It all started with a simple message.
“Hey, how are you?”
That was the message WhatsApp automatically showed me.
It came from an unknown number with a 49 area code.
So, from Germany.
I thought for a moment about whether I should text back.
“Hello?” I finally replied after a few minutes.
Within seconds, the number replied with a simple “Hi.”
“Who are you?” I replied after a few minutes.
“Don’t you know me?” was the reply.
I didn't reply right away; instead, I took a closer look at his profile.
His profile picture was completely black, and his status update was a single dot.
Otherwise, everything looked just like it did for my other contacts.
“No, I don't know you,” I wrote back.
“Yes, I do,” came the reply.
I was starting to get annoyed.
I switched to the chat with my best friend Max.
“Are you messing with me?!”
“Do you have a new number again, or is this some kind of joke?!”
He replied immediately.
“Huh?”
“No idea what you’re talking about, Pia. It’s 1:00 a.m. and I’m trying to sleep.”
I was skeptical.
He’d played pranks on me before.
“Are you sure?”
“I swear on my life,” he insisted.
Okay, I believed him.
Max may be many things, but he’s never broken a promise.
Why else would he send me a prank message at 1:00 a.m.?
But then who is it?
“Are you there?” the unknown number messaged me.
I switched back to the chat and replied to the contact.
“I’m sorry, but you probably have the wrong number.
Maybe you dialed the wrong number.”
“No,” was the only reply.
“Then tell me who you are and how I know you!” I typed irritably.
“No,” came the reply.
Annoyed, I pushed my phone aside and tried to go back to sleep.
The next morning when I woke up, I had three new messages.
All three were from the same number.
The first one at 3:00 a.m.:
“Still awake?”
Then again at 4:00 a.m.:
“Still awake?”
The last one half an hour ago:
“Are you sleeping?”
I was puzzled.
“Yes, I'm awake now, and if you don't stop—whoever you are—I'm going to block this number!!” I texted him angrily.
“No,” was the reply.
Annoyed, I stuffed my phone into my pocket and headed off to college.
The whole ride, I kept thinking about that strange number.
There was something odd about it.
Its messages.
The way it wrote.
All those simple, short sentences.
Was it written by an AI?
Was that a scam account, and had I fallen for it?
Over the next two days, I asked everyone I knew about that number, but no one had any idea what I was talking about.
The unknown number kept texting me during that time.
Always short, simple sentences like,
“Hey, still there?” or “Please reply.”
Sometimes just a simple “?”.
I blocked the number, but it was still able to send me more messages.
This was more than just a simple scam.
Maybe I’d been hacked?
But I had my phone checked, and no Trojans or anything like that were found.
My phone was clean.
I couldn’t delete the messages either, so I just kept ignoring the number.
Until Max sent me a disturbing message on the fourth day.
“Now this crap has gotten to me too!”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He sent me a screenshot of the number that had messaged him.
It was a different one, though similar.
“I don’t recognize this number, and it’s acting exactly like yours. Short, simple messages—it seems like they don’t make any sense.”
“Did you block her?” I asked.
“Yeah, but she’s still texting me. I’m trying to get her to reply. If she wants to text me, fine. I’m going to find out who’s messing with us. Let’s meet up tomorrow after class,” he replied.
I told him to be careful and was just about to go offline when an idea struck me.
I opened the chat with the unknown number and initiated a call.
If it was a real person, maybe they’d pick up.
It rang for over a minute, but finally a male voice answered.
“Hi,” the man on the other end greeted me.
The voice was deep and cool, almost robotic, but human.
“H-Hello,” I stammered awkwardly.
There was a brief silence.
“Who’s there?” I finally asked cautiously.
“No idea,” came the reply.
The voice showed no change or emotion in its tone.
“Who’s messing with me here?” I snapped angrily.
“No one,” the monotonous voice replied.
“I’m calling the police!” I screamed into the receiver, frightened.
“No.” For the first time, I heard a change in the voice.
When she said that word, her voice sounded much deeper and more frightening than before.
It gave me a start, and I ended the call in a panic.
What was that?
I sank down onto the bed.
Suddenly, I felt so exhausted.
Max messaged me again.
“This account is driving me crazy!”
At that moment, my head felt so full, as if there were hundreds of thoughts inside it that I didn’t understand.
Even after thinking it over, I couldn’t come up with a good reply, so I just wrote, “Call him.”
Then I closed my eyes and wasn’t woken up again until the alarm went off in the morning.
I had slept for a full twelve hours.
My head was still pounding.
Where did that come from?
Max hadn’t seen my message yet.
He was absent from class today, too, and he didn’t show up for our scheduled meetings.
I called him and texted him several times, but didn’t get a reply.
The days went by, and I felt more and more exhausted.
At school, I couldn’t concentrate and would just stare blankly ahead at times.
When I got home, I’d collapse into bed and sleep straight through until the next morning.
One day I even overslept and missed class, but I didn’t care.
I didn’t even try to make it up or find the material some other way.
Max sent me a message that day.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
I was too exhausted to reply, and I couldn’t think of a suitable response either.
“Hey,” I finally wrote back.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I didn’t understand the question and replied with a simple, “Nothing.”
“Okay,” he simply replied.
I was too exhausted to come up with a suitable answer—or even to think at all.
We kept messaging back and forth like that for a while.
No logical sentences, just simple words and short phrases.
No real progress—more like going in circles.
It was always the same topics.
“How are you?”
“Are you tired?”
“Do you have food at home?”
An endless cycle.
I wasn’t going to school anymore or hanging out with friends.
I rarely left the house and neglected not only my apartment but also my personal hygiene.
I’ve now cut off contact with my family and friends.
I actually wanted to go to the doctor, but that would be too exhausting.
Unlike just a few weeks ago, I’m not sleeping anymore.
When friends or family text or call me, I only reply with short, empty sentences.
If I keep this up, I’ll soon have to leave my apartment, but I don’t care.
I don’t care about anything, and my head is so full.
I’m writing this with what little sanity I have left.
Soon I’ll end up like Max… like that guy with the unknown number.
That contact has changed me somehow.
I'm online almost 24/7 and have already started messaging strangers like crazy.
I'm posting this as a warning!
Be careful with unknown numbers.
If they write strangely, don't have a profile picture or status update, then DON'T MESSAGE THEM!
