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She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

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41–50 of 112 posts

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#41

Why 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.

Indeed, 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.

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#42
post #4

I 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.

Yeah, I find this article really distasteful. Being a public figure shouldn’t mean you have zero privacy.

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#43
It 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_Corporat...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#/media/File:194...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker#Turmoil_surroun...

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#44
post #3
post #2

tldr: 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.

AT&T should just retire the number at that point right

Or 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...

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#45
post #25

completely 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.

I know at least a dozen Bills and even more Steves but only one Elon.

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#47
post #4

I 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.

It is OK because Musk was contacted for the story, and presumably was fine with it.

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#49
post #25

completely 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.

Something to do with his image? Here in the UK people complain about exactly the same thing when people reference "Boris".

Re: She Gets Calls and Texts Meant for Elon Musk. Some Are Pretty Weird

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the messages suggests he still gives out this number.

This can be nasty. A friend of me once got a ton of phone calls for a specific realtor. Turns out the realtor made a misprint on their business card. The realtor didn't want to do the expense to print new business cards, so they were just going to give this card to everybody. Could he just forward everybody to them, and maybe fill in their customers on some basic information like opening hours and holidays etc. This…

I recall reading about a local business that lost their phone number of decades to a new hospital that printed a bunch of marketing materials with the wrong number and successfully persuaded the phone company to commandeer the number.

Update: I remember now, the phone company gave them the wrong number to begin with. Just a bizarre story all around, and quite cruel to the original business.

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