Please Do Not Text Any Fake Celebrity Phone Numbers

There is an internet scourge ongoing: the proliferation of fake celebrity phone numbers scattered all over social media. Do not be tricked! They are not real! YouTube menace Jake Paul will never text you back!

According to the New York Times, celebrities have started putting their “phone numbers” on social media, luring in fans with the promise of best celebrity friendship, while really spamming them with auto-messages and, if you’re texting Ashton Kutcher, “several texts full of disjointed thoughts and a photo.” The phone numbers are reportedly created by tech start-up Community, which helps celebrities and businesses handle and organization mass communication. (Kutcher is one of Community’s partners.)

Apparently, the celebrities can text their fans directly if they want to, but it sounds like most of them don’t. Per the New York Times:

For instance, I texted Scooter Braun’s public number several times asking for updates on Justin Bieber’s wedding weekend and have yet to receive a response.

But you could get lucky. Earlier this month, Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur and marketer who uses Community, tweeted a video of himself responding to messages on his iPhone.

Mr. Vaynerchuk said he has been a Community user for about six weeks and so far loves the platform. He said Community does a good job of organizing the messages. He goes through and responds to them within the Community app, and those messages are then distributed to his fans via text.

I guess that’s nice for folks who want to talk to Gary Vaynerchuk, but what if you want to talk to Kutcher? What if you have some questions? What if you want some answers?

Best of luck:

Mr. Kutcher has also teased personal responses. His initial text reads: “hey it’s Ashton. this is an autotext to let you know I got your message, everything else will be from me. make sure you click the link and add yourself to my phone so I can respond to you.”

In 2008, I subscribed to Barack Obama’s phone list and saved the number in my phone accordingly. At first, it was really fun to see “Barack Obama” flash on my phone screen. Eight years and 70,000 donation-asks later, I do not miss that phone number, even if I miss that president quite frequently. All of this is to say: do not text the celebrity.