A new scam (because we need a break!): a friend was just telling me about this dating site he is

[niyad]

on, and a response this morning. After brief exchange, guy says he is from L.A. but is currently with a peacekeeping force inSyria. He is stranded, and needs money to get home. Can my friend help??

My friend, being of cynical bent, replied that he lost his job and is about to be homeless (neither of which is true), so cannot help. End of exchange.

[TlalocW]

1. I once got a response from a site

From a beautiful African "woman" who used to live in a nearby city, but "she" had to go back to Ghana to care for "her" sick mom. We spent a couple weeks emailing each other, and then we declared our mutual love for each other. I could tell "she" was about to ask for money for "her" sick mom so I told "her" that I wanted to marry "her" and as soon as "she" could send me money for a plane ticket I would come over to Ghana and marry "her" there. I never heard from "her" again.

I was surprised at how dedicated to the long game the scammer was.

TlalocW

[niyad]

4. You are quite correct. Usually they give up fairly quickly unless there is a great deal of money

Involved.

[Chakaconcarne]

9. LOL... I've had mini, less romance oriented experiences with CraigsList selling a car...

Insane the lengths they will go to, but it's pretty apparent what they're up to.

[VWolf]

2. I have a similar story

I was catfished by a woman who claimed to be a doctor working with orphans in Syria. She wanted to adopt one, but didn't have the money to do so. I told her I'd pay her when we eventually meet. Needless to say, that never happened.

[niyad]

3. What amazes me is that there are people who fall for these absurd scams. The stories are so

absurd.

[VWolf]

5. This woman had a lot of back-story and photos

I can see how someone could fall for it. She worked on me for weeks, a little bit at a time, trying to develop trust. I believed some of the stuff initially, but as soon as the conversation switched to money, I knew she was scamming me. I admit, it was fun playing along after that. Finally, when I grew weary of it, I just said, "Hell, I'll pay you when I see you," and that was it.

[TlalocW]

6. It's a rather long read

But if you Google "Nigerian scam parrot sketch," you can read of someone who turned the table on some Nigerian scammers by making them do odd tasks and sending him stuff, the best one re-enacting Monty Python's, "Parrot Sketch," where John Cleese returns a dead parrot to petshop owner Michael Palin.

I found the link to the story and pictures, but put that search string into Google to see the video.

https://www.419eater.com/html/bigman.htm

TlalocW

[niyad]

10. I will have to look it up. Thank you for sharing it. Is

[BainsBane]

7. Your friend is more diplomatic than I

I would just tell him to fuck off. He's obviously a con artist. The military pays for their soldiers transportation.

[niyad]

11. My friend can be quite undiplomatic at times, but decided to toy with this person. (I taught

him Well!). I got the impression that the con was implying that he was with an NGOs group, as a number of my friends are. But they are not left stranded either.

[BainsBane]

12. I can't even count

the number of friend requests I get from scammers on FB. They are always middle-aged men, with Anglo-American looking pictures and foreign names. They pretend to be military, doctors, all kinds of things. In the past, I'd actually friended one or two because we had a friend in common, but I then unfriended them as soon as they started with fake romantic bullshit. Now I just delete them immediately.
I get several of these friend requests every week.

[niyad]

13. Oh, the joys of not being on social media!

[Beringia]

8. Or concoct a test for a "new friend", ask them if they will pick you up at the airport

See if they help out. I once got turned down by 2 friends who couldn't spare the time to pick me up from the airport. Just joking here, but probably tests could help suss out people on occasion.

My father said he used to look a person he knew at work and ask, would they give me a ride home. And listen for the intuitive response.