Hey guys:

I just wanted to let all of you know that there is at least one person in this community (I will not give names or comments meant to identify the person but the Mods. are aware) who is running a pretty old scam.

This is BS nor am I exaggerating though it is pretty sad to think some have fallen for it. Private mail me if you don't believe or if you really want to be dim, fall for it. Either way, I thought I would warn you.

A member of this community (female, though who really knows) will private mail you, and start in about how she would really like to get to know you better. She has a picture posted and so the profile looks pretty legitimate. Since I am here for friends right now and since I have heard about this scam I thought I'd play along for a bit--

If you respond she will begin to try to get to know you. She'll also be living somewhere outside the U.S., with relatives. She'll be outside the U.S. because her parents (or some members of her family) were killed a few years ago in a "car accident."

After she gets to know you some (think a few hours here, not days) she'll start talking about wanting to come back to the U.S. Oh, and guess what--you can help her. After a bit more BS she'll ask you for money--ask you to send it via Western Union to a location in West Africa or somewhere overseas. By this time you'll no doubt have picked up on the scam (I hope.) The line she tried with me was that she needed to have a gathering of some sort and needed money to help.

As I mentioned, this type of scam is not all that new so instead of shutting it down I played it along for a while (hey, she is wasting my time, I'll waste a bit of hers) and finally told her I was on my way to send it. I laughed pretty hard as I waited and then when I came back she wanted to know what the Western Union information said.

That is when I let her know that I knew it was a scam. If you are laughing right now thinking you could never fall for it, congrats--I mean, I never sent a dime. But the first part of it is really convincing. There is nothing odd about the approach--in the picture on her profile she is attractive and seems very genuine. She blathers on about how she cannot stand liars and cheats and so it seems pretty normal. The money part gets odd so that is when most people get it.

Oh, and she'll likely ask you to join move the convo to Yahoo or Hotmail.

Later guys.

Drew

Anybody who falls for this old as hills sacam....almost deserves to suffer from it.

WOOO HOOO! i get to play Email me man! You have it where only ladies can email you. I want to know her name

Not surprised, happens a lot. Talked to a man the other day who is Nigeria on business, blah blah blah....sad but it happens and sadder still, some fall for it.