Advice, please

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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:45 pm

I'm a bit new to this so I hope you don't mind what may be a stupid question...

I have been lurking here for a bit and have had bit of fun baiting with 419 scammers but I decided a couple of days ago to try something a bit different.

I signed up on a dating website with really boring details and a slightly ridiculous name. I have picked up one or two people who I am sure will soon want some money to come to America to marry me (pity I don't live in America!).

I then received a message from someone who seems genuine - ordinary photograph rather than a model and has bothered to fill in all the profile down to favorite book and quotation. She has sent me a personal email (rather than one which is clearly for mass use) and she has NOT asked me to contact her on her yahoo.com/gmail email address.

In real life I am happily nearly married with a little boy and do not want to chat with, make friends with, get romantic with or do anything with a 'real ' person - I just want to play out with the scammers.

My instinct is to contact her and explain what I am doing (ask her to Google 'scambaiting', perhaps) but wondered whether there may be a good reason for me not to do that. If I just ignore her it might reduce the self-confidence of someone who sounds lonely already

So this is the question: what should I do? Am I think to hard about it and should just forget it? What would you do?

Sorry to go on so long but thanks for your advice.

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:56 pm

If you don't feel comfortable baiting someone then drop them. Don't explain scambaiting to them though as they may either be a scammer you've just warned or a genuine person who may take offence and try to have your profile deleted for not really looking for someone. Some things to note though, scammers are using more "girl next door" pics nowadays rather than the model ones we used to see all the time. They're also cut and pasting entire profiles so they look genuine. The scammers are evolving and we have to be aware of the new tricks they're using.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

Just tell her politely that you have met someone you are starting to like, but wish her good luck in her search etc

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 7:30 am

Did your profile have a picture? If not it is still very likely to be a scammer. Passing you to another email address could be they work in teams and you are being passed to someone else.

For the spam vlads I would often email one address to say a Sara and then have Elena email back. The first email address is almost like a waiting room!

I say email her a script of your own, I always use football reports, and if she replies she is a scammer if she doesn't well.. you were happily married anyway!

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:03 am

2 suggestions you could try to prove either way,

1, as indicated above place something in the middle of your email, such as, cant wait till you get here so you can do my washing, mend my socks, cook me dinner and (well you get the picture), be as crude and vulgar as you can from there. Replies to this with anything suggesting she still loves you would be from a scammer. Keep in mind that scammers will read some of your email but not much, usually the beggining and the end.

2, use parts of her email to you, pick the bits in particular with spelling mistakes and bad grammer between 5 and 10 words long then do an exact google search and see what comes up. Scammers almost exclusively stick to the same script and if anybody has posted her emails on the net it will come up

I would presume that we have all had doubts occasionaly about the intent of our online future wives but by using the above you can be sure of what you are dealling with 99% of the time.

I have come to the conclusion that you should treat them as a scammer until you can prove otherwise.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 15

I wouldn't tell her what you are doing as you could be kicked off the site, or she/he could be a scammer.

As stated above, you could be a complete ass in a email so much so that a legit woman would run the other way. Handy dandy phrases like, "I want to tap that ass", "can I punk you in da' butt on the first date?" or jump right into sex talk. That's another sure fire way to flush out real women.

You could just ignore them. They will eventually get the message you aren't interested.

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:50 pm

Thanks everyone.

I think I'll just leave alone.

I was just wondering whether if people were unsure if it was a scammer, would they jump in and have a go anyway. On balance, I'll just ignore her rather than try to talk my way out (or I could send I her my photo just to make sure I never hear from her again Very Happy

).

I have a couple more genuine scammers (is that an oxymoron?) to play with now.

Jack