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What do I do, is this another spam?

(15 Posts)
ExDancer Thu 18-Aug-22 09:30:57

I got a 'friend' request of Facebook from someone I used to know well, but hadn't seen for years, and although I don't add everyone as a friend on that site, decided to add her to my very short list, and sent a chatty reply asking about her family.
Then I got this reply:-

Oh I'm doing pretty good and so feeling excited, I saw your name on LMR list have you heard from them?

I thought the wording was odd and unlike her usual speech pattern .... "doing pretty good" and "so feeling excited" are not the kinds of expressions you usually hear from a farmer's wife. So I googled LMR and it appears to be some kind of financial organisation (among other things) and certainly not a list my name is likely to be on.

So I blocked her. Now I wonder if I may have offended her. Did I do the right thing?

Shinamae Thu 18-Aug-22 09:33:03

Absolutely

Chestnut Thu 18-Aug-22 09:46:08

You went with your gut feeling which is the right thing to do. She didn't answer your questions about her family or include anything personal in her reply, so that's a big red flag. As you haven't seen her for years it's not really a problem.

GagaJo Thu 18-Aug-22 09:47:09

Yes. I had a message from a very elderly lady I haven't seen for over 30 years last week. She is on FB but only for family photographs really.

The message was very general, but the second message was about something financial.

I replied to the first message, but realised something was amiss with the 2nd one and didn't reply. I'm not blocking her because it's a genuine account, but I doubt she even knows it's happening.

Germanshepherdsmum Thu 18-Aug-22 09:48:02

You did the right thing. It's a scam.

Chestnut Thu 18-Aug-22 09:48:52

Just a thought. If you have a phone number for her you could try ringing it just out of curiosity, or maybe contact someone who will know her. I'd just be curious to actually speak to her, but only if you want to make contact of course.

Grannynannywanny Thu 18-Aug-22 10:08:29

Yes you did exactly the right thing ExDancer. The wretched spammers seem to be in overdrive. I had an email last night that appeared to come from the email address of a friend in the US. I hear from her 2 or 3 times a year with her latest news. Usually a nice long email. This was just a couple of sentences saying here’s some photos from our weekend, click on the link to view them. It struck me as odd and when I hovered over her name at the top of the email the source wasn’t her email address although it was her name as stored in my address book.

I didn’t click on the link and contacted her to let her know her email account had been hacked and advised her to change her passwords. I changed mine as well as a precaution.

merlotgran Thu 18-Aug-22 10:27:22

I had a similar one alleging to be my friend’s husband. He asked how I was and said they’d won a substantial sum of money on a lottery and he’d send me the link so I could enter. I was instantly suspicious but when I saw the word, ‘gotten’ I burst out laughing.

I just ignored it and warned my friend her husband’s facebook account had been hacked.

welbeck Thu 18-Aug-22 10:31:02

OP, that wasn't from your old friend at all.
you did the right thing. it goes on all the time.

PollyDolly Thu 18-Aug-22 10:36:04

I received a friend request from someone who is already on my list of FB friends which I though was quite odd. I sent a text message to her and yes, she had been hacked.
I can't quite work out why people do this, is it just to annoy others out what?

Outofstepwithhumanity Thu 18-Aug-22 10:36:49

I received an email supposedly from someone on my contact list.. I clicked the link, which made no sense. I tapped the address & it was certainly not from my contact. Since then, I have received several emails from “supposed” friends, which have come fro an unknown source. I now delete these immediately.

welbeck Thu 18-Aug-22 10:39:55

PollyDolly, it's a marketing ploy, to try to reel people in. a bit like when supposed handwritten notes are pushed through the door from a purported neighbour, commending some service or product.
people are drawn in, esp if it is presented as a chance to make money. warn others.

lemsip Thu 18-Aug-22 10:53:14

you did the right thing to block her

NotSpaghetti Thu 18-Aug-22 12:20:06

I had this from an Instagram account.
Someone I knew in real life but not close to (both practitioners in the same field).

They sent a "Hi, how are you doing" message. I too responded with a general response and a question. They replied really quickly (in the middle of the night) so I was suspicious. This time they wanted me to click a link to somewhere I was not happy with and became impatient when I said I didn't have time to look at stuff when I was going to sleep. Then the language fell apart and became very not them.
As soon as they sent the link I knew it wasn't them and was probably someone trying to scam me somehow.

I didn't block them but didn't hear from them again!

NotSpaghetti Thu 18-Aug-22 12:20:31

So yes. I think you were right to back off!