Man got spam texts for 'Erin' for 10 years, so he mailed her a fake $1M lottery prize. She called to claim it — and made one costly mistake
They dealt with spam calls for a decade before they lured Erin into a fake $1 million prank
Dealing with spam calls is already frustrating enough, but dealing with it on someone else's behalf takes that annoyance to a whole different level. A person who goes by u/viperthreat on Reddit dealt with that irritation for a decade before they lured the spam culprit, Erin, into a fake $1 million prank. The story was shared on September 12, 2026, and has since received 11, 000 upvotes.
The revenge plan
The plot began years ago when the author kept receiving text messages meant for a woman named "Erin." Over time, they pieced together clues from the messages and figured out that Erin lived somewhere in Irvine, California, and even found out the street name. The real breakthrough happened during a checkout at Harbor Freight when the cashier turned the screen around to confirm an address linked to their phone number, which turned out to be Erin's residence. Realizing she had been handing out their personal contact information to dodge retail spam, the writer's mind began to conspire. They drafted a convincing, high-end letter announcing Erin had won a $1,000,000 Harbor Freight Sweepstakes. "I made some convincing artwork and went to a print shop to have it printed on some nice cardstock paper and a professional-looking envelope, just to make it look extra convincing," the author recounted.
An 'Uno Reverse' for Erin
The actual drama started when Erin called the line "over the moon about having just won $1,000,000," only for the writer to break the news that the prize had already been claimed. Erin was shook to her core and confessed that she gives out a fake number to avoid spam calls. The writer then replied without breaking their character, "I'm sorry, ma'am, we use phone numbers as the unique identifier for customer accounts. This is why we ask for your number every time you shop with us." The cherry on top was when they said, "Well, ma'am, our sweepstakes is based on phone number, and since this isn't your phone number, you are not eligible to win. The person with this phone number has already claimed the reward."
Erin was, of course, sad, but she asked the writer to update the records with her actual phone number for future sweepstakes. After getting her real contact details, the author signed her up for sales calls and quotes for cars, insurance, satellite television, roof repairs, and replacement windows. "What can I say? It's been a quiet week at work, and I've had a few 8+ hour shifts with no better way to entertain myself," they added.
Spam calls are not so common
Spam calls and texts remain a massive issue across the country, with reports from Pew Research revealing that 61% of Americans receive spam text messages, 68% get spam calls, and 63% get spam emails at least weekly. Similarly, the Federal Trade Commission data show that in 2024, 38% of people reported losing money to fraud or scams. While giving out a fake phone number at retail checkouts is a common trick to dodge marketing lists, this story serves as a hilarious reminder that using a real person's active line can backfire in ways you'd never expect.
'Keep signing her up for random shit'
Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit story, u/Unapologetic_Canuck suggested, "Keep signing up for random shit using her number; see how she likes getting all that spam instead of doing it to other people." u/Fluffy-Designer shared, "Oh, that’s good. That tickled my very tired brain this morning. Thank you. I’ve been receiving emails from someone in America (I’m in Australia) and the closest I’ve gotten to petty revenge is cancelling a whale watching thing she gave them my email address for. It wasn’t very exciting though."
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