I am being catfished right now!

[qualitychat]

I received a friend request on Facebook just now. This is definitely someone catfishing me. He comes from Austin, Texas but has pigeon English. He is a Marine Engineer living in Sweden. He does a very dangerous job. He is a nice looking man, he has sent me a photo. He tragically lost his wife 5 years ago due to medical negligence. Am I wrong in stringing him alone?

Yeah this is bit weird- you'd think they have lawyers and financial managers who sort this out and validate those kinds of transactions. If you can "lose" 1.2 million- surely you have lawyers to check stuff first???

I've had an instagram follow request from Martin Kemp, Owen Wilson and Robbie Williams this week, which is strange because I don't follow any of the 'real' celeb accounts. Out of interest I accepted Robbie and he instantly responded with 'my dear fan, you are quite the lovely, which of my works would you say is your big fan?' so it's definitely the real RW. When I declined to answer, he followed up with ??? after which I blocked him.

I'd be interested to know what financial help Robbie Williams needs. If you're reading Rob, lend me a tenner til payday and I'll tell which of your works is my big fan.

They're convinced they're in some kind of emergency. The journalist telling her story describes how the scammers manipulated her state of mind - they kept her on the phone for five hours, talking to different team members - and preyed on fears for her toddler's safety.

There's only one thing I would definitely have done differently: she accepted a callback from the financial authority's switchboard number. I would have called it myself. A hacker could still re-route an outgoing call but, if you've been that badly compromised, you're probably fucked either way.

The scammers did tell her she'd been hacked, though, so maybe I'd have lost faith in my simple check by that point!

@Garlickit Yeah I do get that. I was more referring to the guy who lost 1.2 million. When you're that rich, it seems odd you don't have advisors to manage your money etc

A number of years ago I received a call after changing my number due to malicious calls (a story for another day ). We inherited Miss Gregory’s previous number. I had a phone call one day for Miss Gregory. I didn’t have anything on that day so decided to play along. After about 30 minutes, of this conversation where I had put them “on hold” infront of the radio, talked rubbish etc I was called Miss Gregory again I said….,, “Yes I DO miss Gregory, but please don’t tell anyone, he really annoyed me so I pushed him down the stairs, I miss him so much I wish I didn’t kill him” then I hung up 😳

For those of you concerned about the Nigerian question and that we are unfairly targeting them with these accusations of endemic fraud, I just thought I'd mention that I started working for a major high street bank in the late 1970's. Even then, we were completely banned from opening accounts or allowing any transactions for any person or organisation in or from Nigeria. So it's been going on for quite a while.

Love that !! 😀

We had someone call and say they found a rental car on the border of Mexico with blood, guns and drugs in it and it had been rented in my husbands name. Multiple “detectives” on the call. I think they claimed to be Texas rangers.

😂💀

Omg, fully LOL 😂😂😂

I do this (also was banned by DH from posting anything about DC’s from a very early age - rather as DBiL banned DSis from doing the same with DN, both having been on work-related courses about how people can clone your ID in minutes by even the most oblique references/innocent pics on SM), so do not have this issue in FB. I did, however get them in X/Twitter because I foolishly opted to put a real photo up for a week. Reverted to a landscape now, but the bot/scammer algorithms are totally geared towards public profiles with female pics.

I get a lot of phone calls from "Three the mobile network" at the moment, which is funny as I left them a number of years ago.

So far I have:

• Answered every question in German, reciting a Christmas poem I had to learn yonks ago
• Pretended I only spoke German or French
• And last week, told a guy my company had taken over my contract, but he could talk to head office, would he like the number? Of course he did, so I gave him the Action Fraud number

The last time I had the "Yeah, we heard you were involved in an accident" scam I proceeded to tell them that I was. The explained how I was just outside, minding the chickens when this strange carriage came along, without any horses. There was this strange woman atop with her sons. After going to the pharmacy she started the vehicle again, I fell over and injured myself.*
By that time he clocked I was telling him a story and hung up, strangely no call since.

But the longer these scammers stay on the phone with me, the less they have to really scam someone else.

*Loosely based on the first "long distance" car journey done by Bertha Benz in 1886(ish)

Has anyone tried the

"I need £100 to unlock my account because I need to pay the solicitor.Send it now and tomorrow I'll send you your £5000." line?

You’ve all inspired me I’m almost willing for a scammer to call me 😂

Not me lol!!

I had man contact me via linked in. Said he was GOSH paediatrician short of cash to get home after robbery. Would I help him?

Poor man 😭 Robbed, stranded with his internet-connected phone, and no-one to ask for help except a stranger on the internet. I hope you sent him a taxi!

Wow, catfished on LinkedIn, I've heard it all now!! Although it makes sense, why waste time on women who don't seem to be earning a lot.

yup, paediatrician,model and humanitarian robbed and reaching out to stranger online. Naturally I sent my helicopter and suitcase of cash plus a vat of La prairie skincare to a man in need and in disposed of his cash

I had an email from someone I know on a group asking for amazon cards of course it was not her but it came from her email address. Another scammer emailed me saying they had videos of me doing something naughty and they would send it to all of my contacts. They would only stop if I sent them bitcoin I had to change my passwords to email that was last year.

Yes, that's what you do. Only you look up the number yourself - don't take their word for it, and you call them from a different phone, in case they left the line open. And before you call, you have a lovely cup of tea, to give you time to process the info.

There was some programme on the tv a while ago about catching scammers. They had hacked into their phone line / computer and were watching them call people live . While they were in the call asking for bank details the tv person texted the scam recipient (who hadn't twigged it was a scam) just saying SCAM do not pass on your details.

Poor man 😭 Robbed, stranded with his internet-connected phone, and no-one to ask for help except a stranger on the internet. I hope you sent him a taxi

I occasionally do admin on a large FB group. We get posts like this all the time.

"Can somebody tell me what to do please? I've had my wallet and phone stolen at Blackpool Airshow. I've got two toddlers with me and I can't get home! I just need £20..."

Erm on love so how one you've got access to FB and why is some FB group your first port of call?

Well I had an absolute corker of one yesterday and it was a new one on me. Grab a cuppa and make yourselves comfortable because this is what happened.

I get a phone call from someone claiming to work for a company that installs driveways. usually when it's cold callers and they ask "are you the homeowner?", they tend to end the call when I say "no, I rent", only this one didn't so my spidey sense stared to tingle a bit. Apparently my LL had told them to put a driveway up to my front door and all I needed to do was pay them (the "company" ) £100 which I would get back from the LL. Given that I live in a HA property ( a bungalow), I knew full well that they were talking bollox so I thought "let the fun begin".

Me " so you're going to put a drive right the way up to my front door"
Them "Yes, that's correct. Your LL has given us permission"
Me " So I will be able to open my front door and step straight on to the driveway"
Them "Yes"
Me " "Are you sure you can do that?"
Them " We are a highly professional company of course we can do that we just need £100 from you now"
Me " Ok but before I give you my bank details I have 1 last question"
Them " OK, but we really need to have the £ now"
Me " How exactly do you put a driveway up to the door of a 5th floor flat?"
Them <click, buurrr>

I keep getting calls from Housing Disrepair about my housing disrepair issues.

Provided I own my house I struggle to see what they can do for me. One of these days I will lose my usually contained temper and shout at someone on the phone.

And just had a friends request from a widowed American from Texas posing in his Stetson hat by his 4X4.

Really? Not even a heart surgeon? Not an Afghanistan veteran? No photos of him with Rusty, his elderly Golden Retriever? Just widowed? Don't I deserve better?