Emergency SOS text received, from a person I knew 15 yrs ago but not met since 2011

[piddocktrumperiness]

I received an SOS text from Apple, with a location of someone I knew 15 yrs ago. We worked together in a call centre but have not been in touch since 2011 and I didn't have her number stored on my phone. I looked up the number on WhatsApp- the photo matches the person. Location matches where she lives.

I initially thought it was a scam but thought best be safe- called her number, no answer, left a message on her voicemail. I sent her a WhatsApp too.

Have I been scammed? I've never heard or seen of this type of message before but what flagged up my doubt is that it said I was contacted as I'm listed as an emergency contact- which I know can't be true. I do wonder if my name was accessible from contact list due to my surname or first name.

Have I done something stupid here? anyone else experience this?

I switched this off on my apple watch as it kept thinking I was having a fall when I did burpees in a workout 😂

It's important to remember that not everyone has close family and friends they can or want to put down as emergency contacts. Not via an automatic alert as in the OP, but I have been phoned twice as an emergency contact when I didn't know I had been given as one and didn't know the people that well at all. Schools, doctors, employers and so on often ask for an emergency contact and people think they have to give someone and do the best they can. It can be a bit of a shock but I chose to respond the best I could because someone was in dire straits and had put their trust in me for whatever reason.

Any update OP? Feel abit anxious for your friend

It's very strange that she hasn't replied if it was a case of accidentally setting it off. Hope it turns out ok.

You should probably see someone about your anxiety

Having to do burpees constitutes an emergency in my book 😂

No message or call back from her yet. I'm going to give 101 a call later and see if there is an update.
Location has not changed so I'm near convinced the phone died and she was not aware, phone lost or something

There’s an arrow at the top of the thread, where you select “watch thread”. Useful if you also want to stop getting updates from a thread.

@Glitteratitar Great stuff, thank you!

We had this exact thing last weekend from DSD (31) who lives alone.
Obviously very concerned we called her immediately = she’d heard the news story regarding the government testing the new emergency alert system on 23rd April and had gone into her phone’s setting to try & switch this off and she somehow managed to send an emergency SOS text to all those contacts she’d marked las emergency contacts.

@Glitteratitar there’s also a Bookmark tab under each post

My apple keeps crashing and sending out Emergency messages and not allowing me to turn off phone

@BaggieMaggie
You should probably see someone about your anxiety

🤦🏻‍♀️ give over you patronising swine, it's fine to worry about others.

My son has an Apple Watch and we were in a car accident last year and it sent a couple of messages basically asking him if he was ok. He ignored them in the confusion of sorting out the car in the pouring rain, and about 2 hours later we got two police officers at the front door checking he was ok. I was so impressed!
It had sent an emergency alert to me too, but I was there with him so I had also ignored it.

No I don’t think it is fine to be anxious over an anonymous post where an op received a (possible) sos from a friend she hasn’t seen or spoken to in 15 years. If you are genuinely anxious about something that has literally nothing to do with you, you should probably see someone about it.

"Self important" for saying something is a scam?!

Your context is way off.

There was no indication at all of it being a scam. It was a silly kneejerk response

Not necesarily a scam, my Dad accidently sent my Mum half a dozen of these messages one night, panicked the blimming shit of her as he has a heart condition..... turns out he's just a dopey old technophobe and pressed a wrong button, numerous times!

Did you hear from her?

No nothing yet @niugboo

Crikey that is worrying.

If she has FB and is active on it could you see when she was last online? or last posted?

if you look up the location on the map it will give you the name of the area. Maybe google it and see if there's any article in the news, God forbid

oh god I really hope she’s ok. Maybe you were accidentally saved as an emergency contact.

Just got off the phone with 101 after an hour long wait. They did send officers out. All in order- her phone was broken and sent messages to random contacts.

Glad she's ok. Obvs not heard back but this all makes sense now.

pheeewwww

Thanks everyone for being here and supportive

You could try googling her name on social media platforms. Facebook is probably your best bet. I hope she's OK.