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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I am being catfished right now!

438 replies

qualitychat · 23/02/2024 21:34

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
17
Chickenkeev · 23/02/2024 22:25

I've had this twice on FB, despite my profile picture being me in a wedding dress. I must have looked rich (I'm not!)

Original poster
qualitychat · 23/02/2024 22:25

He's gone a bit quiet since I started speaking German and Swedish 😂

OP posts:
Justifiedcheese · 23/02/2024 22:31

mynameiscalypso · 23/02/2024 21:59

@Slanabhaile Oh I totally agree that the problem isn't the people sending these messages and making these calls, it's the gangs that use violence and slavery. But engaging with one doesn't do anything other than make them have to work longer to meet their targets for the day.

They are not all poor little victims controlled by gangs, some are making a nice living all on their own/ in groups co-operating.

User19798 · 23/02/2024 22:39

I read Keanu Reeves is NOT in love with you recently. At one point she has like 8 Keanus talking to her so she created a group chat 😂Professional scammers use “Alaye" to identify the same as them con artists. They move rapidly to a new person if they found to be speaking to a scammer themselves. SO I string them along for a week or so then give them a 'Alaye' so they know THEY have been scammed out of their time. Cracks me up imagining their ourage although they are constantly sending thousands of messages so I doubt they give a shit 😂

GN637 · 23/02/2024 22:44

This has made me laugh tonight, thanks OP. And @Echobelly 😱!

TooBigForMyBoots · 23/02/2024 22:47

See if you can get him to send you some money. Maybe £80? Sometimes they do that to get your trust.

Chickenkeev · 23/02/2024 22:50

TooBigForMyBoots · 23/02/2024 22:47

See if you can get him to send you some money. Maybe £80? Sometimes they do that to get your trust.

That''d be very satisfying 😁

GingersOwner26 · 23/02/2024 22:53

I seem to be getting a lot of them pretending to be actors - Masi Oka (Hiro from Heroes) seems to be a popular one for me although I've had others. Sometimes they'll ask me my name and I'll give the name of a character from a show the real actor's been in, knowing the real one would know who I was talking about. The scammers usually don't twig and say something like "That's a nice name". Sometimes I'll get people pretending to be the actor's PA saying the actor really wants to talk to me - they usually go away on hearing that my contact details are [email protected] .

BaroqueInterlude · 23/02/2024 22:59

Or ask him hur många pingviner har du?

which is how many penguins do you have if you want to mix it up.

😂

Mumof2NDers · 23/02/2024 23:03

Have you watched Daisy May Cooper on Jonathon Ross? Tried to post a link but didn’t manage it 🤦‍♀️

Jellybean23 · 23/02/2024 23:15

NotaNorovirusFan · 23/02/2024 21:48

i enjoyed a nice chat with a man calling about the ‘car accident’ I had last year. I described ‘the accident’ in a lot of detail for him, and he was ever so kind about it all, I think he got suspicious and hung up after I told him that auntie Mary’s head had fallen right off and never been found 🤣

Lol, love this.😂

invyqn · 23/02/2024 23:19

F

LittleMousewithcloggson · 23/02/2024 23:30

I’m really invested in this thread now!
Ask him how quickly you can get married as your British visa is about to expire and you want to live in the USA. Say you won’t be allowed to get benefits there but you are sure that he will support you financially until then - because your love/friendship is for life….

D1LL1GAF · 23/02/2024 23:31

qualitychat · 23/02/2024 21:34

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?

Do it and report back 😂

kaiadeluded · 23/02/2024 23:32

I had a 'Ukrainian soldier' try it on!!
We got chatting from a Ukrainian political page.. I was a bit depressed or wouldn't have accepted his request.
In fact he may well have been an actual Ukrainian soldier on the grift for some woman to send him parcels as at one point he even alluded to wanting parcels and sent very realistic selfies of but he went too far with the shallow flowery shite, especially on finding out I'm a care assistant.
I hate when men do that but don't even know me so I deleted and blocked him.

I know I can be vulnerable to some types of men seriously as I have MH problems.. luckily I'm really skint too haha. I need them to give me money!!

I get regular generic American / French silver fox military widower friend requests and always delete & block. Also random Nigerian guys.. but then I have actual Nigerian colleagues who are my Facebook friends so I guess their friends etc can see my profile.
One of my Nigerian friends hardly uses Facebook as she has so many hacking & scam attempt problems. Not saying all scammers are Nigerians but the probability is high.

Scalby · 23/02/2024 23:35

I'm currently having a long conversation with Bill. I attended his funeral last year...

Peaceandquietandacuppa · 23/02/2024 23:37

qualitychat · 23/02/2024 22:11

Latest message and I quote "This fairly recent friendship is something I consider to be sacred already. It makes me have faith again in some simple but fundamental human values which sometimes; for the lack of practice, we swipe under the carpets of our memories and of our hearts. For me, this new friendship is precious and that why I intend to keep it till the end of my days" 🤔

I’ve been testing chat gpt a lot for work and this sounds a lot like it was written by a bot 😂

SkaneTos · 23/02/2024 23:38

A woman in my home country embezzled the equivalent of 300 000 pounds from the county where she was employed. She thought she was dating Mick Jagger... and Mick Jagger apparently needed to borrow money from her?

Lifeomars · 23/02/2024 23:42

imnotgoodenoughtobehere · 23/02/2024 21:40

No! 😂😂🤣 Go for it! I had a long conversation last week with a man from hmrc saying I had to pay £5000 right now to avoid going to jail. I had loads of fun going to find my bank card, long pauses and telling him all of the numbers, inaudibly with one digit. Then saying I had a different account so I’d need a few more minutes to find it, etc.

I had one of those calls, I pretended to cry and begged them not to jail me as I had 10 kids to support and no money. Then I told them they were scammers and to go fuck themselves. Very enjoyable 5 minutes

Imitationzone · 23/02/2024 23:45

Echobelly · 23/02/2024 21:58

The conversation did get kind of steamy

I’m dying. This is so funny. “Can’t say I have”… 😂

BarbieDangerous · 23/02/2024 23:46

Echobelly · 23/02/2024 21:55

YANBU, I did this once, it was hilarious.

I started telling him my husband wasn't paying me attention because he was obsessed with taxidermy and it went from there to things like this conversation:

‘Do you accept me as your husband’😂😂😂😂😂

LittleGreenDragons · 23/02/2024 23:48

for the lack of practice, we swipe under the carpets of our memories and of our hearts

I think they definitely need more practice 😂

Thorntone · 23/02/2024 23:48

Why are you engaging with this?

there’s a documentary series on Netflix about this male making fake accounts and stalking women and I can’t help but wonder why the victims engaged with it

Lifeomars · 23/02/2024 23:51

SkaneTos · 23/02/2024 23:38

A woman in my home country embezzled the equivalent of 300 000 pounds from the county where she was employed. She thought she was dating Mick Jagger... and Mick Jagger apparently needed to borrow money from her?

I howled with laughter at that one, I mean it's not funny that she was conned out of all that money but ffs that is insane!