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(Anti-) Social Media: Scams / Shams / Shills On Facebook & Other Sites

catseye said:
The 'men with their names on backwards' have now taken another step. They've started appearing in my feed, leaving comments on my posts (because of publicity my profile is open), saying that they think I'm so lovely they want ME to send THEM a friend request so they can follow me. So not only are they trying to set up to scam me (I'm pretty sure one of them is a TV star and another is a high up in the US military), they want ME to start them off!

Sorry, do I look daft?
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If they are offensive and they sure sound it block them so your innocent fans don't have to wade thru that crap. Also FB has an algorithm (of course) that notes how often an address is blocked and presumably does something evil to the owner. The world needs to be more open to blocking not to say reporting. It's the 21st century equivalent of the quick draw.
 
catseye said:
The 'men with their names on backwards' have now taken another step. They've started appearing in my feed, leaving comments on my posts (because of publicity my profile is open), saying that they think I'm so lovely they want ME to send THEM a friend request so they can follow me. So not only are they trying to set up to scam me (I'm pretty sure one of them is a TV star and another is a high up in the US military), they want ME to start them off!

Sorry, do I look daft?
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Names on backwards? What's this all about?

I'm not on FB so I have no idea what goes on.

Also, name the tv star, or at least give us a clue.. I'm in the dark here. We can all agree you're very lovely.
 
Lb8535 said:
If they are offensive and they sure sound it block them so your innocent fans don't have to wade thru that crap. Also FB has an algorithm (of course) that notes how often an address is blocked and presumably does something evil to the owner. The world needs to be more open to blocking not to say reporting. It's the 21st century equivalent of the quick draw.
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Facebook does, indeed, eventually block them, but they just change name and picture and pop up again on another post. It's annoying rather than anything else, but a couple of them can clog a feed right up.
hunck said:
Names on backwards? What's this all about?

I'm not on FB so I have no idea what goes on.

Also, name the tv star, or at least give us a clue.. I'm in the dark here. We can all agree you're very lovely.
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They tend to be profiles created by people in countries where the surname is placed first, so they tend to give what looks like a caucasian male (who usually purports to be a doctor, scientist or oil drilling technician) a name like Anderson William or Dodens Peter. They tend not to understand American naming customs (the men are ALWAYS American widowers with one child). They use photographs they have copied from the net, so I've had Keanu Reeves (calling himself Stevens Michael) and the American Secretary of State (can't remember what he called himself). I quite often amuse myself by doing a Reverse Image search and then sending a message that says something along the lines of 'I've no idea why you appear to be using the picture of xxxxxx, but I am fairly sure it's illegal' and then block them.

And thank you, I am indeed very lovely. Well, the dog thinks so.
 
catseye said:
Facebook does, indeed, eventually block them, but they just change name and picture and pop up again on another post. It's annoying rather than anything else, but a couple of them can clog a feed right up.

They tend to be profiles created by people in countries where the surname is placed first, so they tend to give what looks like a caucasian male (who usually purports to be a doctor, scientist or oil drilling technician) a name like Anderson William or Dodens Peter. They tend not to understand American naming customs (the men are ALWAYS American widowers with one child). They use photographs they have copied from the net, so I've had Keanu Reeves (calling himself Stevens Michael) and the American Secretary of State (can't remember what he called himself). I quite often amuse myself by doing a Reverse Image search and then sending a message that says something along the lines of 'I've no idea why you appear to be using the picture of xxxxxx, but I am fairly sure it's illegal' and then block them.

And thank you, I am indeed very lovely. Well, the dog thinks so.
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But what's their goal? Presumably they can 'like' or send a 'friend' request. What's going on beyond this?..

Are they angling to get some personal information or summat? Or is it just some fat bloke in his mum's house with an internet connection & a weird hobby?

So many questions..
 
catseye said:
Facebook does, indeed, eventually block them, but they just change name and picture and pop up again on another post. It's annoying rather than anything else, but a couple of them can clog a feed right up.

They tend to be profiles created by people in countries where the surname is placed first, so they tend to give what looks like a caucasian male (who usually purports to be a doctor, scientist or oil drilling technician) a name like Anderson William or Dodens Peter. They tend not to understand American naming customs (the men are ALWAYS American widowers with one child). They use photographs they have copied from the net, so I've had Keanu Reeves (calling himself Stevens Michael) and the American Secretary of State (can't remember what he called himself). I quite often amuse myself by doing a Reverse Image search and then sending a message that says something along the lines of 'I've no idea why you appear to be using the picture of xxxxxx, but I am fairly sure it's illegal' and then block them.

And thank you, I am indeed very lovely. Well, the dog thinks so.
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Men with "their names on backwards" is a great description of some of the mangled names I've seen on fake profiles, I'd forgotten that most of them are widowers with a cute kiddy>

In response to hunck, I think a lot of them are would be "romance scammers", or so other sort of monetized scam. If they're getting personal information, some of the stuff on my profile isn't exactly true.
 
hunck said:
But what's their goal? Presumably they can 'like' or send a 'friend' request. What's going on beyond this?..

Are they angling to get some personal information or summat? Or is it just some fat bloke in his mum's house with an internet connection & a weird hobby?

So many questions..
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It is usually a collective of people, often in African countries. They friend you, then try to 'befriend', going in hard and fast with lots of 'you are so lovely, I want us to be friends.' If they aren't particularly good at it they follow up with 'I want to marry you and be with you always.' If they are more subtle, they try to form some kind of relationship with you and then come in with things like their child needs an operation and their money is tied up in Some Other Country for six months... and from there, they have you. It must work at least some of the time or they would have stopped, although I don't know ANYONE who does anything but laugh and block. Maybe there are some very rich, lonely women (and men) out there who fall for this though.
 
catseye said:
It is usually a collective of people, often in African countries. They friend you, then try to 'befriend', going in hard and fast with lots of 'you are so lovely, I want us to be friends.' If they aren't particularly good at it they follow up with 'I want to marry you and be with you always.' If they are more subtle, they try to form some kind of relationship with you and then come in with things like their child needs an operation and their money is tied up in Some Other Country for six months... and from there, they have you. It must work at least some of the time or they would have stopped, although I don't know ANYONE who does anything but laugh and block. Maybe there are some very rich, lonely women (and men) out there who fall for this though.
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I believe some of them are just bots and there isn’t a person actually there it’s just generated responses. I think if you respond to the begging messages then a human gets involved at that point to try and manipulate you properly. A similar trajectory takes place on dating websites. It certainly happened to someone I know
 
JaneD said:
I believe some of them are just bots and there isn’t a person actually there it’s just generated responses. I think if you respond to the begging messages then a human gets involved at that point to try and manipulate you properly. A similar trajectory takes place on dating websites. It certainly happened to someone I know
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Charles Dickens knew his umpteen-greats-grandfather in 1850:

“I, the writer of this paper, have been, for some time, a chosen receiver of Begging Letters. For fourteen years, my house has been made as regular a Receiving House for such communications as any one of the great branch Post-Offices is for general correspondence. I ought to know something of the Begging-Letter Writer. He has besieged my door at all hours of the day and night; he has fought my servant; he has lain in ambush for me, going out and coming in; he has followed me out of town into the country; he has appeared at provincial hotels, where I have been staying for only a few hours; he has written to me from immense distances, when I have been out of England. He has fallen sick; he has died and been buried; he has come to life again, and again departed from this transitory scene: he has been his own son, his own mother, his own baby, his idiot brother, his uncle, his aunt, his aged grandfather. He has wanted a greatcoat, to go to India in; a pound to set him up in life for ever; a pair of boots to take him to the coast of China; a hat to get him into a permanent situation under Government. He has frequently been exactly seven-and-sixpence short of independence. He has had such openings at Liverpool - posts of great trust and confidence in merchants' houses, which nothing but seven-and- sixpence was wanting to him to secure - that I wonder he is not Mayor of that flourishing town at the present moment.”

Etc.

http://www.readprint.com/chapter-22830/Reprinted-Pieces-Charles-Dickens

maximus otter
 
JaneD said:
I believe some of them are just bots and there isn’t a person actually there it’s just generated responses. I think if you respond to the begging messages then a human gets involved at that point to try and manipulate you properly. A similar trajectory takes place on dating websites. It certainly happened to someone I know
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Some are bots, the 'you have a lovely smile, I want us to be friends' messages. But there are a lot of very organised groups of people who make it their mission to work round the clock to keep people 'hooked'. Once you get past the initial contact, I think humans have to get involved because they tailor the responses to your replies - too sophisticated for bots just yet.

Er. So I've heard. I've yet to be a victim of said money grabbing merchants, but it may be because I will be perfectly happy never to have to make romantic contact with a man ever again, so they are howling at a locked door in my case. But I've read articles where VERY intelligent and aware people have fallen for such scams (and are often too embarrassed to admit it), so it is only my lack of desire for romantic attachments that keeps me safe at present.
 
catseye said:
Some are bots, the 'you have a lovely smile, I want us to be friends' messages. But there are a lot of very organised groups of people who make it their mission to work round the clock to keep people 'hooked'. Once you get past the initial contact, I think humans have to get involved because they tailor the responses to your replies - too sophisticated for bots just yet.

Er. So I've heard. I've yet to be a victim of said money grabbing merchants, but it may be because I will be perfectly happy never to have to make romantic contact with a man ever again, so they are howling at a locked door in my case. But I've read articles where VERY intelligent and aware people have fallen for such scams (and are often too embarrassed to admit it), so it is only my lack of desire for romantic attachments that keeps me safe at present.
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But you have such lovely eyes..
 
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One of these Covid denier/anti vaccine nuts. The words of a nutter or the truth?
 
The completely incorrect interjection of the word "dear" is of course the icing on the cake of indicators that this is from the organized scam factory. I don't know what language these folk speak where this is correct communication. In those languages that I am familiar with - French, Italian - where you might see a cherie or a cara thrown into a communication the correct English translation would be "my dear" or "beloved" (heavy Italian) and only in a very personal environment. Slavic would be chaver or an equivalent which means something a little different. And of course wildly inappropriate merging into laughingly silly in either a formal request for funding or a formal threat. Don't know why none of their more English-literate colleagues haven't fixed this. A huge eye-roller.
 
Lb8535 said:
The completely incorrect interjection of the word "dear" is of course the icing on the cake of indicators that this is from the organized scam factory. I don't know what language these folk speak where this is correct communication. In those languages that I am familiar with - French, Italian - where you might see a cherie or a cara thrown into a communication the correct English translation would be "my dear" or "beloved" (heavy Italian) and only in a very personal environment. Slavic would be chaver or an equivalent which means something a little different. And of course wildly inappropriate merging into laughingly silly in either a formal request for funding or a formal threat. Don't know why none of their more English-literate colleagues haven't fixed this. A huge eye-roller.
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Oh yes! They think that ending every sentence with 'dear' is going to mean we fall in love with them. I don't know what they think it means, or whether they think that English-speakers pepper their sentences with endearments normally.
 
catseye said:
Oh yes! They think that ending every sentence with 'dear' is going to mean we fall in love with them. I don't know what they think it means, or whether they think that English-speakers pepper their sentences with endearments normally.
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I had one a while back on bookface that sent me a friend request .. a photo of a pretty young woman but 'she' only had four friends when I checked 'her' profile and the others were people I know. 'She' was trying to get me to do a Zoom call with 'her' I told the Mrs and she just said "Oh yeah .. it's called 'phishing' ... it's just some bloke called Steve or something who's trying to con you into having a wank so he can record it from your camera so he can threaten to blackmail you by sending it to everyone you know." .. awesome! ..
 
Years ago I went onto My Space to help an internet friend with the spelling on his profile. I had one of those emails supposedly from an American widower with one son.
My friend had told me if anyone said they were American but working in West Africa that it was a scam.
Sure enough the next email said that he was working in West Africa and his hotel had declined his credit card and could I loan him some money.
I replied that I didn't have a credit card and no money and blocked him.
After that I kept getting requests with almost identical wording and cancelled my subscription to My Space. So it sounds like they are doing the same thing on Facebook now.
I still get requests on Facebook but as I'm just on there for family they are declined.
 
Iris said:
Years ago I went onto My Space to help an internet friend with the spelling on his profile. I had one of those emails supposedly from an American widower with one son.
My friend had told me if anyone said they were American but working in West Africa that it was a scam.
Sure enough the next email said that he was working in West Africa and his hotel had declined his credit card and could I loan him some money.
I replied that I didn't have a credit card and no money and blocked him.
After that I kept getting requests with almost identical wording and cancelled my subscription to My Space. So it sounds like they are doing the same thing on Facebook now.
I still get requests on Facebook but as I'm just on there for family they are declined.
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If I get a friend request, I first check how many friends we have in common. If it's more than the usual five gullible ones, I check their profile. If they are male it gets an especially hard scrutiny. If they are writers, or mention writing, then they usually get through. If all their pictures are just of themselves or, even worse, are religious memes telling everyone how wonderful God's world is, they are out.
 
Swifty said:
…it's called 'phishing' ... it's just some bloke called Steve or something who's trying to con you into having a wank so he can record it from your camera so he can threaten to blackmail you by sending it to everyone you know."
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You can easily protect yourself from this scam by simply recording a video of yourself pitching it over your thumb, then sending it unsolicited to everyone you know with the title, “This is what it looks like.”

l’m thinking of calling it “wank-cination”.

maximus otter
 
Swifty said:
it's just some bloke called Steve or something who's trying to con you into having a wank so he can record it from your camera so he can threaten to blackmail you by sending it to everyone you know."
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Wait, that's meant to bother me? :hahazebs::hahazebs::hahazebs: joke would be on Steve I reckon!



I had an unsolicited email from a very lovely African "lady" the other day. Sent a picture and everything. Said she wanted to be friends. I replied asking how much money "she" wanted from me. Said I had a bit and would gladly hand it over if we could be friends. "She" actually played it cool with a "gosh, no, why would you say that? I do not want money I want to be friends!" I replied back, please, don't be shy, it's ok just let me know how much you need and how I can get it to you. "She" continued that she was not that kind of girl, she was a very succesful and famous tv presenter in Ghana...just wanted to be friends...

Then I got bored and blocked "her". What can I say, quiet day.
 
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Coastaljames said:
Wait, that's meant to bother me? :hahazebs::hahazebs::hahazebs: joke would be on Steve I reckon!



I had an unsolicited email from a very lovely African "lady" the other day. Sent a picture and everything. Said she wanted to be friends. I replied asking how much money "she" wanted from me. Said I had a bit and would gladly hand it over if we could be friends. "She" actually played it cool with a "gosh, no, why would you say that? I do not want money I want to be friends!" I replied back, please, don't be shy, it's ok just let me know how much you need and how I can get it to you. "She" continued that she was not that kind of girl, she was a very succesful and famous tv presenter in Ghana...just wanted to be friends...

Then I got bored and blocked "her". What can I say, quiet day.
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sad%20black%20girl%20crying%20main%20image.jpg


Daisy Mensah, anchorwoman of GTV’s hugely popular Good Morning, Accra! was quoted as saying, “Why won’t anybody be my friend?”

maximus otter
 
Victory said:
Facebook Whistleblower breaks cover.
Facebook shares fall 5.5%.
Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp outage.

There are dots, if you are looking for dots to join.
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Like the dealer taking away the junkie's fix? Seriously, the whistleblower's allegations are damning.

Summed up here:
News story

A few quotes:

"Revelations included documents that showed that celebrities, politicians and high profile Facebook users were treated differently by the company. The leaks revealed that moderation policies were applied differently, or not at all, to such accounts - a system known as XCheck (cross-check)."

"Internal research by Facebook (which owns Instagram) found that Instagram was impacting the mental health of teenagers but did not share its findings when they suggested that the platform was a "toxic" place for many youngsters."

"Ms Haugen also talked about the deadly Capitol Hill riots in January - claiming that Facebook helped fuel the violence.
She said Facebook turned on safety systems to reduce misinformation during the US election - but only temporarily.
'As soon as the election was over they turned them back off, or they changed the settings to what they were before, to prioritise growth over safety, and that really feels like a betrayal of democracy.'"

We all know how powerful social media can be - even this place! - so it's very worrying to see Facebook (and Instagram, and Twitter) be so cavalier with safety. A lot of people go about social media like a bull in a china shop, but even the more insidious ones can be enormously damaging. It's a power too many people get off on, and the fact they're funding billion dollar businesses means they're not being stopped.

Unlike this place, it's all about the money.
 
Re Facebook revelations: Wonderful! How admirable of this whistleblower. Many people suspected or assumed that bad stuff was happening, but now highly visible evidence is being documented.

We are all indebted to these whistleblowers.
 
Do you think there’s now AI trolls? Because I’ve seen some posts on Facebook that don’t make any sense at all. I’m wondering if they are learning from the nonsense already there.
 
MorningAngel said:
Do you think there’s now AI trolls? Because I’ve seen some posts on Facebook that don’t make any sense at all. I’m wondering if they are learning from the nonsense already there.
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There are some that are probably part of an experiment. To what end, I don't know.
 
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