Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

fake people on facebook

37 replies

Flute56 · 01/02/2024 02:41

I thought I would do this thread as a warning to others/

I have been using facebook for a few years. I only have about 23 friends on my account because I am not the sort of person who adds people just for the sake of it. The people on it who see my profile are genuine people in my life whom i know well. A couple of days ago I got a facebook friends request from a male and I did not know him. Naturally I declined the request because I did not want him to see my full fb profile. Against his request, he had mutual friend listed and it was someone I know well from my personal life who is on my profile. At first I thought well he must be ok if he is on her profile, but I still do not know him so I am going to be cautious. His profile picture showed him dressed as a doctor. I thought no doctor would do this but people are people and you never know what even a professional gets up to in their personal life.

I was curious so I looked at his facebook and it showed his friends list and that was when alarm bells started ringing because he had a few friends on his list bu they were all women. When he answered my fb message he said hello gorgeous how are you you are beautiful in your profile pictureee. I said who are you and how did you find me i dont know you. He said he was searching for someone and came across my fb and liked how I looked and decided to add me so we can be friends. I said wehre do you live and he said Los Angeles originally but now i live and work in Yeman.

Before he said this, I had looked online and researched these people and it said most of the fake profiles from men wanting to scam or entice women will say they are from Yemen. At that point I blocked hidm and reported him to facebeook. I contacted my friend on fb who is also attached to this man on facebook and she had him listed on her fb as a friend and said he is dangerous. She read the message but so far has not responded back. I said to her who is he he is on you fb and is now trying to get on mine and I think he is using a fake account. She still has not responded. When I next see her I will talk to her about it and see what she says. I cannot believe she has allowed this fake man to be added to her account and he can see all her profile, her friends (unless she has set her account to say no friends to show) and all about her personal life etc.

It really makes me wonder how women can be scammed by men like this. I do not know what his motives are. I wokuld not send moneye to anyone over the internet that I did not know or would I be fooled by a man telling me he fancied me and could we start a relationship. The next thing that puzzles me is that you get a lot of vloggers on youtube and they vlog all about their life and have hundreds of followers. these vloggers are doing it for a job and they get paid for doing it. I follow a couple of them out of interest but that is all. Why would someone want to vlog their life for any stranger to see. My life is private and only certain people know about it.

I just thought I would put this out as a warning.

OP posts:
Flute56 · 01/02/2024 02:47

IAN LEE IS ANOTHER FAKE DOCTOR IN YEMEN PROFILE.. HIS HOME TOWN HE SAYS IN IS NIGERIA... THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE TALKING TO HERE.. A NIGERIAN SCAMMER

OP posts:
forrestgreen · 01/02/2024 04:12

There's probably millions of these accounts.

Mojodojocasahaus · 01/02/2024 04:23

Oh op you’re overthinking this. Just block and move on

Ladyof2022 · 01/02/2024 05:05

I get about ten of these friends requests every single day. Just ignore/block.

DecisionFatigue · 01/02/2024 05:09

Are you new to The Internet?

Hoglet70 · 01/02/2024 06:00

What everyone else said. Just block him.

Ouchmyarse · 01/02/2024 06:21

You are putting way too much energy into this. The amount of fake profiles like this who have messaged me over the years. Just block and delete. If doesn’t require this much thought.

Peachylass · 01/02/2024 06:26

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

countvoncount · 01/02/2024 06:31

Tale as old as time, where have you been?
Just block

OldBeyondMyYears · 01/02/2024 06:40

Good lord OP have you been living under a rock for the past 20 years! 🤦‍♀️

LittleSpanishFlea · 01/02/2024 06:40

Haven't you ever watched Catfish? Or the one on the BBC.

There was a woman on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning talking about how someone had set up an account using the name and photos of her dead teenage son.

If you are going to use the internet, you need to keep up with what's happening.

YellowDots · 01/02/2024 06:43

I follow a couple of them out of interest but that is all.

Ha!

So you follow some but you don't understand why they do it? They do it because people follow them and they monetise that.

niteklub · 01/02/2024 06:48

That's the norm on Facebook. Ignore the friend request, block, delete and repeat the next time it happens.
I run a Facebook page for a covers band and we always get fake ticket resellers. I think they have an algorithm that is set to pick up the words 'sold out' on facebook pages, or 'not many tickets left'. I block in an instant. I have the list of ticket holders so can validate in an instant that they're fake.
So many fake accounts and scammers about. Only ever accept friends requests from people you know in real life and always have 2-factor authentication on so you can't be hacked or cloned.

Flute56 · 01/02/2024 09:14

'well I have never had this happen to me before

OP posts:
Flute56 · 01/02/2024 09:26

What I really would like to know is why he had 10 facebook friends all women on his profile when I looked and none of them blocked him. This included an aquaintance of mine in real life that I see regularly. I am going to ask her when I see her why she has not blocked him. what does she get out of having a man with a face fb profile listed as a friend on her fb. He must be very bored and have nothing better to do than this and also he must have a very low opinion of himself to want to pretend to be someone he is not. I knew a woman who chatted online to a bloke on a chatt toom. He lived in America and adfter a month he said to her come out to USA and stay with me. She said yes and went. It turned out ok but could have been very different

OP posts:
Festivemoose · 01/02/2024 09:37

He must be very bored and have nothing better to do than this and also he must have a very low opinion of himself to want to pretend to be someone he is not

Surely you can’t be this naive OP? It’s not a bored man with low opinion of himself. It’s likely a “sakawa boy”

Tillow4ever · 01/02/2024 10:24

OP maybe your friend just accepted his request because they accept everyone - or maybe they have a mutual friend - but has blocked him on messenger after the messages and hit the wrong button that only blocked him on messenger, not FB too.

You've sent her a warning about him, you don't need to do anything else. She might be feeling stupid and embarrassed if you went on about it to her the way you have on here and that's why she hasn't responded. Just leave it be. If she tells you she's online dating a new guy and he lives in Yemen then maybe show her the messages he sent you and send her links to one of the articles you found online about the scam, but beyond that just leave it - assuming she is an adult she is old enough to make her own mistakes.

Maybe she's having fun playing the scammer at their own game - I've seen a few people do that to waste the scammers time and keep them away from someone that might fall for it!

Deathbyathousandcats · 01/02/2024 10:27

Oh come on, don’t be so naive and overinvested.

Balaru · 01/02/2024 10:32

He must be very bored and have nothing better to do than this and also he must have a very low opinion of himself to want to pretend to be someone he is not.

yeah… that’s not why he’s doing this. It’s not just I’m bored and this is fun to do to play pretend, they’re doing it to get money of people.

BoohooWoohoo · 01/02/2024 10:35

You’re taking this way too seriously.

Some people accept anyone because they want to look popular and enjoy having stuff to read on their timeline. That’s their right.

I’m like you and selective. I block the obvious scammers like this person because I haven’t got time to become a romance scam victim and worst or content for someone’s wank bank at best.

I suspect that there’s a huge number of fake accounts on FB because cat fishing is profitable and easier than other jobs. You can only protect yourself from this scam- if your friend wants to chat to this random scammer then it’s up to her as she’s an adult.

Ouchmyarse · 01/02/2024 10:36

My guilty pleasure is chatting to them and stringing them along sometimes though. I’ve been very bored in hospital a couple of times and really messed with them 🤣

One called me nuts and blocked ME after I basically made him complicit in the fictional murder and woodland burial of my husband so that we could be together. I’d nicknamed him Honeyballs and everything.

I am aware that I am very immature. But in my defence, I was on a lot of morphine at the time.

DiamondGazette · 01/02/2024 10:38

I get fake friend requests like this all the time. On Instagram, I get fake celebrities wanting to follow me, this week alone I've had Owen Wilson, Martin Kemp and Chesney Hawkes, which is all a bit random.
To be honest, I don't give it much thought, I just utilise the block button and carry on with my life.

Justcallmebebes · 01/02/2024 10:48

Flute56 · 01/02/2024 02:47

IAN LEE IS ANOTHER FAKE DOCTOR IN YEMEN PROFILE.. HIS HOME TOWN HE SAYS IN IS NIGERIA... THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE TALKING TO HERE.. A NIGERIAN SCAMMER

Well blow me down. Who'd have thunk it!

Elvanseshortage · 01/02/2024 11:01

OP I don’t understand how you have lived in the world in the last 20 years. Have you been in prison or a convent?

Profiles like this on Facebook are incredibly common and I would guess that every single person on mumsnet has had friend requests from these scammers. I have several every week.

The scam profiles are not created by bored, sad or lonely people. They are created by people who want to scam you. They will message in the hope of developing a ‘relationship’ which they will then exploit.

I guess many people end up having these scammers in their list of friends because:

  1. They get lots of friends requests all the time and they are too tired/distracted to vet them
  2. They are happy to have fake friends because it makes them look popular

In both cases you can have fake friends and just not engage with them at all. If you don’t engage then they can’t scam you.

You really don’t need to warn your friend. She almost certainly knows. Unless she was in the convent with you and also missed out on 20 years of modern life.

SoRainbowRhythms · 01/02/2024 11:04

Justcallmebebes · 01/02/2024 10:48

Well blow me down. Who'd have thunk it!

Fake Surprised Season 8 GIF by Friends

🤣

Swipe left for the next trending thread