9-42am
I had a brief Facebook conversation this morning with Valerie Gail about the ‘Other’ Facebook email inbox we all have. Most women, when they open it find a list of really good looking guys with amazingly straightforward names such as Len Stevens and Daniel Ferguson and Scott Taylor (real names of men I have blocked). If you venture into their Facebook profiles, you’ll find, most times they say they live in the United States. They say usually, they are self-employed. There will probably be photos of fancy cars and more photos of impressive events or family photos. But you MUST KNOW: These are all fraudulent photos, pawned from the profiles of other unsuspecting Facebook users. These are men, or they may even be women, posing as successful entrepreneurs, giving the impression they are loaded with cash and are lonely. They are looking for love and generally their emails contain phrases such as (and I quote): “i am widower with a boy, he is 17 now… if you do not mind can we chat cos i need to know you better…. i am single i need a woman in my life”. Here’s another: “I would rather ask for a permission to write to you as i couldn’t hold back seeing your profile,picture but to appreciate your beauty” and a third: “I just came across your profile and I must say it is very nice and interesting. You look beautiful in your lovely pictures and i believe there so much more from you.” Thanks George! What a load of rubbish. Do not be misled! These people are unscrupulous con artists preying on the vulnerability of random women who could possibly believe their ludicrous emails. None of what they say is true. They are NOT who they say they are . They are looking to build a relationship with someone, gain that person’s trust, sow into that woman’s emotional needs and then once they have got them in their grip, they come up with the need for money. These are a few of the con artist photos that appeared in my Facebook Other Email….
Let me tell you how I nearly got caught. A couple of months ago, I received a FB message from a woman who called herself Julie Dermody. Her English was (unlike most others) perfect. She was writing to me from the US about a friend’s daughter who was coming to Cape Town for a few weeks. The friend was very keen for her daughter to connect with other Christians. She referred to my blog and she referred to my radio work. This sounded so genuine, that I didn’t disregard it immediately. I didn’t reply immediately either because I wasn’t sure. So I left it a few weeks. Then one day I was going through my email and saw hers and wrote back, asking if I had replied and what happened to the so called visitor to Cape Town. Very quickly I got a message saying no one had answered her and she put on a sad face!. Thinking she could be genuine, I wrote saying I got a lot of dodgy email & I wasn’t sure if hers was genuine. Then she came back with a sudden deluge of messages – she had just got hold of the girl’s mom and (it just so happened) she was on the flight to Cape Town that day and her mom was just so so worried about her. I didn’t reply. Then she sent me another mail saying she had just got a message from the mom telling her that the girl’s Avis lift from the airport to her hostel had ‘fallen through’. Avis?! That’s a rent a car, not a lift service. Then I just KNEW this was a con. It had all the makings of it. These are people who spend all day on the internet waiting for people to fall into their trap. So she was immediately available to write when she got my email. She quickly updated herself with what she had first written and immediately started working on a plan to try and get money out of me. She created an ‘urgent’ desperate situation of a vulnerable girl who was stranded in Cape Town. The next step would be for her to ask me to just deposit money into such and such a bank account so the girl could get to her destination. I wrote back SUCH a strong message. I rebuked her for preying on someone who she thought she could manipulate into believing her. I told her if she replied to my message I would both report her and block her. She DID reply. So I reported her and I blocked her. She went onto my Twitter account to try and get my attention. I just ignored it. Now I see her photo is down and she has no more information on her account.
Be very very careful. Because of my position on the radio, I get loads of friend requests. I look at almost each one carefully. Only if you have a friend in common with me can you befriend me. And then, if you only have one person in common, unless I know you, I just leave the friend request waiting until I have time to go through each person and look at their profile to see if I can work out if they are legit. Become acquainted with the Settings section of your FB page. Look for your name at the top right hand corner. Next to that is Home and next to that is a little padlock. Click on that and adjust your settings to add protection to your FB profile….
When I think of these internet fraudsters, I think of this Bible verse:
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Please share this with all your female friends!
God bless you loads!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂