Do you get friend requests from romance scammers - signs to look for

[listsandbudgets]

I seem to get them quite regularly. These are the warning signs I look for and just wondered if anyone had any to add.

They usually have quite new accounts.

The friend request often comes out of the blue and they'll have no known links with you at all.

Usually all their "friends" are of the opposite sex to them.

The photo is nearly always of an exceptionally good looking or sophisticated man

They nearly always use a photo that's not of them - if you suspect it may be a scam then try searching their picture on Google Images you'll be amazed. I've just had one from someone calling themselves "John Wilson". However searching their photo comes up with a totally different person

I had a few. I locked my settings down so everything is friends only. Haven’t had one since.

I think any friend request from someone you don’t know is dodgy. And any scammers I’ve come across have been painfully obvious from the outset.

They’re really easy to avoid. Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t already know.

I have to have an open profile so I get lots of approaches. I tend never to accept men in general, but sometimes they will say they are a writer (as am I) in which case I Reverse Image search their picture (which usually proves to have been stolen from either a high ranking American army officer or a male model). If the image passes I check out their friends list - if there's nobody on their that's a mutual friend or in the industry, he's out. If he appears to be a genuine writer I will Google the name (to check whether he's just a wannabe who's going to expect me to read and comment on his scribblings). Very very few pass any of these checks. If he does pass, or I'm just very bored, I will accept him but at the first hint of any 'hi, how are you?' DMs, he's blocked.

I would never accept a friend request, or respond to anyone I couldn’t connect. Easy to avoid.

It’s pretty obvious how to spot them, then delete/block them usually message in broken English they don’t get past an initial message never mind anything else.

Widowed

Military or ex- military (US)

Usually a surgeon or UN peacekeeper posted overseas

Silver fox

I had a couple. I just delete and block. Do people still accept friend requests from strangers? I know that was a thing years ago but I thought people didn't do that any more.

I find if I have a profile picture of myself with dh rather than just myself it slows them down. I agree with the widowed servicemen description.

Just for clarity I don't accept requests from strangers but I do find it quite amusing to see their pathetic efforts at profile pages. However some people must be drawn in by the demonstrated by the fact that John Wilson who sent me a request this morning now has 96 friends all female - 3 of them known to me - I suspect he found me on their friends list and used that info to send me a request.

I've warned my friends - one says she's in it for a laugh, one was shocked and the other hasn't replied yet

I always block them.

They are hilarious IMO. I can spot them a mile off. Not having a go at women who are taken in and are scammed by the way, it's just that it is very unlikely to happen to me because I am very suspicious and pessimistic about anything I see, and trust no-one. I am tech savvy and not easily taken in. Can't say I would never EVER get scammed, but it's unlikely.

@listsandbudgets

It's always a good looking man between 45 and 60, always a surgeon or an airline pilot, always widowed or divorced, and he always has female friends on the friends list.

As soon as I image search their photos, it's someone completely different.

I have tried to mess with them a few times, by accepting the friend request (my friends list is visible only to me, and I put him on restricted friend instantly,) and he starts chatting banal shite. And after a few messages he ALWAYS tells me to go onto Telegram. That's an app where you can chat to people and there is NO record of the chat. Nothing is kept. So they can scam people, and do all kinds of shite, and even the police/feds etc can't trace them. As soon as I say 'no I am not going on Telegram!' they leave the chat and block me.

Cucking Funts!

Oh I've never got as far as actually talking to one and I've absolutely no idea how to use Telegram so wouldn't be going far with them anyway.

I've had the UN doctor and the senior US military approach a couple of times... some of the photos are so widely used you get to recognise them. It must be awful for the men whose photos get used like this

I got one last week ticking all the above boxes from a man commenting on a review of a B and B I'd done about 5 years ago

wTAF??

Yes! I love it - hilarious! I always reverse search the picture. Once had one calling himself Major Major 🤣
Reported him to FB but they said it wasn't a scam, useless as a chocolate teapot.

I get them on Quora - where I am only active on the writing boards, to give advice. They will often come in and reply to comments I made years ago, telling me that I'm so interesting that they'd like me to follow them so that we can 'chat more'. I don't think so...

Yes these! Very easy yo spot.

If you get unsolicited contact then ignore it, it is not hard to work out really

Ground-breaking advice. 🙄 Aren't you clever?! 🏅

Well I wouldn't accept a friend request from someone I didn't know.
Hell, I don't accept friend requests from some people I don't know.

My profile pic is a cup

Sorts the retired US army surgeons from the boys lol

I've fallen down a slippery slope because my FB feed is full of posts from fake profiles of people like the wives from Sister Wives on TLC. These fake profiles will post some nonsense then hundreds of women respond to it with things like 'nice to see you with your daughter' or other such rubbish and then what you have is a list of three hundred gullible fools.

I cant stop looking at them so I get more and more of them.

Friends only. Everyone else gets ignored or blocked. You can smell the scrotes a mile off
Don't get why people let random strangers into their lives