I rarely go onto Facebook. I just don’t get it. But I signed up so that my blogs could perhaps reach a wider audience.
Today I received an email saying that a person had accepted my request to be a friend. I know the person so I went in and responded that I was happy to be his “friend” but that as I so rarely go into Facebook he shouldn’t expect to hear from me.
Suddenly I was in a chat conversation with this man person. In the role of my acquaintance, he said he was in Bolton in the UK. He had been mugged the night before and all his credit cards, money and cellphone were stolen. This chat came accompanied with the icon of my acquaintance. When I clicked on the icon I saw pictures of he and his family. and so I assumed it was from who it said it was.
After enquiring after his health and getting a response he asked me for my cellphone number as the cellphone had been stolen along with the other things. He then asked if I could do something for him. Yes – he wanted money!!
His story was that he was leaving to ‘fly home’ shortly and he was having trouble paying the hotel bill. “Please trust me” and “You know you can trust me” and “I’ll pay you back as soon as I return” followed this plea. Of course my response was NO!
I tried calling my friend/acquaintance to be met with his answerphone message so maybe he is away. I then sent him an email advising him that this scam was being perpetrated in his name.
My lesson from this is that anyone seems able to get into a Facebook identity and use it to promulgate a scam. I wonder how many people are actually conned in this manner each day, week, year.
I have had the usual scams including the Nigerian guy with the money to share, the widow whose husband has left money in an account that can’t be accessed from wherever she happens to live at the time. I have had emails telling me that I am due a tax refund (ha ha) and others all requesting details of bank accounts, but this is the first such scam I have received.
I shall stay away from Facebook in future and urge you to all be aware and alert for such scams.
Related articles
- Facebook’s Gross Video Scam: Watch the rest of the story (eset.com)
- How to Avoid Scams on Facebook (lockergnome.com)
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 