I am being catfished right now!

Scam Interceptors. - BBC1

One of the main ones they try and disrupt is the Amazon gift card one.

Person scammer is trying to con is sent a voice message from 'Amazon' saying their annual £79.99 had been auto renewed. And to press 1 to stop the payment. But they then expect the called person to accept the the refund is by way of a bloody gift card! Scammer gets the target to download a program called Anydesk which gives the bastards full access to their phone. And people fall for this crap!

And one episode shows the actual call centre. Those callers don't look like they are being trafficked. One scammer even played Solitaire while on the phone to a target.

A good scam-baiting site is 418 eater, they can keep the scammers occupied for months.

I had a FB request tonight. Widowed Orthopedic surgeon. But now he works for the UN.

Re being conned straightaway, guess you are right, good call to ask them for money lol like your style 👍 nothing like beating them at their own game

I'm fluent in Swedish. Ask me anything and I'll translate. Then see what he says!

They can't 'con' you out of nowhere. They rely on building a rapport - it's sometimes quite cleverly done (mirroring etc) and building a relationship. They can't persuade you to part with money if you don't want to, their trick is to make you want to.

I've only toyed with one once. We were only a few messages in when he asked for money (so he must have been an amateur), whereupon I responded in very broken English that I needed him to send me money, if he loved me that much. Never heard from him again.

😂😂

I'm forever getting these friend requests , find it really annoying especially on the groups they pop up on, I would never entertain them as I just straightaway think minute I accept I will be conned, they just need to be reported. It had never occurred to me to string them along and have fun with it. I get that it could be fun but just too wary

Best ever AIBU 👏👏👏👏

My claim for PTSD will be processed eventually. Honest.

That's really sad about your grandmother and scammy uncle, @Maerchentante. Glad he got caught eventually.

This could go on for ever 😂

I think they "other" us easily so they hardly feel a qualm. Even earning 40k a year living in a small terraced house they would see that as so rich that it's morally ok to scam us.

Part of me feels sorry for anyone desperate enough to do this, but then I think of the hurt they cause. I had a good friend who got caught up with this from a Malaysian scammer, who she sent all over KL to pick up non-existent Western Union transfers that were made up. She strung him along for ages and even wrote a blog about it.

When I was young and used to do penpals (remember that?) I had a few people who would feign interest for a couple of letters, then their mother would need to go to hospital, or their wood burning stove would need replacing. It was always the same form letter. I did get one useful tip from one Georgian who told me the best way to send money abroad was to slip it into the spine of a small hardback book.

Love this, hilarious!

Best ad placement ever

Is that Artie, or Arty? 😉

I'm just over 70, wonder if my past is like your DM's? Being young in the early 1970s was a lot of fun
So perhaps she had good cause to pause for a minute, worrying Probably best not to ask her, though...

All those posters who leap on to say 'this is clearly a SCAM, I've had it, don't send him any money!' are annoying me. Do they not read the OP properly? This is clearly a poster who knows EXACTLY what she's doing and she's not 'falling for a scam'. Tch.

About 20 years ago, my maternal grandmother was told that there was an inheritance case for which she would have to pay x amount of Euro, so the lawyers could fight her case.

She told me when she said that she didn't have that money, could I lend her some. I left her a total of €200 and went shopping for her. Of course, that triggered calls for more money which I declined.

The funny thing was, that there were really some inheritance issues from when my aunt and then two years later her husband died.
They had had a will where they left a lot to my sister and which also stated that my grandmother should get her debts to my aunt forgiven. These were for repairs to the house and stuff like that. Though by the time they died not much in money or possessions was left
One of my uncles decided that he had invested so much time (haha) that he deserved to get everything left. We didn't fight it as a) there wasn't much and b) we simply did not have the money to.

Cue my other uncle preying on his mother telling her the "inheritance" scam sob story, which she believed because poor Chris would never lie (again haha).
He ended up scamming her of thousands, he had form for that.
Took me five years, but I got my money back and then cut all contact.

From what I heard my uncle was eventually convicted for scamming people and spent some time inside. Wouldn't surprise me if he is back to his old ways.

Also had an Austin contact me but he used Paul Hollywoods photo😜

Wife is always dead, kids are always in boarding school. I like to get the sex of the child wrong now and again, they rarely notice, but that's probably because they are working so hard as a military surgeon, and the child is away a lot.

I had one who used the pic of a very handsome, gay, older model. When I pointed out that his (REAL) profile said he was gay, he got extremely offended with me!! LOL

I had Keanu Reeves and George Clooney vying for me … I played along for a few days then told them I found out my friend was messaging them as well but not to worry about our love as I had dealt with her and not to worry because the foundations had been poured so the body was untraceable…

How is it working?

My poor mum who’s nearly 70 and a widow got a guy telling her he’d seen her naked sex tape and he needs money to destroy it. 😂 Luckily she is savvy enough to know it was a scam, but she still worried for a minute!

Yeah it’s actually pretty sick but they know it’s ridiculous, they’re looking for the very vulnerable.