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She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- obilgic 6y agotldr: His number was leaked, he got rid of it, the person who just got the number is dealing with bunch of random people who think they found elon's # online.
- midasz 6y agoAT&T should just retire the number at that point right
- fastball 6y agoThere aren't that many phone numbers where it's reasonable to retire them willy-nilly (given the desire to have consistent "area codes").
- iso1631 6y agoOr auction it off, I'm sure someone will buy it. Some people are quite happy having 867-5309 for example. Indeed I wonder if the current owner is doing this piece with the idea she might auction it https://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/03/ebay.jennys.number/ https://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/03/ebay.jennys...
- gerland 6y agoI heard someone found shoes that Bill Gates once wore and a gum chewed by Steve Jobs. Both became relics and worshippers write articles about this in the internet. Seriously though - would someone think it was ok if I got a number after a local bakery owner and started sharing messages that were sent to me by mistake? Is this ok because EM is a more known person? I think it still falls under privacy standards.
- ricardobeat 6y agoThe messages were sent to her number. I don't think there is any privacy violation if you drop mail addressed to 'person residing at this address' at the wrong house.
- mehrdadn 6y agoI mean, when they say Elon, it's no longer exactly addressed to "the person residing at this address", right?
- nulbyte 6y agoIt's no different from sending an email to the wrong address. Disclaimers to the contrary, it isn't the responsibility of the recipient to ensure the address (phone number, in this case) is right.
- Hamuko 6y agoThere's no other metadata for text message recipient other than the phone number. You can't see that the sender fucked up before you actually read the text message.
- mehrdadn 6y agoYes and my point wasn't about reading the message but about sharing it with others. If you think you're the intended recipient because the only information you have is the recipient's number, then that's one thing. If it's talking to Elon Musk in the message then it's clearly not addressed to you, so you don't have the same grounds for sharing it.
- qwe098cube 6y agoSeems like a good idea to change your number... after 4 years.
- billme 6y agoWeird that Elon did not just pay to keep the number and blackhole it.
- usrusr 6y agoBut now he can always shrug off unwanted new contacts to his current number by pretending to be that woman who accidentally got Musk's old one. They ask Google and the story checks out, he will never hear from them again. Best possible outcome.
- billme 6y agoWhat exactly are you suggesting? The woman that’s photograph appears in the article, “Lyndsay Tucker, a 25-year-old skin care consultant, who works at a Sephora beauty store in San Jose, Calif.” — is obviously a real person.
- woodrowbarlow 6y agoi think the suggestion is that musk is picking up the phone in his mrs. doubtfire voice and saying "hello, this is tucker, i'm a real person, who is this mr. musk you speak of?" ... or more likely just for text messages.
- usrusr 6y agoRoughly like that, yes. And it really would only work for text messages, not only because of the voice issue but also because a phone call rarely contains actionable information before both sides have informally confirmed identity.
- pyb 6y ago"Some of those who texted Tucker said Musk himself provided the number to them. When NPR asked Musk whether he gave out that number to people he was trying to dodge, he did not respond."
- Chris2048 6y agoBetter he just respond with the same number: "call me: .."
- sixQuarks 6y agoI Find it so disingenuous when the journalist describes Elon musk like this one did. Here’s a guy who’s started multiple successful companies in the hardest industries, and he describes him as the guy who smoked pot and defied stay at home orders.
- goldenkey 6y agoHis recent behavior and original status as a member of the PayPal mafia does make you question how much is his doing versus his connections and placement in spacetime. I do think he is rather intelligent as evident from the Joe Rogan podcast, that is -- long form conversation on topics. But he has shown an affinity for stupidity as well. He's an interesting man but remember that Tesla and the other companies he has been part of have been partnerships and have stellar engineers at the helm. Musk is a Muskateer, not a solo bolo.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y agoHowever she got the number, she's got no intention of getting rid of it. Note that she has already provided it to many talent contacts. Plus, it's probably something that she's actually treasuring, at this point. I'll bet that she's quite warm and friendly to anyone that calls, no matter how bizarre. She's trying to break into a very competitive field, and every edge counts. This is a big one. If she has the talent to follow through, this may be good for her. I sincerely wish her the best.
- theshadowknows 6y agoI get emails for a celebrity. So far I've received: receipts for things like a boat, invitations to perform at large events, 'just catching up' notes from old friends, and confirmations of event planning among others. Recently I got an order confirmation for a large purchase, along with a shipping address and mobile number. I used the mobile number to text the celebrity, explain the situation, and offer my apologies for the mixup (I took a screenshot to prove I wasn't some psycho and sent it along)...they responded 'thanks' and I've not received any other messages from them since, though I have gotten some other emails.
- Aeolun 6y agoIt seems they’re not very interested in resolving the problem? Too busy, or just don’t care?
- bagacrap 6y agoI get occasional emails meant for my mom as we have similar email addresses. It's a common mistake made by many of her contacts, what is she supposed to do about it?
- ta17711771 6y agoUse an email account attached to her own domain so any address at that domain goes to her.
- toyg 6y agoI have a fairly common surname and get a bunch of stuff meant for other people. My suspicion is that their legitimate username is just one or two extra characters after mine, e.g. "ab.normal@gmail.com" vs "ab.normal2@gmail.com". People probably think that, as long as they are careful about communicating the right username, it will be fine; but communication requires skills on both sides, and it's easy to miss a single letter or digit in common conversation or in poor lighting.
- Pick-A-Hill2019 6y ago
- callmemaybe 6y agoA friend of mine got the old number of a prostitute. He received tons of funny text messages of thirsty dudes.
- Semaphor 6y ago> Full disclosure: I reached out to Musk during one of those controversies, when he threatened to sue the California county that is home to Tesla's manufacturing plant over its coronavirus-related restrictions. Instead, I got Tucker. It’s not explicitly said, but I’d bet that’s how this story came to be ;)
- tnolet 6y agocompletely off topic: why do so many folks on HN refer to Elon Musk as "Elon"? Rarely are peopling talking about Bill or Steve; you always add the surname or use just the surname.
- LandR 6y agoPossibly because there aren't many famous Elons?
- MivLives 6y agoLooking through this comments section I see a lot more Musk, then I do Elon. That said Elon is not a common name in the US. When you say Steve do you mean Steve Harvey, Steve Carell, Steve Wozniak or Steve Ballmer?
- Ambroos 6y agoIt's one of the 'advantages' of having a relatively uncommon first name. Everyone knows who Elon, Adele, Beyonce and Barack are. I have an unusual first name and tend to go by just my first name, which works fine too. Sometimes a first name is just all you need.
- pacamara619 6y agoI know at least a dozen Bills and even more Steves but only one Elon.
- apricot 6y agoA "Lone Elon", if you will.
- jarofgreen 6y agoSomething to do with his image? Here in the UK people complain about exactly the same thing when people reference "Boris".
- apricot 6y agoI guess I'm showing my age, but "Boris" without any qualifiers defaults to Badenov.
- jamisteven 6y agoCan imagine Elon reading this and thinking, why tf would you even report on such nonsense? I mean really, why is this a story? And these pictures of the woman receiving the texts, they position her like she is a victim somehow, I mean look at these facial expressions LMAO.
- julianlam 6y agoWhy is everybody taking at face value the claim that "we met up and Elon gave me this number"? It's the first trick in the book to get your foot in the door, pretend you already have your foot in the door.
- iso1631 6y agoIndeed, why give someone an old number. If you are concerned about meeting them again and want plausible deniability, transpose a couple of digits and swap a 1 for a 7.
- wrsh07 6y agoOr if you're musk, pay a personal assistant to field calls from people you don't want to talk to
- hckr_news 6y agoThat’s also the classic method of getting in touch with a recruiter or hiring manager. Call the company and state “Someone called me the other day from X company and left a voicemail, they did not state their name so I was just following up”.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- drawkbox 6y agoIt is a bit funny that Elon Musk makes cars, and this girl getting errant texts is named Tucker (her last name). By Tucker I mean Preston Tucker the American automobile entrepreneur who made the famed Tucker sedan. [1][2] Note, Tucker also had some run-ins with the SEC. [3] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#Tucker_Corporation_and_the_1948_Tucker_Sedan_(1944%E2%80%931947) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#Tucker_Corporat... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#/media/File:1948_Tucker_Sedan_at_the_Blackhawk_Museum.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#/media/File:194... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#Turmoil_surrounding_Tucker_Corporation_(1946%E2%80%931948) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#Turmoil_surroun...
- iso1631 6y agoSo the IRS start going on about complex tax things before confirming who they are talking to?
- taf2 6y agoor IRS scammers...
- exhaze 6y agoU R NOT COMPLIANT ON UR TAXES. REPLY 1 TO PAY, REPLY 2 TO GO TO JAIL
- mlthoughts2018 6y ago2
- tiku 6y agoWhy does she keep using that sim/number..
- gbrindisi 6y agoperfect phishing opportunity, if not worse
- mberning 6y agoElon has really kicked the hornets nest. This is the level of petty BS they will publish about somebody they don’t like. Imagine what they turn a blind eye to if they like you.
- elliekelly 6y agoIf this is some sort of hit piece it’s not a good one. It doesn’t color my opinion of him at all. It’s more of a human interest story.
- CathedralBorrow 6y agoIn what world is this human interest piece an attack on Elon Musk? Is any non-fawning coverage a hit piece?
- temptemptemp111 6y agoA skin care consultant with terrible skin... Maybe should consider what else they're lying about.
- 11thEarlOfMar 6y agoI'm reminded of an old Wired article about Steve Wozniak 'collecting' phone numbers. Pan Am (by mistake) and 888-8888. It's pretty far into the article, but the outcome was pretty funny: the number was unusable because... https://www.wired.com/1998/09/woz/ https://www.wired.com/1998/09/woz/ [spoiler alert: toddlers picked up the phone and randomly pressed buttons, often enough hitting the 8 key repeatedly. He got too many calls to be able to use the number.]
- lasagna_coder 6y ago2FA
- Hamuko 6y agoHow often do people ask her where their bitcoins are?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- paradox242 6y agoI have a similar situation but much more mundane. Someone listed my number as theirs on a county clerk of courts website and now I get all of their phone calls regarding their delinquent properties.
- Mister_Snuggles 6y agoI've gotten the occasional email for someone, possibly multiple someones, with the same name as me. Nothing terribly exciting though - an order confirmation for a Casper mattress, a hotel receipt from a Las Vegas hotel, and a bunch of stuff related to a high school reunion. I was able to contact the organizer of the high school reunion, hopefully she got in touch with the right person. I didn't have enough to go on with the other emails though, so I just deleted them.
- mywittyname 6y agoI receive emails intended for a person who shares my name. This gentleman happens to be an accountant, so I get lots of W2s from wealthy people -- I don't look on them, but the sender like to provide executive summaries in the body. I usually just tell them, this is not the mywittyname you're looking for. But he has also signed up for other services using my email, which is concerning. I actually moved away from $myname@gmail.com to $random_7_characters@gmail.com due to fears that I may lose the former somehow. Nobody seems to think twice when I tell them my email is (like) hrtd435@gmail.com, so I guess it's either common, or people get why I do it.
- someonehere 6y agoI have the rarer luxury of an early gmail address with a first initial last name prefix. Lately I’ve been getting emails for things like trip confirmations, flight confirmations, appliance repair receipts, medication ready for pickup emails. The person is clearly on the side of the country and shares a common last name for where they live. Anyway, turns out it’s an older gentleman who shares my same first initial and same last name. For whatever reason he signs up with my email address. Not sure what to do because I don’t have a way to reach him.
- ranDOMscripts 6y agoI have the same name as an entrepreneur who had a fairly successful exit and is now an early stage investor. As a result, I get a slow trickle of cold intro emails with hot* start-up funding opportunities. *definitely not hot
- pvaldes 6y agoSome are pretty weird, and all messages are pretty private, therefore, not to be dissected publicly in npr. The other option is that this piece of new is pretty fake and made for the love of clicks, something that I wouldn't discard. Ethic's level seem pretty low in this case.
- onetimemanytime 6y agoGreat way to have Musk buy her (his old) number. Its not like he hasn't the money.