Creepy story behind the viral voicemail pick-up TikTok trend

Molly Dare went viral last week when she shared a TikTok captioned “Dating in your 40s be like…” — and shocked over 1.5 million people with the creepy tone.

In the video, Dare reacts as she listens to a disturbing voicemail from a man calling for the second time in a pick-up attempt gone very wrong.

“It’s Dimitri calling again — the guy from the street,” the voicemail begins.

“I left you a message several days ago. I don’t like leaving second messages, but I like you: you’re a very elegant woman, you’re very attractive. But I don’t play that game. So, this is how it’s going to work.”

Dimitri goes on to give the listener a 3 p.m. deadline to return his call before he loses interest. He describes himself as “a complete catch” who is “very intelligent,” “great in bed” and makes “great money.”

“A matter of fact, I am one few men in the city that has nothing wrong with him,” he boldly claims.

Unable to fathom why the woman hasn’t called him back, he begins to list possible “psychological issues” she may have that are preventing her from connecting with him.

“Maybe you were abused in childhood? Maybe you’re just somebody who’s extremely frightened and has an anxiety disorder? Maybe you’re on some medication for that? I don’t know. There could be another issue,” Dimitri suggests.

He also tells her that he understands if she is “psychologically normal” but hasn’t called because “there has been some horrible thing that’s happened” in her life.

The video abruptly ends there with Dare mocking the video and making exaggerated shocked faces throughout the clip.

She went on to make several more videos mocking the outrageous comments her viral video attracted and also noted in the comments that the voice message wasn’t actually left for her.

The original audio clip was created by Dr. James Sears who used the alias “Dimitri the Love” when promoting himself as a pick-up artist nearly 10 years ago.

While the clip she was using wasn’t hers, a wave of misogynistic TikTokers jumped in the comments to question why Dare is dating in her 40s.

“Gets absolutely slaughtered in comments with men telling me I’ve aged out of dating by 39,” she wrote in a follow-up video, noting that “all the 40 something’s coming to my defense.”

She also noted she was “slammed for using a trending audio and it not being my own.”

The “Dimitri the Lover” audio clip continues to pop up on social media every few years as people continue to be disgusted by Sears’ message, but unfortunately not shocked by the inappropriate statements filled with dating red flags.

The disgraced Canadian doctor lost his medical license in 1992 after he was found guilty of professional misconduct, including engaging in “sexual impropriety with patients,” The Toronto Star reported.

He went on to promote himself as a pick-up artist using vulgar and demeaning tactics in an attempt to seduce women, including the “Dimitri” voicemail as one of his ploys.

And while a disappointing amount of women seem to have experienced an aggressively arrogant and degrading pick-up attempt at one point or another, many TikTok users are using the clip to mock men like “Dimitri.”

Most of the recent TikTok videos using the sound are similar to Dare’s with women mocking the men and making shocked facial expressions with captions like “What dating looks like in your 30s…” or “Dating pool in LA.”

Sears also began his own political party, the unregistered New Constitution Party, which former Canadian Jewish Congress chief executive Bernie Farber described as “a clear attempt at a hateful representation of Jews.”

In January 2019, Sears was found guilty of promoting hatred against women and Jews in his newspaper, Your Ward News. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail and then re-arrested in February of this year after allegedly violating his parole conditions after he “publicly proposed a gruesome public execution” for Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam in a video circulating on Twitter.