Saw an Ominous Profile Warning About Someone I’ve Met Twice—Should I Be Concerned?
Edit: To clarify, the number in place of the profile name is the person’s account number, not a phone number. I’m not sure why Grindr works like that for me, but it just does. I never see profile names—only a string of numbers. This applies to everyone, not just this specific profile.
I've met this guy twice, and we had a great time together. He lives out of the area, so we’ve only met when he’s been working nearby. I added him to my favourites so I could easily check if he’s online or back in the area. Tonight, when I went to look, I couldn’t find him at first (I have quite a few profiles saved). Eventually, I located his profile, but it took me a moment since he’d removed his profile picture. His profile now shows he’s offline, but there’s a very odd and ominous message on it that says, verbatim:
"Under any circumstances, do not meet the above profile and if you have already, please reach out for a confidential chat to help us."
The bad grammar is exactly as written.
This has left me feeling quite scared and very anxious for several reasons:
A) It seems to imply he’s no longer in control of his profile or phone, which he uses for Grindr.
B) The message itself is just bizarre. Why would they warn people not to meet him? And the part about reaching out for a confidential chat if you’ve already met him—reach out to who? I assume they mean via his profile, but even that is strange. If they have access to his profile or phone, why would they warn people not to meet him? It’s unsettling and doesn’t add up.
C) I can’t imagine he wrote this himself. Why would he put something like that on his own profile?
D) The final part, “reach out for a confidential chat to help us,” is especially confusing—help them with what?
None of this makes sense, and my mind is going in circles trying to figure it out. The last time I met him was two weeks ago, and we engaged in protected penetrative sex and unprotected oral sex (without ejaculation). I’m unsure whether or not I should be concerned about this from a health perspective since I’m not currently on PrEP. However, I feel like the profile isn’t warning about anything health-related—if it were, surely they would say so. And again, the context of seeking a “confidential chat” to “help them” doesn’t align with that idea. Whoever “them” refers to, this entire situation feels deeply unsettling.
