SA influencer, Elle Barker left terrified after stranger memorised her mobile at Dan Murphy’s and sent ‘creepy’ text
A startling SMS has prompted an Aussie TikToker to share a warning encouraging others to be aware of their surroundings when giving out personal information in public.
An Australian influencer has taken to TikTok to warn her followers after she received a creepy text from a stranger who overheard her telling a shop assistant her phone number.
Self-employed marketing manager, Elle Barker from Adelaide was buying drinks at a Dan Murphys store when she provided the cashier with her mobile number to access her membership.
The 25-year-old said it was not until around three hours later, when she was back at home that she realised she has received a text from an unknown number.
The message read “do you think that you are immune”.
“I was like what the f**k, that’s a creepy message from an unknown number,” Ms Barker said in her video shared on Tuesday.
Ms Barker said she responded with “wrong number mate” but as the panic set in, she decided to do a bit more digging.
She used Pay ID and Google reverse search to find the name of the person behind the phone number.
“I’m looking him up on Facebook, I am looking him up on Instagram and again I could be being dramatic, it could have been a wrong number but I was like who the f**k are you?,” Ms Barker said
“By this point my anxiety is going through the roof.”
Some friends decided to call the number back, with Ms Barker including a clip of the conversation in her video.
The man on the other end of the phone can be heard slurring his words as he explains to Ms Barker’s friends that he wanted to prove “how easy it is for a scammer to access information”.
“These days there are a lot of scammers about,” the man said.
“I was behind her in the queue at Dan Murphys I memorised her mobile number and now I am texting (her) to tell you how easy it is.”
Ms Barker said the experience has left her “terrified”.
“I have always had a fear that this was going to happen when I am a the post office saying my address or anywhere … and finally its come true,” she said.
“I had no idea that this man was back behind me in the line.
“His voice on the phone honestly made me feel sick.”
Ms Barker urged her 13.1k followers on TikTok to be “conscious of (their) surroundings” and to “take a lesson” from her encounter.
“You need to be so aware of your surroundings because I don’t know how loud I said the phone number,” she said.
“So if you serve me and I am literally whispering in your ear lobe that’s why because I’m f**king terrified.”
The video’s comment section was quickly flooded with TikTok users expressing their distress at Ms Barker’s story.
“This is so messed up … new fear unlocked,” one commenter wrote.
“OMG this needs to blow up so that all the girlies can be hyper-aware of this,” another added.
A spokeswoman from SAPOL urged members of the public to take care when providing a phone number in a public setting.
“We would like to remind members of the public to be vigilant of who they may be supplying this information to, who can obtain this information and who may be able to overhear this information being given at the time,” she said.
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