Someone must know I’m very rich 😉
It’s either that, or my name must cry out “easy target.”
While on Facebook this morning, I got an instant chat request.
This is not the first time, I’ve been contacted by a friend vacationing and losing their wallets and passport.
Interestingly, Western Union seems to be the scam artists preferred method of payment for obvious reasons.
I tried contacting Western Union to see if they could or would do anything, but their online chat is not working.
I was curious how exactly payment is made.
Do they send a courier out to the address without checking the ID of the recipient?
Perhaps one of my kind readers here can enlighten me via comments below.
If I have the address and I know the name of the person I”m sending money to, would Western Union or the cops on the other side of the Atlantic do something about it?
Or are they too busy with other more serious crimes?
Red Flags
Apart from the obvious admonition, “not everyone you’re chatting with is who you think they are,” it may be prudent to keep your shields up if you hear from someone who’s not on FB a lot.
Adam, is far too important and busy a guy to be socializing like I do.
Fortunately, being a parent with school age kids, I quickly surmised that something was not right with this picture.
Easter or Spring vacation is not till April.
So my scam artist needs to get with the program and learn the school calendar on this side of the Atlantic.
Also, when I first offered help with Adam’s Macs. He completely ignored that question.
That leads me to believe he had a script written and he was cutting and pasting in multiple chat windows to all of poor Adam’s unsuspecting friends.
I would have loved to toy with the scam artist all morning but I had to get my daughter to school.
I didn’t catch the bastard but I had the satisfaction of wasting their time.
Adam, thanks for being a good sport and giving me permission to use your profile picture.
Adam says, “Often I find my life is used as an example to others. 🙂 Go ahead.”
Peter Phun Photography | 
Thanks Peter. I will be in good shape if these little “petri dishes” I am working with don’t knock me down for good with another infection, that is. I have been laid up for a week with a stomach flu that has hit all of the schools. Today I finally feel a bit human.
I told someone last night that in my next life (if there is such a thing), I am going to open quarantine area sickrooms at schools, so that other kids and teachers are not exposed to everything going around just because the parents cannot miss work. It isn’t fair to the other kids or teachers. It could work. Then sick kids could get better, well kids could learn, and teachers could teach 🙂
Hello Maura,
It’s great to hear from you as usual.
I’m not quite sure myself how to use Facebook beyond thinking about it as a “megaphone” whether to vent or to get the word out for my business.
It is a double-edged sword to be sure.
As recently as yesterday I found some old friends or long lost friends but in reality, do these friends still want to be in touch with me, I have to ask myself?
More importantly, once we answer some questions about what we have been doing and catch up, will there be enough of a connection on both ends to continue the friendship. We don’t have that much in common, anymore.
You’re right to be worried about the younger generations because their interactions with one another is mostly thru’ texting whether on FB or on their phones.
They will lack the much needed real world social skills that will determine their success.
Those skills which your teach will be much needed. So, you’ll be in good shape, Maura. 😉
Hi Peter-
Thanks for this post! I have had similar email requests that are not coming through Facebook, though I am sure social networking sites and their knack of grabbing all of one’s email addresses isn’t helping. The requests I have received have all been from email addresses of people I may have done business with once or twice, a few years back. My only guess is that their computers, still having my email addresses in them, are goldmines for hackers. I will admit I have “vented” in a few email responses back, but I am sure someone got the message that their email accounts had been compromised. I haven’t received one in months now.
I wised up to the dangers of social networking after just a few weeks on Facebook. Sadly, my kids and many friends still do not believe just how much damage it can do if their social networking is not managed more responsibly.
Yes, we are becoming more globally connected, which is great. It is too bad that in the process we are all becoming less personally connected, and according to recent studies, it is only going to get worse for the brains of our younger generations.
I am off of Facebook. I wrote a blog post a few months back that you might find interesting. http://theetiquettesleuth.blogspot.com/search/label/Halloween
Maura Graber
Hi Jo,
Sadly it’s a numbers game for these scam artists.
The folks who fall prey to this tend to be newbies. I don’t want to venture a guess but probably the older folks who are discovering the internet. That generation tend to be more trusting.
Kids today are pretty savvy. Sadly they have to fib about who they are online, so it’s contrary to what we tell them about always telling the truth.
My son’s profile? A 40-something day trader living in the Bahamas.
Oooh. Love this. What a creepy little world. But who are the people who are taken in by such things?