Electronics

[Summer Shine]

Ok, I'm am stumped my Dad got this message, "sorry I missed your birthday=E2=80=93", this was used a couple of times in the message, he's asking me what the numbers mean. I have no idea! Anyone understand this???

[Mz iMac]

Where did your father see this message?

Email?

Website (browser)?

Desktop?

[ChynnaBlue]

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@Summer Shine wrote:

Ok, I'm am stumped my Dad got this message, "sorry I missed your birthday=E2=80=93", this was used a couple of times in the message, he's asking me what the numbers mean. I have no idea! Anyone understand this???

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Sorry, there's not nearly enough information here to answer your question. What kind of message? Text? Email? Facebook Messenger? If those numbers were used a couple of times, what did the rest of the message say?

[Summer Shine]

I assumed email but not sure, I'll check with him tomorrow.

[dooBdoo]

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@Summer Shine wrote:

Ok, I'm am stumped my Dad got this message, "sorry I missed your birthday=E2=80=93", this was used a couple of times in the message, he's asking me what the numbers mean. I have no idea! Anyone understand this???

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@Summer Shine, Whether in email, or text, or elsewhere, I'm pretty sure that's nothing but the coding sequence for the "en dash" or the hyphen character.  Something about your Dad's device, its software, or its settings, (eta: or messy coding) is causing the programming code to show instead of the actual dash.

hth!

[Zhills]

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@Summer Shine wrote:

Ok, I'm am stumped my Dad got this message, "sorry I missed your birthday=E2=80=93", this was used a couple of times in the message, he's asking me what the numbers mean. I have no idea! Anyone understand this???

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If you read the message, I'll bet the numbers are showing up where his name normally would be in the message.

Companies and some people keep a "database" with their contacts information in it (how they found his birthday). 

They compose a letter or message and everywhere they put a certain "code" it picks up the name with that birthday in that spot.  Sounds like it was either coded incorrectly or the "merge" function failed.

Many people compose a Christmas letter this way and insert the name and address of their contacts in it.   Hope this solves your mystery!

[dooBdoo]

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@dooBdoo wrote:

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@Summer Shine wrote:

Ok, I'm am stumped my Dad got this message, "sorry I missed your birthday=E2=80=93", this was used a couple of times in the message, he's asking me what the numbers mean. I have no idea! Anyone understand this???

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@Summer Shine, Whether in email, or text, or elsewhere, I'm pretty sure that's nothing but the coding sequence for the "en dash" or the hyphen character.  Something about your Dad's device, its software, or its settings, (eta: or messy coding) is causing the programming code to show instead of the actual dash.

hth!

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Quoting myself...   I looked it up this morning to be sure.

For an "en dash" character (a slightly longer hyphen), the Unicode code point is U+2013, and its UTF-8 encoding is E2 80 93.  

So I'm guessing if you look at all his messages, if you substitute a hyphen for the "E2=80=93" you'll see that's what was intended.

[chickenbutt]

I would REALLY tell him that he should NEVER open emails unless he is positively certain who they are from and that they are legitimate.  This just sounds like some kind of either phishing or something that is going to load some kind of malware or theft on his system.

I'm not trying to be mean or rude - honestly.  I just feel like maybe he's opening emails that should be deleted WITHOUT opening, so that his computer and personal information will be safe.

[Summer Shine]

Thanks for all the replies. The message was from my Aunt sent via email. Sounds like some coding qlitch. Thought it was some cool new texting short hand,ha! I recently had to google SMH in a text, couldn't figure it for the life of me. 🤔Thanks for all the help!!!