A quick thread on this and why several Iranians I spoke to said this stunt was confusing and potentially dangerous ↘️
To start with, the message was unsolicited and came in the middle of the night — around 1am Iran time — according to several recipients I spoke too. The gut feeling many had when they saw the SMS was that they were being targeted by hackers. Here’s one reaction: ↘️ 
Here’s another ↘️
It didn’t help that whoever sent this message decided to use a custom link shortener — a tactic favored by hackers of all stripes and Iran-linked groups like Charming Kitten in particular. Cybersecurity trainers often warn at-risk groups about the dangers of short links.
To make matters worse, for many recipients, the text *appeared* to come from Google. The reason for that isn’t clear to me, but the net effect is that some recipients believe Google gave their personal data to the US government.
See also, for example:
Whatever the mechanics or intent of this messaging campaign, the net effect among those I spoke to — and those posting online — seems to have been confusion, alarm, or amusement:
If you know who’s responsible for these messages — and who specifically was targeted — get in touch: raphae.li
