2 friends just moved here 6 weeks ago. We’ve frequented a pub since then and made friends with a bartender who’s a little odd, but seemed friendly. We went to the pub tonight and had 3 beers (proving we aren’t hammered) and left around 12:30am. Went back to their new place and danced around to music, ordered pizza and waited for it to be delivered. Pizza was delivered at 1:40am and at 1:45am my friend gets a text from the bartender “will do!” Unprompted. Out of no where. No text on his phone that was being replied to. We see a car pull in and it’s the bartender. We’re all pretty taken aback since we don’t know how he even got the address, and visibly all confused and just weirded out. My friend asks him hey man happy you’re here but how did you know where we live? The bartender replied you texted me to come over……
He pulls out his phone and shows us their convo where my friend apparently sent a text “come through when you get out we’re at (address I won’t say on the internet).” We compared phones next to each other and their convo leading up to that was identical, and they both have the “will do!” Text after it. But my friend does not have the text he apparently sent and swears he’s not messing with us. Google says SMS spoofing but it is so specific to us being there at the pub with him bartending 30 mins before, and the text mentioning him coming over when he’s out. We’re shaken up and the bartender was definitely weird about it. Our brains of course want a logical explanation for it and want to come up with reasoning but we’ve been sitting on the couch talking in circles and it’s now 4:45am. Is this a tech scam or is this more malicious to setting us up for robbery
I had this happen to me a few times, including SMS messages being resent weeks later, some messages getting changed halfway through to something I didn’t send, and messages entirely not from me.
This was all over 10 years ago though, I’ve not heard of it recently
Do you all own iPhones?
Why is this relevant?
because it is a hell of a lot harder to spoof Imessage than its is SMS which is a 30 year protocol with almost on security.
I’m thinking perhaps a device he owns has been added or compromised which then a text can be sent from.
Texts from a parallel dimension?
Log into your friend’s SMS provider’s portal - some providers show a record of texts (not the content) and the number they went to. IIRC Three (UK) did this.
Deep r/rbi here
If it was as spoofed, then your friend wouldn’t have gotten the “will do!” text. It would have only gone to the phone that sent the message with the spoofed number. There are a few ways the bartender could have gotten the address. The bartender does check IDs, right? The bartender could have followed your friends home on another night. And addresses aren’t exactly private information. He could have potentially found it online. I still wouldn’t totally rule out your friend playing a joke, or another friend taking that friend phone and playing a joke, but it sounds like it’s worth at least talking to the police about it. Actually go to the police station and make a report.
If you never gave your address to him then it’s probably a friend on your friend’s phone who sent and deleted it
Occam’s razor, both possibilities are valid. Either your friend sent a text and forgot/deleted it, or the bartender is expert hackerman in his spare time.
I see it like this, you claim to have all made friends with this bartender, do much do that you’ve all exchanged numbers and have been texting back and forth. Everybody starts getting tipsy at the bar, and your friend decides to invite the bartender. Your friend regrets this immediately for some reason and deletes the message, thinking it didn’t have time to be sent.
Bartender receives the message from his friends that he had been texting with for weeks, and happily accepts a party invite. Bartender arrives at party and gets treated like shit all night until he leaves.
Come on dude, do you really think the bartender spent his time searching for a red house on Google maps to get an address, and then finding a way to fake an SMS just to get a party invite? All while he has closing duties to take care of at the bar he works at?
I second this. And I feel like the friend might feel too embarrassed about accidentally inviting/uninviting at this point to admit it that they’re just hoping you guys would let it slide and drop the topic. Probably hoping you guys think it’s the bartender somehow injecting sms to find you guys’ address.
Think horses, not zebras - your friend invited the bartender, his GF then told him not to, he deleted the text because he didn’t want his GF to know he did.
We’re shaken up and the bartender was definitely weird about it.
I mean I’d be weird too if some guys I knew invited me round for drinks then when I got there were like “We didn’t invite you what the fuck are you doing here”.
Bartender stranger danger.
Dudes full of shit trump style.
Change your #, and all passwords
on phone.
Burn down the bar .
This is not an occasion to send mixed messages.
No sms spoofing, there’s only two possible explanations: your friend sent it and deleted. The bar tender got an app that allows him to inject a fake sms.
My guess is it was the first one because the address was there.
I know my friend sending it is the most logical explanation but I’m telling you that is 100% not the case and I’d bet my life on it. He wouldn’t have let the joke get as far as it did. It was him, his girlfriend and I (another late 20’s female) at their house when it happened. His girlfriend was visibly shaken up after the bartender left and cried that she felt unsafe, he wouldn’t have let it get to that point without coming forward about it. I crashed on their couch instead of going home because they felt unsafe at their place worried someone was gonna come back. I don’t have a reasonable explanation for any of it, we’re all baffled. But def not my friend pulling a joke and deleting the text.
Let’s say the bartender actually injected this message, which is unlikely just to begin with, how would he know where to find you and the exact address? Did he know about the specifics of this party?
Maybe your friend deleted that part so it wouldn’t be blamed directly on them.
Imo the last impression you leave should be “you’re awesome we 🖤 you guy” (so he doesn’t hate you and then fucking murder you guys uk) then DISSA—FUXKING—PEARRR. If you see him in front of your place call the PO—FUXKING—LICE. If he asks any Qs say it was your mom. GL AND STAY—A—FUXKING—LIVE. 💜
r/ihadastroke
Theres a little chance, if your friend has an android and the notification history activated you could have a look if he ever got a notification of these sms. But thats most likely not the case