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

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's certainly (or as certain as you can be with this stuff) bots that are programmed by rival foreign powers to post, shall we say, hot topic opinions to generate unrest online. It would be good if they're coming to the end of their tether and going the internet equivalent of raving mad thanks to the craziness of the hate they're spewing.
 
I have one of those neighbourhood email subscriptions where they advertise knackered mowers and whinge about litter.

Recently I had a message on the site from someone called Judith that just said 'I know you!'

I do know several Judiths but none of them needs to send me cryptic messages.
It might be someone I used to work with or whatever but again, why the coyness?

Looks like a scam of some sort. It's strange to use a female name to entice a woman though, unless they think I'm a bloke! :chuckle:
 
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escargot said:
I have one of those neighbourhood email subscriptions where they advertise knackered mowers and whinge about litter.

Recently I had a message on the site from someone called Judith that just said 'I know you!'

I do know several Judiths but none of them needs to send me cryptic messages.
It might be someone I used to work with or whatever but again, why the coyness?

Looks like a scam of some sort. It's strange to use a male name to entice a woman though, unless they think I'm a bloke! :chuckle:
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Scam.
 
escargot said:
I have one of those neighbourhood email subscriptions where they advertise knackered mowers and whinge about litter.

Recently I had a message on the site from someone called Judith that just said 'I know you!'

I do know several Judiths but none of them needs to send me cryptic messages.
It might be someone I used to work with or whatever but again, why the coyness?

Looks like a scam of some sort. It's strange to use a male name to entice a woman though, unless they think I'm a bloke! :chuckle:
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Send one back, 'I know you to' creepy :p
 
Just now I edited my post about the Judith message as I noticed I'd put It's strange to use a male name to entice a woman, missing out 'not' before 'male'. Durrr.

She/he hasn't been back in touch.
 
Are you sure it is not a man, cause you never know nowadays
 
Anyone sick of seeing these all the time? The pointy fingers always give the game away before you even read it.
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MorningAngel said:
Do people ever fall for these weird random emails?View attachment 55910View attachment 55911
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I'd like to think not. The grammar and English usage give it away as an 'obvious foreign origin', but then there are so many people who want to 'get rich quick' that there must be a few who think it's real.

After all, if NOBODY fell for it, these things would have moved on by now. But they are still doing the rounds.
 
MorningAngel said:
Do people ever fall for these weird random emails?View attachment 55910View attachment 55911
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The last company I worked for, almost every morning one of these ridiculous letters would be on the Fax machine (remember faxes??), from some overseas country, complete with misspellings and broken English, actually thinking that anyone capable of reading would respond.
We used to read them for a laugh and toss them out, but they kept coming.
LOLOL
 
MorningAngel said:
Do people ever fall for these weird random emails?
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My inbox has at least half-a-dozen of these sorts of things every morning.
Sometimes they are "Dear Beloved" or "Dear Recipient", often from some religious person/politician/big company/Royal family.
I get "Your ATM card with USD$47.6m is waiting", or "Your DHL parcel consignment", or "BMW company director" etc etc
And yeah, I'm absolutely certain people fall for it.
 
Netflix currently has a documentary called The Social Dilemma that I want to watch. It is about social media and how it is evolving to manipulate your ideas in a much more insidious way than other media could, and that we don't recognize that this is happening.
 
Trevp666 said:
My inbox has at least half-a-dozen of these sorts of things every morning.
Sometimes they are "Dear Beloved" or "Dear Recipient", often from some religious person/politician/big company/Royal family.
I get "Your ATM card with USD$47.6m is waiting", or "Your DHL parcel consignment", or "BMW company director" etc etc
And yeah, I'm absolutely certain people fall for it.
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They're sent in millions by machine, the 'success' rate doesn't need to be high.
 
My feeling is that the media tries to control and manipulate our thinking (they are being paid to do so?)
by pushing constant pictures and thoughts into our consciousness, thereby feeding us their agenda,
getting us used to it, then we come to expect it.
The real and actual news is pushed aside and selected for us, shameful.
 
I had a lady (American) in the shop last night who refused to use the self serve tills. She came straight to me on the kiosk and asked if we had 'cameras'. I said no, the cameras that capture your face are on the ASTs as security (they take film of the people there, but it's only as a precaution against stealing and even that is not much good, it's a deterrent rather than anything else). She gave me a five minute diatribe about how she didn't consent to being filmed and we were contravening her human rights by doing so. She then said that the film of people was being sold (she didn't say what for) and she could prove it. I told her that our film was taped over almost immediately because it's a deterrent not for proof, but she really did have a bee in her bonnet about the use of cameras and filming.

It was the first time anyone has ever come up with this little bit of paranoia. I have no idea what use random bits of film of people's faces would be, even if anyone DID sell it. And besides GDPR prevents us from even LOOKING at the film if we're not management, which I tried to explain, but she wouldn't have it.

Is this a thing?
 
catseye said:
I had a lady (American) in the shop last night who refused to use the self serve tills. She came straight to me on the kiosk and asked if we had 'cameras'. I said no, the cameras that capture your face are on the ASTs as security (they take film of the people there, but it's only as a precaution against stealing and even that is not much good, it's a deterrent rather than anything else). She gave me a five minute diatribe about how she didn't consent to being filmed and we were contravening her human rights by doing so. She then said that the film of people was being sold (she didn't say what for) and she could prove it. I told her that our film was taped over almost immediately because it's a deterrent not for proof, but she really did have a bee in her bonnet about the use of cameras and filming.

It was the first time anyone has ever come up with this little bit of paranoia. I have no idea what use random bits of film of people's faces would be, even if anyone DID sell it. And besides GDPR prevents us from even LOOKING at the film if we're not management, which I tried to explain, but she wouldn't have it.

Is this a thing?
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After deciding to skip adventures at WalMart this week for a better class of department store (though not much better) we went to our local Kohl's.
Hubby went to the men's department and I went off to find the women's Levi's jeans, which I found a display of shelves against a far wall.
I wanted to see the new styles, and suddenly a woman looking at another display over to the side put her cart directly in front of the Levi's jeans.
I (very politely) asked her to move her cart as I was looking at the Levi's. The area was empty of other customers.
She went off on a rant about 'who did I think I was, she was there first', and 'look at me, I'm a mess', and various other observations. I have long straight blonde hair and had just come from the hairdresser, and was dressed to go out, with makeup.
I just laughed and moved on to another area.
Since the virus I have noticed a peculiar type of 'rage' or 'obstinacy' or 'paranoia' and a lack of just plain logical thinking from others that I have not seen before. Mr. R is as mystified as I am, but manners and kindness seem to have gone out the window.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Since the virus I have noticed a peculiar type of 'rage' or 'obstinacy' or 'paranoia' and a lack of just plain logical thinking from others that I have not seen before. Mr. R is as mystified as I am, but manners and kindness seem to have gone out the window.
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I've noticed that as well. It's almost as if some of the population have suddenly become stupid as well.

Especially when driving I see drivers doing some of the strangest things. This morning a lady parked her car across a set of busy pedestrian lights just so as she could go into the shop next to them. And the number of drivers undertaking along with the 'have to get in front' brigade is almost epidemic.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
I just laughed and moved on to another area.
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Crikey. You show much more restraint than I would in the same situation.
If I wanted to look at something and someone shoved their 'cart' in the way, I would just shove it out of the way saying loudly, but cheerfully,
" 'scuse me!" and if they decided to remonstrate with me they'd be heading towards a destination they weren't expecting to visit.
 
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