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?

Friend of mine had a similar call. There was a long pause before they hung up after she asked if that was the accident where she died

Tell him about your crush on Art Garfunkel. It won't be easy but the least he deserves is honesty.

I'm a 61 year old Brit and have rarely seen aunty. As it's a diminutive of aunt, rather than a source word, I suspect it comes down to personal preference. Like Johnnie/Johnny.

My late DF had someone call and tell him his computer was going to crash. They needed x amount of £ and access to his computer to stop it happening. He played along for ages, acting daft and pretending to do what they said.
He was a computer analyst programmer and had a wicked sense of humour ❤️

Both my parents are only children. I'm so relieved that I will never have to worry about using the wrong version of aunt, aunty or auntie.

I’m a fully paid-up pedant, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with diminutives.

Years ago someone wanted to buy my holiday times shares. Oh I thought I can get some money here. She wouldn't tell me how much they were. This phone call went on for 2o minutes and my children who were young at the time were killing themself laughing as they knew what was happening .

She then got angry and said 'you don't have any time share you are wasting my time'.
Well you phoned me and thought I could get some money .she hung up.

A guy of the same description/ story contacted my friend on her professional website, but the english was excellent, and photos were attractive. We googled him, saw the photos, read the comments about him. A real doctor living in Denmark, I think, had his profile stolen for this - so it looks even more realistic.
Trafficked or not, the more these identities are put out there the better, if we can help protect one vulnerable lonely person it will be worth it.

I have had a couple telling me there is a problem with Windows. One I hung up on straight away, the other one, I was bored so I agreed with him and tried to initiate a discussion about condensation inside the window unit and whether I needed a complete new window unit or just replacement seals. I think he hung up on me.

Ask him if you can borrow some money 😀

DH runs Linux on his computer (which he built himself) so he greatly enjoys chatting to the callers who want to warn him that his Microsoft account has been compromised and he needs to do exactly as they tell him.

He also had another lovely chat last week with an American who needed an urgent discussion about our recent train trip from London to Norway.

I'm feeling a bit left out now, as neither of us has been wooed by silver foxes of either sex. But give it time, I suppose.

Sadly I only ever get the there's a problem with your laptop and I can fix it by taking control of it calls. Last time I said could he hang on and then I read him the very detailed description of his own scam that I had found online. He lasted for the first three paragraphs...

I saw a very funny TikTok a while ago with someone showing what they say to these callers who are calling to help you with a problem on your computer that you aren't aware of.... they try to ask for your password etc, and her response goes something like this... (imagine said in typical game show intonation...)..

"yes, my password is..... 3....2....1... and you are live on national tv, please don't swear, the FBI are also on the call and we are filming a documentary about scammers, please stay on the line"

@mynameiscalypso · you seem to be going out of your way to make these perpetrators out to be some kind of victims. They’re not.

There are whole call centres in India and Africa and Pakistan dedicated to scamming the public in one way shape or form. These people know what they’re doing. All of them, even the puppets who act in the name of the alleged company/service/romance scammer.

The only victims here are the people being scammed. Nobody else.

I play a game called dice world and i am frequently being messaged by engineers working off shore. Sometimes I play for a bit. The last one though when he asked what job I did I told him I worked for action fraud and that I frequently looked into scams. He disappeared after that.

My DH got catfished once and went along with it on purpose, responding, pretending he believed catfisher was genuine.
OMG, we never laughed so much, sitting on sofa, reading responses as the cat fish story played out.
The expressions of love, the language alone 😂, think copied from a Barbara Cartland novel.
The plot thickening ...to needy relatives, dying relatives, other money needed scenarios, the unfolding dramas were gripping !! The all sit in a call centre somewhere, working to a script !!!!
In his case he "agreed" to go to Russia to rescue/marry/ whisk away to safety the " damsel in distress "iso
of sending the money to ( catfish account ) .
Then he was going to turn up in person, the hero of the day 🦹.
Their last exchange was something like DH ( at home on sofa ) : " Honey I am waiting at xyz car rental in Moscow airport , I can't see you ? Where are you , I'm here to rescue you ! " .
Never heard from " her " again.
Days of entertainment, we still laugh about it now.
Beat them at their own game !!

He probably hasn't heard of ABBA. He'll just say That's Nice Dear. Will accept me as your husband?

The only victims here are the people being scammed. Nobody else

Yes, and even if they have been forced into it, what the heck can I do about it? I cant extract them from it from the end of a telephone can I? I also think its very dangerous to portray scammers as "victims"- it engenders sympathy for them and they don't deserve that, they are already trying to get sympathy out of people by preying on their emotions. The more sympathy people give them, the more they will flourish and the more the scams will work. The more the scams work, the more people will be trafficked. I can imagine scams now whereby someone tells you they have been trafficked and they only need 20k to start a new life for themselves and to get to a safe place.

I was way back in the Albert Hall but must have made an impression

This really tickled me😂

My DP played along with his as well. The scammer got very excited when DP agreed that they should meet up. "She" became less enthusiastic about the whole thing, however, when DP said that he would need to get a divorce from his "wife" and could the scammer please send £1000 so that he could pay for the "divorce" and they would be free to be together.

I like to tell the loft insulation people that our current loft is insulated with a 6inch layer of human fat. They hang up after that.

had a call the other day from someone who wanted to talk about the accident I had just been in..

without missing a beat I said I think we both know there was no accident and they hung up 😂

I just tell them I'm going to look for documents and leave them hanging on as long as possible, put my feet up with a cuppa and watch something on TV.!!

Oh oh what is it you do for a job? Are you a catfish hunter? Is that you Nev?

🙄

I was contacted by a paediatric surgeon based in Afghanistan who had a sick son back home, who he missed terribly.

He’d relay stories of armed raids and dying children.

He needed a holiday to help with the trauma but his captain couldn’t process his forms so I needed to send flight details.

He was madly in love with me, and I was the only person who kept him going. When the Taliban attacked the camp (18 months ago), and things were critical, I was the only thing which gave him hope to survive.

This is the short version, and I didn’t even engage just bland one line responses out of morbid curiosity as the dying son story was a new level of manipulation, but I can see how someone who is lonely can get sucked into this nonsense.

Predators are the worst kind of people.

Mine ask constantly if I’ve done it again and give me lines or quotes to get in they all want more so I guess they are or in the very least doing a good impression