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Even though Tinder exists, some people still talk to other humans in bars in the hope of scoring a date .

And some drinkers know to give a fake number out to pushy customers. It's a fine ploy, tested through the ages.

Joey Royle knows all too well the trick to dispel unwanted lovers. A girl called Elsie gives his number out when she doesn't fancy her pursuers.

It seems Joey's number is one digit off hers. After a few, sometimes it's hard to come up with a completely different phone number to your own.

Joey, from Melbourne, Australia, gets a fair few texts and calls from would-be daters. It sounds a bit tedious.

(Image: Getty)

So what do you do?

Well, recently, Joey decided to play along for a while. Things got weird.

"It's the age old riddle," Joey wrote on Facebook, while posted screenshots of a conversation he had with a random bloke.

"What do you do when a girl in Melbourne is giving out your number as her random fake number when she's rejecting sleazy dudes?

"Do you a) clear up the misunderstanding, or b) #becomeElsie and organise a date."

Joey told the Ladbible that he's never met Elsie.

"She lives in a different state, he said.

"Once I had a text saying, 'Hey is this Elsie?' and another time I had a call asking for her. It was then I realised there was a trend developing."

Here's Joey's antics in full...

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Oh dear.