It just had to. It was a matter of time. Sooner or later– and a wise person would bet on “sooner” rather than “later” the Internet being what it is– we would get hit with spam/scam.
Today, when I got home from one of my “runs” (a trip from Elk Grove Village, IL to Flora, IL) I opened my email and right on top was a note from Vivaldi that I had a message. From a woman. From the UK. Wanting romance, if the letter is any indication. See below:
Hello dear, My name is Gift, After seen your profile i became interested in you, so i decide to write you for we to build a good relationship if you don’t mind, Remember distance or color does not matter but true love matters a lot in life, meanwhile I like you to write me back through my email address************ for me to send you my pictures and to know each other very well
Now, as it happens I’ve been around the block a time or three. I know well enough that young women from overseas don’t try to set up relationships out of the blue with men old enough to be her father unless there’s something else going on. I had an experience with a Russian woman who tried this in 2009, it didn’t work then either.
As if that’s not enough, I find that s/he has written a similar letter to just about everybody with a Vivaldi box. Hmmmm….
So– in case y’all don’t know, let me tell you how this all works. She wrote out of the blue– I for one never heard of her before so I know that I never set anything up–and gets you to start thinking with the wrong end of your anatomy. You start getting romantic feeling for her, and as soon as she thinks she’s got you “hooked” she plans a trip to see you. In this case, moving across the UK shouldn’t be too formidable I should think– but maybe I’m wrong. In any case, she will start her trip with no planning and an equal amount of preparation, and if she gets to Heathrow, count on her not being able to get tickets or a passport without help. Could you please send $$$$?? If you do, you have just embarked on a “Perils of Pauline” story where she encounters problem after expensive problem, and of course you as the generous gentleman you are have to bail her out each time. Eventually, you either wise up or run out of money, and s/he goes on to the next “mark”.
The last time, the Russian babe set out on a trek across half of the continent. She got in trouble in Moscow, sent me the request for help along with her name, and a Google search of the name confirmed what I already had figured out from the first.
This is actually getting a bit tiring. I already have a low opinion about women having been through two divorces and a small number of not-great experiences, and these scams don’t improve matters much. I’d really like to think that I could find a woman who won’t use me, who won’t play with me as a means to get rich (won’t work anyway– I’m not rich) and who doesn’t use “love” as a means to deceive men. It seems I might as well wish for the winning lottery ticket since it appears I’m as likely to get one as the other.
I don’t fancy the idea of writing her. If she’s at all honest– something which I have reason to doubt– she can come out in the open and make it plain. If not– then fergidaboudit.
haha… yeah… we ALL got her love note. Pathetic. The thing is: it could just as likely be a man from Nigeria using the scam. SPAMMING and SCAMMING are now firmly entrenched here on Vivaldi and even back on the new forum at Opera. I don’t know what can be done to prevent this but evidently it appears to be a difficult task.
I have, at this moment, more than 90 spam responses to my blog on WordPress. Aksimet has kept a handle on it, I only saw about 10 of the spams they report they blocked. Most are ‘bot spams, they don’t even record on the count of visitors to the blog. No idea if any have been scams, those if any have been 100% blocked. But, scams and spam are a part of Internet life. Education seems to be the best bet, that and checking your baser emotions at the door so to speak. It’s said that you can’t cheat an honest man.
A couple of us on myopera were teasing a spammer who was commenting on our blogs. The teasing angered her, and she said we were doing it because she was a black woman from Nigeria, and if she had been a white woman from the USA or Europe, that we would have *loved* her. omg, I wouldn’t touch that approach with a 10-foot pole.
I admired her spunk, but I wasn’t going that direction with her. We only called her a “stupid spammer”. I didn’t care about her race or nationality.
I don’t love spammers/scammers on the general principle of the thing. Skin color has nothing to do with it, dishonesty is dishonesty regardless of pigmentation.
After receiving Gift’s gift of spam, I looked for a way to block her, but finding nothing on Vivaldi email for blocking unwanted mail, I just put it in the trash. Any better ideas out there?
I kind of hate to give the next scammer a pointer, but–.
Next time, a little bit of originality might help. When you send the same copy-paste letter to everybody with an email address in a community like this one, it quickly becomes blindingly obvious what is going on. At least try to make it look like you actually have a clue– maybe. Otherwise, the next scammer that tries a stunt like this one becomes the but of the next joke, and that’s all that he/she will accomplish.
Also– don’t send the next “love letter” scam to me. This one makes my third, by now I know what these things look like.
I concur, the best weapon against this crime is education, that is, to learn how to avoid becoming a victim, plus a healthy dose of skepticism –“If it is also free, it almost sounds too good to be true..”
The best defense is to say no thank you and throw it in the trash. I didn’t get the Gift’s gift but a good thing to get your tips, just in case.
Thanks for sharing your experience, mjmsprt40.
–it’s your portion in the education of others.