal. I waited for a bit, thinking that she would realize what she had done and I would act as if I hadn't seen it. About an hour went by and I did need to respond to her about something else, so I sent her a text saying, "I think your last two texts were meant for your dd. About the tent..." She immediately called me and said, "OMG, I'm so glad out of all the people that text could have gone to, I'm so thankful it was you who got it!" I know much of the things going on with her dd as we have been good friends since our dds met in kindergarten, even tho they aren't really friends anymore. She then unloaded on me about her dd so I guess in that sense, it was a bit of a relief for her to spill some of the stress she was under that she might have kept to herself had I not seen that text. Had it gone to any of her coworkers or family members, it could have been really embarrassing for her!

While I've sent and received messages to the wrong recipient, this was the first time that it was anything that was pretty personal. In the other instances, I've either responded with, "I think you meant this for someone else" or "I'm sorry - that was meant for someone else obviously!" I've only gotten a text from someone NOT in my address book and that was about two weeks ago. The person thought I was a man and sent a couple of texts like, "Hi Steve, this is Dan. Please call me when you can." Or something like that. I didn't respond, and he sent a couple more like, "Is this Steve's number?" I just ignored them. I don't answer texts or phone calls from anyone not in my address book. If it is someone who is meaning to call me and I don't pick up, they usually leave a message and then I know to call them back.

I am guilty of sending texts to the wrong person and my kids make fun of me for it. My 18yo daughter says she will take away my texting priveleges if I do it again. Usually it's not anything significant, but I once sent a message to DH complaining about our contractor and accidentally sent it to the contractor!

I'm not big on texts in general

But of course I text to kids and they text me

Occasionally, we'll text between friends if we're about to meet somewhere, logistics and all. If somewhere's my place I usually ask friends to let me know they're home safely after they leave the party (most of them honestly respond "I'll forget" lol..but couple do text)

So one of my friends is telling me after the last party:

- you now, I did texted you "I'm safely home!", and got a response "Happy for you, but I have no idea who you are"

April lol!

I point it out as nice as I can. I don't want to keep receiving them and I don't want them to think they're being ignored by whoever it was suppose to get to.

I don't answer phone calls if I don't know the number but if they leave a message and it's clear they have the wrong person, I'll call them back to give them a heads up. I've had some pretty important voicemails but I'll even call for ones that seem insignificant.

This post reminds me to be diligent in what I text. Dangerous to text a really personal conversation only to find out you sent it to the wrong person or to a group text.

My funny texting story: I am the advisor for our university's highest honor society, and one night was included on a student group text to/from the club's leader who was at the local campus watering hole evidently having a fine time.

He started getting a little rowdy verbally and someone else said 'You do know Runninginplace is on this text, right?' to which he replied 'I don't give a duck'. I'm not being euphemistic, that is exactly what he mis-texted....I still see him and I still tell him not to worry, I don't give a duck. It's become our favorite joke and I always smile when I think of that conversation.

My phone number is similar to that of a doctor's office. I get calls with messages left for the doctor's office all the time. I used to call the person back and tell them they left a message for their doctor on my voice mail, but it happens so often I now just ignore it. They'll eventually figure it out.

I received a text from a cousin of mine but the text was intended for someone else. The problem is she was talking about me in the text, I had just started building a relationship with her and we have been texting for the past 5 months. I had planned on visiting her in the next 3 months and she was hosting me for 10 days. Now I did not notified her what happened, instead removed the textes, blocked her on my phone and ended the relationship. How terrible to have visited her knowing the way she actually felt about me. I realize you can never go back, move forward in life and be happy! To say the least I was so disappointed and hurt.

I also wondered if she intentionally sent the text so I can see what she wrote but meant to be in error.

I once called someone in Laguna Beach that was in my cell phone address book (one of my earliest cell phones), and it turned out to be the wrong "Steven" and we had no idea who each of us were. I then asked him how he got into my address book, if he did not know me, and he tried rather unsuccessfully to answer that question. I should not have put him on the spot, since I was the one who had called the wrong number.

Later, I found another Steven in my phone book and called him. Several days later I realized that a friend who was visiting from out of state had been staying with the first Steven in Laguna Beach, and that is how his number got into my address book.

I try to keep my address book very small.

I haven't gotten calls from wrong numbers for a long time, but I used to get them frequently 20 or more years ago.

When my brother and I were in Florence, I wanted to take advantage of the Turkish baths that the hotel had, and so I asked my brother to call the front desk of the hotel to get information about this. We did not know how to use the hotel phone, and I wanted my brother to use his cell phone for a change and get some experience communicating with the hotel staff, who all spoke perfect English. I had been making all the phone calls for over a week and thought he should do some of the talking.

Since we did not know how to use the phone in the room, he dialed the number from his cell phone and got someone who did not speak English, and so he gave the phone to me, and I said, "Pronto. Mi piaccerebbe un bagno turco." The man on the other end started laughing heartily and said, "Non è bagno turco! Avete un numero falso!" and so I said, "Mi dispiace molto" and hung up. At least the person on the other end was somewhat entertained by my request.

The only Italian I was able to teach my brother was driving instructions, so that he would understand the GPS in the car. He only had to learn about five or six phrases.

This is from 4 years ago. I even put in my 2 cents.

Is this an example of what Sushi calls necrospam? I think maybe it is. I see that Carol W just joined Houzz.

Lately I have been getting texts from somebody in the midwest who is a delivery person for Door dash. After trying to convince him I was the wrong person, I gave up and blocked the number. I sent a text meant for my son to a neighbor instead but it was nothing important.

Its dangerous to text about another person who is also in your contact list since that person can end up included in the text. It happened between two of my neighbors who dont get along. That was ugly.

Ded,I i get spam for these trying to advertise or sell something, but what exactly would be the purpose of using this thread?

A word about old threads….I often see very old threads on the ”Related” threads list on the side of my screen. A poster has no idea how old they are until the thread is openned and the date is looked for. currently, the top one is a post from 7 years ago. I only know the date because I was looking for it.

Not every old thread is brought back to life by a spammer.

eta:

The circled discussion is from 7 years ago…

Maddielee is right. Especially if you are new here, it is easy to revive a dead thread.

You can usually tell the necrospammers by the fact they only post one or two sentences, which often sound only vaguely related to the topic.

ETA - I don't think this is a necrospammer. ☺

I'm reading this and feeling badly for Carol, no matter what year this first came up. Something similar happened to a life long friend this year, where a sister in law sent her a text she'd meant for her own adult daughter. Telling her how selfish and self involved she thought my friend was when they been family by marriage many many years. She has never said a word to me so I can't even ask if anything has been resolved, the issue was shared by our husbands. While not selfish or self involved in any sense, she does struggle with a fault I have myself and have to consciously work on....she does not forgive easily.

One problem I've noticed with texts - if you are texting to several people (on different text strings), if I am typing away and someone sends me a text, the phone wants to send whatever I am typing to that person. Or their text string comes up and you accidently send to the wrong person. I try not to text too many people at once and will usually delete text strings so this doesn't happen.

Never respond to texts from people you don’t know.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-report-spam-text-messages

https://www.lifelock.com/learn-identity-theft-resources-synthetic-identity-theft.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/personal-finance/2021/01/05/fraud-5-hot-scams-in-2021-and-how-to-avoid-them/%3famp

I feel bad for Carol too. That's hard.

I sent a text to someone by accident. She had a new number and I didn't know that. So I sent a lengthy text to a random stranger. I appreciated their response tellijng me I had the wrong number.

I use my discretion. If the text sounds "real" I do reply you have the wrong person. However I get lots of weird phishing crap that just gets deleted. And even an occasional invitation for "call if you want a good time" stuff. I always want to reply my idea of a good time is sweatpants and a bowl of ice cream. 😁

Is anyone getting more spam on their cell phone lately? I never used to get this garbage now it's several times a day with calls and texts. Just as bad as the old landline!

Well, apologies to Carol if this post was legit. Unfortunately, spammers are not uncommon here. They usually start by posting a comment then go back later to edit with ads .

hope Carol comes back to let us know. Weldome, if you are new here.

The only mistaken texts I've ever gotten were during the vaccine roll-outs and i kept getting texts from UT (I'm in WA) for a guy about his vaccine appts. I texted back that it was the wrong #; I tried to call but it was impossible to get a human. Then I got a reminder text a while later about his 2nd vaccine! I hope it worked out for him since he wasn't getting their texts.

The weirdest thing that has happened to me, and this has been going on for years, is that I am constantly getting calls for Jennifer who has a daughter Brittany who obviously has a litany of health and learning disabilities. I get calls from schools, doctor's offices and social workers. I tried calling a few to tell them that they have the wrong number, but it was not much help. I'm not sure if she is giving out a false number of it my number is just similar to hers . . . but these are real places. It only happens a couple times a year so I haven't tried harder to figure out how to stop it. It's just sad and weird.

I've been included on some weird group messages before, but have usually been able to track down the source and opt out. Again, doesn't happen often enough for me to sweat it.

Ipink, you story remindsme of when we got messages on our landline from an Aunt Betty.

Quite a few times I called the number back explaining she was calling the wrong number.

She seemed like a nice person, from the messages she would leave. Eventually it stopped.

Then, when my kids were in school, we would get messages for a number that was one digit different than ours. If the message was school or sports related, I would call her and sometimes she would me relay a message that was pertinent and time sensitve for my kids.

Sometimes technology is not a good thing. I refuse to be tied to my phone. Sometimes I miss people making actual calls instead of texting. I can't imagine trying to keep up with several texts at one time. I can see how one could be confused. Only once can I ever remember sending a text to the wrong person. It was sent to my brother instead of my sister. I also think that texts can get out of hand because there are people who will say things on a text that they would not say in a phone call or actual person-to-person meeting. Texts are handy especially if you need to be quick, etc. They just don't take the place of a good, old fashioned phone call, IYKWIM

My husband was an Army MP. During his last year before retirement he was getting a series of text messages from somebody wanting to set up a drug sale. My husband played along until it was time to involve the local police. The guy, and more, were arrested.

It's super easy to send a text to the wrong person. I've done it several times, but fortunately they've always been simple and innocuous. It's embarrassing nonetheless. Be so so careful of what you put into a text or email.

That reminds me of the time I was voice texting with my teenage daughter while I was in a parking lot. A confused senior citizen tourist kept thwarting my exit. After about the third time, I said under my breath, "Are you effin kidding me?". Then continued dictating the text. Then I hit send. Ooops.

Dee, at least it was your teenager. It could have been so much worse.

@deegw my mom is the confused senior thwarting your exit :) We apologize.. lol She also dictates long conversations with herself intended for her children sent via group texts. We'd be surprised we'd get the light version with 'effin'. She's embracing her no f's senior life after a long adult life of people pleasing.