Well it took a little longer than usual, but Mr. Wonderful of Words With Friends fame finally showed his true colours after about four days! Yeah, hunky "Louis" with the cutey pie dog picture wanted to chat. Now when they do this (according to my own experience and confirmed by other ladies), they're either married/partnered men looking for a bit on the side or they're scammers. And would you believe it, but after "Louis" started to show his hand, "Kelvin" also showed up just dying to play WWF with me. I usually can't be arsed with these guys - in fact I never accept to play against a man now because what 32 year old Nigerian guy (seriously!) is really looking to play Word With Friends? Anyway, I took screen shots along the way, so ladies if "Louis" or "Kelvin" ever wants to play WWF with you, I'd give it a miss!
Gorgeous "Louis" (they never look like the back end of a bus do they!
So he's a diamond miner - dangerous job huh!
And they're always tragically widowed - with their bratty kids being off their hands. At this point I told André I was surprised he wasn't US military (I'm giving André a running commentary and we're cracking up)!
When he asked about my kids I told them one worked for Interpol - just to see if it would shake him up a bit. Thing is, it would be perfectly possible for my son to work for Interpol as Lyon's within easy commuting distance from here. These guys usually have several scams running at once so they don't actually read most of what you've written, so nope, Interpol didn't seem to phase him!
When I asked "Louis" why he was showing up as "Dennis G" on my phone when he sent me a message he said he didn't know - but he quickly corrected his settings to show up as "Louis" again!
By this time he had asked me for a photo so he could "see what I looked like", despite already telling me I had a "smile that could light up the world". I was getting a bit fed up by this time so just pulled the plug and blocked him!
Enter "Kelvin", who's a "military doctor currently on contract with Nato" - in Afghanistan (oh bless his heart)!
And of course he'll soon be retiring (so free to travel and meet up with little ol' me, who he has already fallen madly in love with, ya see)! I told him I was retired from the UN (not true), which was great as their pensions are pretty generous! So then the eejit asks me what "my organization" does (told ya, they don't read everything because they've got several scams going on at the same time)!
So then I asked "Kelvin" why he was showing up as "Sarah Nevada" on my phone. "Sarah Nevada" - ha ha, that's not even clever, but I guess that's the name he uses when he's trying to scam/catfish a man!
At this point I'd pretty much worn my "typing finger" down with these two and at some point I really needed to get in the shower so I just told him I knew what he was up to and basically to f.... off! Still, my car's in the garage, it's raining and I have nothing better to do. Well, that's not strictly true, I have tons of things I could be doing but .... it was fun for a while and André and I have really had a blast drafting messages to these two! So happy days then - I'm off to get in the shower!
I'm surprised one of them didn't tell you that he just came into a large inheritance... I have that stuff set to go right into Spam.
ReplyDeleteOh I get lots of those too. I actually paste all their scam emails into one large Word document and just mail it back to all of them every time. That is, when I can be bothered. I guess that's covid boredom for you!
DeleteOh my gosh-too funny. I had something similar with the Google Meets about the time I started blogging, so thought it might be a reader. Nope-weird guy-and of course a widow. I love that Andre and you got some entertainment. Hmm, what job could I give my son if I ever wanted to try and deter the fishermen out there?
ReplyDeleteI thought saying my son worked for Interpol might phase him but it obviously didn't as they don't have time to read all this stuff. André said to say he was "checking up on the guy's IP address as we spoke" but I never got that far!
DeleteFor a while my son amused himself by writing back to scammers and eventually asking THEM for money. Sadly, he never got any.
ReplyDeleteDamn, that's a shame!
DeleteFunny! It would never occur with me when I used to play words with friends to do more than actually play the game, so I guess I would be oblivious to anyone "reaching out"
ReplyDeleteI was a bit surprised the first time a guy did this. You know, the guy from Texas who wanted my email address so we could "get to know each other better". I'm a bit more savvy now (only took me 62 years)!
DeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteSome people .....
It's rife Bob! Well that and unsolicited dick pics!
DeleteMen! Can't even keep their code names straight!
ReplyDeleteThey've got too many on the go at once, and as they go off script their English starts to go down the pan too. I wrote a post a long time ago about the US military guy who was madly in love with me (?), born in 1958 (same as me) and who graduated from West Point (as a marine???) in 1966. When I questioned what a marine was doing at West Point and how he graduated at the age of eight his profile went bing, bing, bing and he took it down! Ya gets yer laughs where ya can, I guess!
DeleteThis is so funny! Once somebody called me on my cell phone pretending to be a police officer with police radio sounds in the background. He told me my child was arrested. I asked him which one, my son or my daughter. He of course told me my daughter was in trouble. Then, I told him where to go in sme very foul language. The idiot! Then I called mom and my sister's FIL to tell about this scam because, they were older people who actually had children.
ReplyDeleteFor someone younger it's either annoying or funny (or both), but you're absolutely right, they can be a danger to older people, or people who are maybe a little more vulnerable. But I'm glad both your son and daughter are safe all the same!
DeleteI was like "OMG her son works at Interpol, how COOL" lmfao! Honestly, these guys are ridiculous, and its unfortunate that they have to turn to scams to try and get $$$. But so inappropriate, I am glad you're having fun and getting laughs.
ReplyDeleteThey are ridiculous, but unfortunately some people can and do get taken in by them. "Louis" started calling me "dearest" quite early on (all the scammers who want to send millions to my bank account call me that) and then asked if I minded. I mean seriously, have you ever had a youngish American man call you "dearest"?
DeleteThat's hilarious. I admire you for keeping up the conversation though, I think I'd have freaked out long before! There's a guy on youtube who does a hilarious sketch on how he replied to scammers, if I can ever find it again I'll send you the link! x
ReplyDeleteOh please do! I once saw on Youtube a telephone scammer call a young woman who worked as a voice actor and she did the entire dialogue in a perfect recorded voice act, such as "press 1 for customer services, press 2 for technical problems" - she was just brilliant!
DeleteThere is a hilarious one with an Asian goes goes on and on in a very Asian accent with a phone scammer, hilarious plus. Just google Asian girl scams phone scammer. If I get in the mood if had a few playing dumb conversations
DeleteI guess it's not new, just the delivery, but it's sickening. I get calls telling me my social insurance number has been stolen and if I don't do anything I will have to go before the magistrate. Depends on my day how I treat them. One day I tore a strip of someone, another time I said I was a police officer and last time I asked the lady why she was doing this and wasn't she ashamed of herself. I haven't had any calls in awhile so maybe the scan is finished or I'm on a no call list:)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about "depending on the day". I did read one time that someone else asked the young man if he wasn't ashamed of himself and he actually wrote back and said that he was, but he had to get money coming in somehow. I guess that didn't stop him though! I don't get them on the phone because I just don't answer unless I know who it is or they start leaving a message, but saying you're a police officer isn't a bad idea. I thought saying my son worked for Interpol might help, but it obviously didn't!
DeleteWe’ve had “fun” this week with a persistent caller and her manager both ringing to try to give us a discount off our phone bill. I think we engaged so readily (for our own amusement) that they naively thought they were going to get somewhere with their attempted scam. You end up almost feeling sorry for them by the end, and I do wonder if sometimes the people making the contact are being coerced by a Godfather figure rather than acting on their own account.
ReplyDeleteI actually feel sorry for people in call centres whose salaries depend on the number of sales they achieve, but these WWF guys are just scammers - they actually make me laugh they're that bad at what they do!
DeleteI've actually been reasonably lucky and don't get many scam calls on my mobile (like you, I don't pick up if I don't know who it is - legit callers will leave a message), but at the office it's another story! Businesses can't go on the 'no call' list, so one day last week we had five or six calls from SSE about 'our account'. They're now using/cycling through inland area codes, but fortunately they're obvious when you pick up with that second or two of silence. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteOh that "second or two of silence" tells you everything you need to know doesn't it. I believe it's automated dialling and the scammers/callers may be on several calls at once and it's the noise on your end that activates the call! Pain in the arse though aren't they!
Delete