Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 03:23 pm

New Post has been published on http://lifewithpal.com/2017/08/07/friend-or-foe-possible-befriending-scam/

Friend or Foe-Possible Befriending Scam

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I don’t know about anyone else but lately, I’ve had a few people try to befriend me via social media. I have had my fair share of random friend Facebook. Some I accept others I don’t. Mind you I’m not opposed to making new friends I have made many online friends over the years.  However, in July I had two very interesting encounters with random messages that got me thinking.

As I mentioned above I had two encounters or should I say messages that piqued my interest in July. They both messages were sent to my Instagram account. A friend of mine mentioned a similar scam circulating around Facebook as well.

Message One

The first person portrayed themselves as a man. I couldn’t say if the person was a man or a woman but the account they were messaging from was that of a man. Once again it’s a basic hello message. I replied back with a smile hello myself. Being that people occasionally message me to ask me questions about products I’ve reviewed or if I like X product I didn’t see any harm in replying.

A few hours later I was sent a reply from the sender. Well, the chat was innocent enough but quickly took a turn. With in the first few minutes,  it went from a cordial hello to rather in depth questions asking if I was married or if I had children.  Piquing my interest again I asked the same questions back. Well after this odd exchange the person confessed that their wife had passed away and they were left to raise a child. Again I was a bit thrown and replied that I was sorry for their loss and asked what that had to do with me. I also let the messenger know I needed to get back to what I was doing. Not 3 minutes after ending the chat I was sent a random picture of a child along with another message asking me what I was doing. I promptly blocked that person.  

Message Two

Well a few weeks after the first message I was sent another. I will post the screen shots below (Forgive any typos on my behalf. ) My replies are the ones in the gray bubbles. Sorry for the long read in advance and if the chat cuts off in certain portions.Once again these messages were sent from a man’s account.

As you can see it’s a basic hello and then the flattery starts.

What piqued my interest here is that the other person who messaged me before was also from overseas that’s when my red flags started waving.

I also found it interesting that the sender would share such info after a few short minutes of chatter. 

At this point was when the chat took an interesting turn. The sender became offended rather quickly. 

They tried to charm me by saying I was pretty. 

I think the mention of a Friend’s loss was meant to make me feel guilty in some way or have me sympathize with them. 

Where’s the Scam

By now you’re probably asking how is this a scam? Well, I can’t really prove that it is but I have a feeling the sender wants to befriend you then ask you for money.

I forgot to mention that the first person to message me wanted me to send them a photo of myself which I found odd so that’s another reason why I promptly blocked them as well. So

I will leave the decision up to you where the scam may lie but I still thought it was worth sharing.

As we know it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Have you had a similar experience?  

I’d love to hear about it. Share in the comments below