trafficking scheme?????
Hello everyone. Today I, 18F, went to the Valley Fair Mall with my mother. At one point, we split up, and she waited at the food court while I went shopping by myself.
I was then stopped by two people looking to be around my age near the Uniqlo, where they complimented my shirt and asked me where I got it from. This by itself was surprising to me, because the shirt I was wearing could only be described as one that you would wear in the comfort of your own home, or to the nearest gas station when you're sure that nobody your age will see you. Upon telling them what store it was from (an online store), they began asking me questions about myself, such as if I was at the mall by myself, where I was from, what I was studying, etc. At the time, I thought they were simply being friendly, as me and one of the girls speaking were both from the same country and visiting San Jose for a few weeks. I thought this was just simple small talk, and we exchanged Instagrams and moved on with our days.
(Also to add, it was honestly a very pleasant conversation that lasted quite a while. Nothing religious/MLM-y was brought up, and their Instagram accounts were very normal and matched all the background details that they were giving me. They also had posts and highlights with their faces dating back to even 2020.)
However, maybe half an hour later, as I was walking by the same area, I was stopped again by a different duo, again around my age, complimenting my shirt and asking where it was from. Again, this shirt was ratty and bummy. I already thought this was odd, but I still told them the store. One of the girls then asked, "who did you come here with?" where I responded that I came with my mom. Ten seconds later, the other girl with her asked "who did you come here with?" again, to which the other girl responded "she said she came with her mom." Then the conversation promptly ended and we moved on with our days.
This was extremely odd to me, and later when I checked the Instagram profiles of the first duo that I exchanged with, I realized that they weren't even following each other, which would not make sense as the girl had told me that she was staying with the guy.
Is this like a known occurrence? Has anybody else had any encounters similar to this? Or is it just a super spooky coincidence?