Social App Scams

[+ Gar1eth]

Well I've currently had my fill of all the rejection the cute and handsome men residing only as far away as inside my pocket on my iPhone can dish out. I've joined and deleted them about 5 times already. I keep hoping some day I'll be more 'alluring' to the guys I like. To quote Shakespeare," It is a consummation devoutly to be wished for." Unfortunately for me no consummation is taking place. So this will be deletion number 6.

 

But yesterday I received a contact from a guy. A big burly attractive guy. His profile said he was from Miami. But the GPS said he was 7000 miles away, and he told me he was a sergeant serving in Kabul, but was going to be discharged in a couple of months. He gave me a name and aside from his profile picture he had a picture with him in a fatigue type shirt. The shirt had a name in Magic Marker on it over the pocket. The name on the shirt was different than the last name that he gave me. He had already given me his last name, and when I questioned the name on the shirt, he told me it was his 1st name.

 

He 1st contacted me about 3 AM my time. I had the phone on and happened to hear it and looked at it. I think I thought it was a scam even then, but I can't really remember. We conversed a bit, and I told him I had to go back to bed. He contacted me later in the day and said he wanted an email and not to converse on Scruff. I actually thought of playing around with him to see what he would ask me- so I registered for a new gmail account and gave it to him. After that I decided I didn't really want to participate, and I have forgotten the password I used to create the account. So I can't even look to see if he sent anything.

 

But my question is this- during the course of the conversation he would refer to me as 'dear'. I've received scam contacts before on the social apps- and it seems to me that at some point either in their description or when they chat with you they use that term 'dear'. Now to me if I ever wasn't certain the guy was really foreign scam artist trying to infect my computer and get money from me, 'dear' would be a dead giveaway. I was just wondering where in the world- and maybe all these fake guys are from the same country- would they think 'dear' is a standard way that American males refer to each other.

 

Gman

[Steven_Draker]

I was just wondering where in the world ... would they think 'dear' is a standard way that American males refer to each other.

 

 

http://www.marseart.com/_Media/oh_dear_website.jpeg

 

 

Where? ... Probably in the Kingdom of Dears, Darling !

 

 

 

Catfish, n.

A catfish is someone who assumes a false identity on the Internet using various platforms including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to pursue deceptive online romances. A catfish is often undesirable in comparison to thier profile, as an actual catfish would be to a premium "catch" fish like Alaskan salmon.

[+ FreshFluff]

Catfishing is usually a way of emotionally manipulating a particular person--or sometimes a few people--by communicating through a false identity. The idea is to gain power by pretending to be a hottie.

 

What Gman is describing sounds more like a romance scam aimed at extracting money from the target. (Obviously, Gman is far smarter than that.)

[Steven_Draker]

What Gman is describing sounds more like a romance scam aimed at extracting money from the target.

 

Extracting money through Scruff? I very much doubt it.

 

Scruff is a dating/hook-up application. It sounds like someone was having too much free time on his hands in Kabul.

 

I'd love to hear the follow-up story, Gman.

[maninsoma]

I get this fairly frequently on Adam4Adam. I simply delete the messages without evening opening them if the profile looks suspect (much younger and hotter than me and doesn't even live near me).

[+ FreshFluff]

Extracting money through Scruff? I very much doubt it.

 

Scruff is a dating/hook-up application. It sounds like someone was having too much free time on his hands in Kabul.

 

I'd love to hear the follow-up story, Gman.

 

It's usually done through online dating sites, so no reason it wouldn't work on Scruff. Then they ask for money in a variety of ways.

 

I guess it could be someone who's bored and wants to be fawned over.

[Irtwo]

The "dear" being said usually involves scams from Nigeria. That's a common word they use when addressing people. If not that country, it indicates a foreigner at any rate.

[+ Gar1eth]

Extracting money through Scruff? I very much doubt it.

 

Scruff is a dating/hook-up application. It sounds like someone was having too much free time on his hands in Kabul.

 

I'd love to hear the follow-up story, Gman.[/color]

 

No I am almost 100% sure you are wrong, Steven. I've had people text me from over 2000 miles away before. Many of them use the term 'dear' in these texts. It's not something an Amercian male would normally say to an unknown guy. Plus he didn't want to keep the conversation on Scruff because ' he might get in trouble from his superiors'. He wanted to continue the rest of the interactions by email. He also had no naked selfies of himself- granted not everyone takes them. But wouldn't you think the probability of a bored military guy, gay or straight, using a social app would be more likely to have a naked selfie as compared to trying to find his life partner? I'm voting for the naked selfie being more probable in this case.

 

I tried to see if this name was a known scam alias. I came across websites complaining of fake email penpals where women had been sent pictures of military guys supposedly wanting relationships. But ending up trying to get money from the women. I'm sure in most cases the emailers were using fake pictures.

 

I blocked this guy on Scruff. The main point I was trying to make was that most of these foreign guys scammers have used the term 'dear' in their writing to me. It seems a dead giveaway. I can't think there would be many circumstances were I would call someone (male) who is basically a complete stranger to me 'dear'. About the only place I use the word is in the salutation of a formal letter. I wonder if there is one main region or country overseas that most of these scams come from that in their language dear, or the translation of it, is commonly used towards strangers.

 

 

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

The "dear" being said usually involves scams from Nigeria. That's a common word they use when addressing people. If not that country, it indicates a foreigner at any rate.

 

Thank you. That's what I was wondering. What country or in what region of the world was the term 'dear' a popular form of address. Geez maybe I blocked a fundraiser for Boko Haram.

 

Gman

[+ purplekow]

Thank you. That's what I was wondering. What country or in what region of the world was the term 'dear' a popular form of address. Geez maybe I blocked a fundraiser for Boko Haram.

 

Gman

 

Gman

Oh my dear, that would have been terrible. i mean, that would have sucked dude.

[+ Gar1eth]

Thank you. That's what I was wondering. What country or in what region of the world was the term 'dear' a popular form of address. Geez maybe I blocked a fundraiser for Boko Haram.

 

Gman

 

Oh my dear, that would have been terrible. i mean, that would have sucked dude.

 

 

http://www.patriotnetdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/emoticon-question-300x185.jpg

 

Gman

[Daverwr]

Just a thought, and I'm no military expert (far from it!), but could he have used "Dear" rather than a male name in case his commander and/or buddies happened to see his email? Perhaps, he's not too comfortable with his sexuality.

 

Yours truly, Dear.

[+ Gar1eth]

Just a thought, and I'm no military expert (far from it!), but could he have used "Dear" rather than a male name in case his commander and/or buddies happened to see his email? Perhaps, he's not too comfortable with his sexuality.

 

Yours truly, Dear.

 

No- it was a scam. I forgot to mention when he first contacted me at 3 AM he texted this long paragraph about his position in the army. When he contacted me later in the day I asked him what he planned to do when he got out in a few months. He misunderstood and texted the exact same info- same wording, same spacing. His English was good. But it was slightly off. There was no way this guy was real. Moving from Scruff to email would probably preserve evidence better if this kind of communication was going to get him in trouble. And what would there be to get him in trouble. He had no naked selfies. And I could have, if I were the type to send those, send them just as easily by phone or email. The only reasons I can think of him wanting to use email- maybe easier to write longer letters- and he could send me fake document attachments of possibly a virus for my computer.

 

 

 

Gman

[Steven_Draker]

'"Dear Beloved One",

 

Over the years, scam language seems to have become something of an art form in itself -- sometimes hilarious and sometimes deadly serious.

 

For a start, there's a whole mini-dictionary of new words or new definitions of old words. Think of phishing, vishing, pharming, flim-flams and 419s. Then there's whaling, skimming, baiting-and-switching, and key logging. Or how about boiler rooms, pretexting, splogs (fake blog sites), scareware and malware?

 

There's certainly enough for a good Trivial Pursuit category!

 

Our particular favorite -- though it's no laughing matter -- is the recently coined abbreviation RUMBLE (Recruitment of Unwitting Money-launderers by Bogus Letters of Employment), which is part of the overpayment scam.

 

But the use of language -- or, more precisely, its misuse -- can also be a dead giveaway for a scam. Take this gem, for example:

 

--- Begin scam email 1 ---

 

Good news dear, It is my pleasure to inform you that the latest development regarding the news from the New president of the United State of America to release all your fund through bank of america without any further delay.

 

--- End scam email 1 ---

 

more: http://www.scambusters.org/scamlanguage.html

[+ Travis69]

A friend of mine was almost scammed out of money on Match.com years ago.

[Daverwr]

 

Good news dear, It is my pleasure to inform you that the latest development regarding the news from the New president of the United State of America to release all your fund through bank of america without any further delay.

 

 

 

Excellent news! I have some funds with bank of america.

[gallahadesquire]

Ah, how timely! A poor fellow has lost both his parents; was educated in Finland; and now wants to move "near my city" to look for love.

Except I got all of this before, but under a different name.

 

And then there was the sargeant ... same scam, different day, with lots of "Dears" thrown in for good measure.

 

I already know not to send money, and shooting the fish in the barrel looses its freshness quickly.

[bostonman]

I have an account on Silverdaddies, and have, several times, gotten emails from guys claiming they're servicemen abroad who will be home soon. I don't remember whether 'dear' was in the emails or not, but they've always included a very handsome pic of a guy in uniform, and somewhere a disclaimer that "because of discretion, I've already deleted my SD account" etc, "but please email me back at this address if you'd like to meet" etc.

 

I've always figured "too good to be true" and left it at that, no response, delete.

 

Even more often, I've gotten obvious scam/spam messages on Manhunt, from guys halfway across the world (they used to all come from "Acra Region" as I recall) written in stilted English, and always with the philosophy that love was greater than distance (i.e. it wouldn't matter that we're nowhere near each other, we could still have a loving relationship). Yeah right.