Is that a love letter, or are you out to take my money...

[TaylorMade]

I posted this on my facebook, but I think it bears repeating...

I got this in my mailbox, and it's not the first once I've gotten.


Hello, how are you there. I was looking through many profiles today and some of them even looked interesting, but yours was one of the few that looked special! Your personality, your interests - we might get along really well. If you feel the same way, just write back, I think the two of us should give it a try! I also one important question to ask you and that is DO YOU HAVE A BIG HEART?
Regards,
sean

Yeah.... it's kinda sweet, isn't it? But - - I can say with at least 90% authority that it's a scam. It's not some sweet English college student sending it. My guess, it's either a pretender in an internet cafe in England or Nigeria, hoping I will be lonely and desperate enough to start the correspondence . . . we'll talk, laugh, and maybe he'll say within a month of daily notes and pokes that he loves me and would LOVE to come to the states to see me. Or that he has a little situation with the Home Office and needs money. . . for a visa. Or a sick relative back in the country parts of Britain. Or he is taking a semester abroad in Lagos. And then he'll take my trust and turn it into cash. . .and when he's taken all he could... he vanishes, leaving me with a broken heart and empty wallet.

419/Romance Scammers are starting to appear on Facebook. I don't think this will work for them as well as it would on other fora. But still, be vigilant with the PM's you receive, especially from those not on your contact lists. If a name sounds odd, (i.e, not consistent with the syntax of the language they claim to speak), or a PM sounds forumlaic (don't hesitate to run it through google, which is what I did), like they're in love with you already, don't respond. Delete them. If you want to run counter game on them, look to more experienced scam baiters to do this, especially if this is your first time. Remember, wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove.


*Taylor*

[fpb09]

Yes, I've seen it! I tell them I'M bi, it's ok they say! There understanding, they promise u anything! Then ask for money 4 phone card or plane ticket to see u ! MAKES ME PISSED OFF!

[Realist]

I hate to admit this, because this puts me in the category of IDIOT, but Here's a story to warn others.

There was an old chat site called "Bianca", several years, back. When I first got a computer, back in about 1990, I began getting on Bianca a lot. You could discuss anything you wanted to, in an open forum.

I met a black fellow from Illinois on Bianca and we began meeting once, or twice a week, to chat. We began talking about cars, mechanical things, building houses, being in the military, growing up, etc, etc.......nothing sexual.

One day, he told me he was getting divorced from his wife, who was white. He asked me if I had any problems with mixed marriages?

I said, "No", and told him I dated a black girl, when I was in college, back in '70........ and that we'd been serious. But it just didn't work out.

The guy and I went on to discuss other things and left that subject behind.

When I got back on Bianca, a couple of days later, I got a request for my e-mail address, from a girl in Benin. She said she'd feel more comfortable e-mailing me privately. She wanted to talk to an American, to improve her English. (If I'd been smart, I would have advised her to write an Englishman, because being Southern, my English was way short of being correct!)

Well, like an idiot, I sent my address to her and quickly got a nicely-written e-mail, in perfect English, with a photo of a pretty and extremely voluptuous black lady, in white spaghetti-strap dress.

She was stunning and had me, hook, line and sinker! Soon, she was writing me lovely perfectly composed letters, wanting for us to meet. All I had to do was send her $2,500 for her plane ticket, then she'd come over for a visit.

I was in the process of getting a divorce, lonesome, and not thinking too straight. I planned to go to the bank and get an International money order for the ticket, after work.

A police officer I knew, who was an old pistol shooting buddy, stopped by at lunch to say hi. He worked on a Special Crime Unit. I told him about the lady from Benin and showed him the photo.

He began laughing and told me he'd seen that same photo and that it was scam! He doubted the girl in the photo was even involved!

Then, he explained the situation to me...I felt so gullible! He said that if I sent the money, I'd never get to see that girl, or my $2,500 either!

Was his visit at the perfect time, or what? ...........and a good lesson for me, too!

[TaylorMade]

But if you didn't give her the money, were you really an idiot? :bigrin:

*Taylor*

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

lol I love getting the emails that say they want me to accept 200.000 dollars for them. I tell em "Fantastic! Send it in small non-sequencial bills in a plain brown stapled at the top envelope, and I'll invest it wisely for you! I always Have wanted my very own high priced Brothel, filled with all blond bimbos. I'll even name it after You! We'll call it Dumb Fuck Estates in Your honor. Send money asap please. No COD, no plastic..."

Funny, they dont contact me again. Makes me shed a tear it does......snicker.
Smart assed Cat.