I know there are scammers/weirdos but just can’t work out what’s going on here and wondered whether any one else has experienced anything like this and could shed any light.
About 2 months ago, my teenage son’s bike was stolen. Expensive bike he saved towards himself from his paper round. It was locked up at the town and the lock was cut off. Anyway, we were advised by the police to get the photo straight onto social media locally in the hope someone might recognise it etc. That evening I had a friend request from a woman’s name, profile picture woman in her 60s I’d say. Common first name, but spelt ‘wrong’ or at least in a way I’ve never seen it written before. Normally I’d ignore but wondered if it was someone with info about the bike so didn’t accept the request but sent a ‘Hi?’ A response came from this person saying they’d seen my post about my son’s bike and we’re sorry to hear it, and that they’d ask their grandson to keep an eye out as he lives in the same area. I checked the profile and they had joined Facebook that same day, had approx 30 or so friends on there, every single one of which was foreign, mainly Asian sounding names but definitely not local or even British. It all felt so odd so I ignored and forgot all about it. Until yesterday morning at 7:15 or so. I got another message from this same profile out of the blue, in French. I speak French for my job. It said, in French, ‘I hope you have a good day and that your children die’. 😱 I was just leaving for work at the time and when I arrived at work and had chance to look again about an hour later, the message had been ‘unsent’. I was slightly creeped out at this point and did respond saying I’ve reported it to Facebook and will report to the police (didn’t know what else to say!). This person has not been ‘active’ since the minute they I sent that awful message to me. Anyway this person still only has non British Facebook friends (about 100 or so now I think).
I just can’t make sense of it - seeing my post on the local groups about the bike, creating the profile that same day, yet not seeming to actually be from here going from the friends list. Then messaging me in French. Then not being on there since messaging me. It’s a little unsettling! What on earth is going on?