My new friend John Anderson………..he didn’t hang around long😱.

I am on Facebook but rarely post anything and then only to friends and family so don't get the strange friend requests. What I find curious is when Facebook put up the "people you may know" list they are invariably people who live in a different country!

Cossy

Indigo8

Yet another example of the beasts that pray on women.
Kind, vulnerable women who are then fleeced and left feeling
stupid and naive with as their self esteem hits the floor.

I have never been a victim of this but I could easily have been.
I don't know how this can be tackled but I feel that more could be done to protect vulnerable women.

Thank you for sharing this on GN. It is a timely warning to all of us to be on guard against this rubbish.

Sadly men are targeted too.

I too simply don’t understand how people get sucked it, but they target hundreds at a time and 1 or 2 are vulnerable and get sucked in.

When I was working I was targeted twice on LinkedIn!!!!

I take your point Cossy. I once saw a programme about a woman who made a career out of exploiting vulnerable men.

Why don't I get all these exciting requests on Facebook. I am going to sulk now because they obviously take one look at my profile picture - a cluster of primroses and back off.

There are lots of vulnerable people around, sadly, for a variety of reasons.

I suppose if they friend request for long enough some lonely, vulnerable lady will fall for it.

RosiesMaw2

Gotcha? 🤣🤣
I regularly get “friend” requests on FB probably being on various sites and I keep this as my response

That’s great! May I steal please?

I just reject friend requests from people I don’t know, I’ve been on fb for years, no problems.
V good Sago 🤣🤣

I think we have to think outside of mainstream to be honest. I worked with someone who fell for this kind of thing and he had moderate learning difficulties and was quite a vulnerable young man. There are lots of people who are vulnerable who may fall for this kind of thing.

Calendargirl

It’s a pity all these doctors, medics, construction workers etc all work in Syria and similar. We could do with them in the UK.

They could then ‘meet up’ with all these ladies they chat to online, and really ‘get to know them’ properly.

Absolutely !

This is why I love this forum. We can have a good laugh and help and advise others at the same time.
Great post Sago

It’s a pity all these doctors, medics, construction workers etc all work in Syria and similar. We could do with them in the UK.

They could then ‘meet up’ with all these ladies they chat to online, and really ‘get to know them’ properly.

I’m a great believer in not letting ourselves be victims- common sense, the wisdom of years and a good sense of humour snd perspective.
Don’t get mad, get even!

"Yet another example of the beasts that pray on women.
Kind, vulnerable women who are then fleeced and left feeling
stupid and naive with as their self esteem hits the floor."

I'm not sure that they're necessarily kind women Sago. Obviously nobody deserves to be fleeced of their life savings, but these women aren't being duped into giving money to a pretend Donkey Sanctuary or orphanage. They're handing over eye watering amounts of money to "sexy" young American servicemen or oil rig workers or Nigerian princes! They're doing it because they genuinely believe they will marry or have sex with them. It's not exactly altruism.

I’ve also had the “hi mum, I’ve lost my phone, here’s my new number” a couple of times.

Funnily enough once it was when our entire family were together on holiday! I normally ignore and block but this time I responded “well just walk downstairs and give me your new number!”

Indigo8

Yet another example of the beasts that pray on women.
Kind, vulnerable women who are then fleeced and left feeling
stupid and naive with as their self esteem hits the floor.

I have never been a victim of this but I could easily have been.
I don't know how this can be tackled but I feel that more could be done to protect vulnerable women.

Thank you for sharing this on GN. It is a timely warning to all of us to be on guard against this rubbish.

Sadly men are targeted too.

I too simply don’t understand how people get sucked it, but they target hundreds at a time and 1 or 2 are vulnerable and get sucked in.

When I was working I was targeted twice on LinkedIn!!!!

I had countless marriage proposals from Curtis Weinberg , a Scottish soldier serving in Afghanistan !
He sent me photos of a very handsome man .
Every day , I received declarations of his undying love .
His life had been tragic - his wife and baby daughter being killed in a car crash .
But , he at last had found joy with me -despite my being too old to have children .
Then , he stopped communicating with me .
After some weeks - he contacted me again .
He'd been injured in an explosion and his friends had died in his arms .
And within days - a miracle had occurred he'd found a cache of gold hidden in a hillside .
He wanted to share it with me , but would need my bank details in order to do so .

Shades of Rev Chris , but more exciting .

This is very common practise on Instagram..it will be a false photo and invariably have been sent by someone in Nigeria who will eventually tell you about a crisis that needs money being sent to them. It will often involve a child needing help..

I followed one out of interest to see where it would go.. after being told in many florid ways how beautiful, wonderful etc I was.. I was asked for money for a crisis.. when I said I would fly out to bring the money, he stopped writing...

Sago

This is the last of our conversation!

Well done!
I am not on FB so haven’t been targeted like this but sadly not all shoot it down in flames like you did, some get sucked in and lose thousands of pounds, usually lonely older people whose vulnerability is cruelly exploited. I imagine the man in the pic doesn’t even know his picture is being used in this way.
I have, however, had the text scam where someone pretends to be a grown child in need of help who has lost their phone/been mugged/had their phone stolen, and need funds asap but of course their card has been lost/stolen so please send to their friend’s account.
I immediately blocked it.

Yet another example of the beasts that pray on women.
Kind, vulnerable women who are then fleeced and left feeling
stupid and naive with as their self esteem hits the floor.

I have never been a victim of this but I could easily have been.
I don't know how this can be tackled but I feel that more could be done to protect vulnerable women.

Thank you for sharing this on GN. It is a timely warning to all of us to be on guard against this rubbish.

Gotcha? 🤣🤣
I regularly get “friend” requests on FB probably being on various sites and I keep this as my response

I deleted my FB account years ago, I was always on there, and always getting ''friend'' requests from mainly USA, Africa, India from ''my beloved wife died 3 years ago we have 3 children, I need a new wife'' and all the other idiots demanding ''services'', passports, money ''because I'm a very poor man''. ''Please send me just $3,000 and your band details and I'll come over and marry you''.

Strangely they all ''worked'' as doctors or other medics, in the army/navy/various forces or oil rigs, construction and so on!

I had sexually explicit photos sent to me, was swore at, told I'm grotesque, should kill myself, I'm a slag, brainless etc. etc! The amount of abuse was horrific so it's lucky I'm thick skinned and totally ignored them all!

I even had a USA woman desperately trying to marry me off to her brother! ''He's been in prison repeatedly for years but he's a good lad, only been in for gun violence and beating a female firefighter to death, I swear he's a good bloke and would love you marry you''

HA HA HA!

Oh Sago, he's going to be broken hearted...

That made me smile, Sago.

Sago 😂
I look forward to his response

Did he ever write back?