I am being catfished right now!

I saw a very funny TikTok a while ago with someone showing what they say to these callers who are calling to help you with a problem on your computer that you aren't aware of.... they try to ask for your password etc, and her response goes something like this... (imagine said in typical game show intonation...)..

"yes, my password is..... 3....2....1... and you are live on national tv, please don't swear, the FBI are also on the call and we are filming a documentary about scammers, please stay on the line"

Sadly I only ever get the there's a problem with your laptop and I can fix it by taking control of it calls. Last time I said could he hang on and then I read him the very detailed description of his own scam that I had found online. He lasted for the first three paragraphs...

DH runs Linux on his computer (which he built himself) so he greatly enjoys chatting to the callers who want to warn him that his Microsoft account has been compromised and he needs to do exactly as they tell him.

He also had another lovely chat last week with an American who needed an urgent discussion about our recent train trip from London to Norway.

I'm feeling a bit left out now, as neither of us has been wooed by silver foxes of either sex. But give it time, I suppose.

Ask him if you can borrow some money 😀

I have had a couple telling me there is a problem with Windows. One I hung up on straight away, the other one, I was bored so I agreed with him and tried to initiate a discussion about condensation inside the window unit and whether I needed a complete new window unit or just replacement seals. I think he hung up on me.

A guy of the same description/ story contacted my friend on her professional website, but the english was excellent, and photos were attractive. We googled him, saw the photos, read the comments about him. A real doctor living in Denmark, I think, had his profile stolen for this - so it looks even more realistic.
Trafficked or not, the more these identities are put out there the better, if we can help protect one vulnerable lonely person it will be worth it.

Years ago someone wanted to buy my holiday times shares. Oh I thought I can get some money here. She wouldn't tell me how much they were. This phone call went on for 2o minutes and my children who were young at the time were killing themself laughing as they knew what was happening .

She then got angry and said 'you don't have any time share you are wasting my time'.
Well you phoned me and thought I could get some money .she hung up.

I’m a fully paid-up pedant, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with diminutives.

Both my parents are only children. I'm so relieved that I will never have to worry about using the wrong version of aunt, aunty or auntie.

My late DF had someone call and tell him his computer was going to crash. They needed x amount of £ and access to his computer to stop it happening. He played along for ages, acting daft and pretending to do what they said.
He was a computer analyst programmer and had a wicked sense of humour ❤️

I'm a 61 year old Brit and have rarely seen aunty. As it's a diminutive of aunt, rather than a source word, I suspect it comes down to personal preference. Like Johnnie/Johnny.

Tell him about your crush on Art Garfunkel. It won't be easy but the least he deserves is honesty.

Friend of mine had a similar call. There was a long pause before they hung up after she asked if that was the accident where she died

Was he in 'special forces' and seen terrible things but can't talk about it?

I got inundated by private messages from Paul Simon after I went to one of his concerts. I was way back in the Albert Hall but I must have made an impression. He wanted to give me VIP tickets to his shows. He wouldn't back off. I was like, 'WTF Paul. We're both married. You have previous for domestic violence. I liked Graceland hun but it can't go further.' He still PMs me sometimes. Desperate guy. I guess his voice is failing now he's older and he has time on his hands these days

I know someone who fell for it, luckily she got suspicious after a while and asked me to take a look at his profile. She stupidly sent photos of her kids and grandkids to him, luckily she didn’t send any money. It’s hard to believe anyone would fall for it but I guess a woman in her 50’s maybe flattered by a good looking marine showing interest in her 😬

I'm so tempted now. I've had several clean cut, church-going army vets want to friend me on FB recently and when I didn't respond, I got approached by some lovely beardy guys hugging their dawgs. Have to fall for one or the other, surely.

I have a very locked down social media and I had one a few months ago. Someone responded to an exercise bike I was selling on marketplace supposedly interested. In that post I had said no longer able to use due to knee injury.

This guy asked where it was, and he would get back to me. Then said by the way I read about your knee injury and said he was a knee consultant. He was at great pains to let me know that I didn't need to tell him anything if I felt he was being rude etc. It was very, very convincing as an ordinary human being. I started to tell him a bit about my knee and it got to the point where he asked if I would send him a video of the knee bending. I decided to exit at that point as it felt off. A week later I had another message from someone with the exact same script!!

The clever ones prey on vulnerable people. They know something like an injury is something very hard for people and any offer of help will be taken because it can get rather desperate at times. I was quite amazed by this one, and am not surprised people fall for this stuff.

I’m a Brit and always used ‘Auntie’ - when I still had any aunts.
’Aunty’ looks odd to me.

And @Untilitisnt , ‘Aunties* is the plural of ‘Auntie’, too.

I used to love the computer scammers. They started on my 50th birthday because at fifty all women become stupid greedy and lonely. I'd pretend my computer was upstairs and I'd walk up there very slowly then come back down to answer the landline, string them along for ever, up and down the stairs, doing exactly as they instructed. And then when they asked what I could see on my screen (which I guess should have been some sort of security access) I'd go into minute detail about gorgeous snapshots of my fictitious grandchildren who were on my screensaver on rotation.

Isn‘t it a difference between American and British English?

aunty being more common in the UK, auntie in the USA?

Someone once cloned my grandmother's Facebook account and I gave him job hunting advice. Turns out there's colleges in Nigeria that teach people how to scam Westerners. It's not all gangs. As far as he was concerned, this was his job and was more profitable than anything else he could do there. We had about a 2 hour chat and in the end I just said that I was going to report him now and he just said he understood 🤣

It's sad that people are desperate enough to fall for this guff. The BBC (I think they were part of whatever morning show was on) did a series on love scams just recently - very brave of the women to tell their stories.

Alaye?

And how is stringing the person on going to change that outcome, except not make anyone any money or hurt anyone else?

Yeah, I didnt get that either. Whether you string them along or immediately block, both ways they get no money so the outcome is exactly the same. Unless this is implying they WANT people to be scammed as some kind of altruistic act to help the person being trafficked which is insane.