The tide has shifted again. Over the last week, Alice has brought up investing in bitcoin, starting a business or investing in her plastic surgery clinic when she moves to Sydney. This makes me think that it’s more of an investment scam more than a lonely heart. Then this happened.
Remember dating….when you meet someone and you do not know if they are single or not so you try to be subtle and ask them about their Boyfriend/Girlfrien’s plans for the weekend? Hoping they will mention that they do not have one. Yeah, this was one of those moments.
She brought up the concept of dating. Keeping with my persona I mentioned that I was single and not really dating anyone but open to something more. She took this opportunity to drop another romance hint.
Remember the game the con artist is playing is making everything seem like it’s my idea. “She” will use statements that any natural conversation will lead to some kind of romance.
Part of the persona that I’m playing is the average single guy. So when she asked me what kind of woman I’m looking for I stuck with the stereotypes. At all times this means that I need to stay in character and push the limits of the conversation a little bit. (If you have ever been on a dating site you would know that guys do this all the time, thus the one night stand comment)
“I don’t know why, When you said that there was a one night stand suddenly my mood became very low”
This statement is a subtle hint at romance. This is important because it’s more than sexual flirting. Sexting will not work for this kind of scam. “Alice” needs to strike at the heart, not the loins.
Remember the story about the Ruller who had a thousand wives. He would sleep with one every night then kill them. Then one day one of his wives told him a story in order to keep his interest? Yes, this is the same technique (Though I do not have a thousand wives or …. )
From here came the selfies.
The interesting thing about the selfies is that I was not expecting them to match the profile picture. I double-checked with my Facial recognition software and it is a match. And so are the few of the others they sent. (5 in total so far)
I have not found a match performing a reverse image search. But I expect someone is going to be very angry when she finds out someone has been using her images
Now you would think that the images would be more Ummm err seductive! However, when you think about it those kinds of images that would match the profile image would be harder to get. Remember I have a suspicion that this person is not even in China. In order for the selfies to continue, they have to be taking them from someone. Most likely somebody’s public social media profile.
This also triggers the “I want to see more” part of someone’s brain. Once again the scammer is using the part of our brain that wants what we can’t have. By being “conservative” it does three things.
They don’t have to hunt down nudes from somewhere or produce their own.
They maintain the allure of a wrapped gift. That curiosity we all have about a potential lover. Preoccupyong our brain so we are not noticing discrepancies in their story.
There is more to come because this conversation is still going.
Next week we will talk about why it is this con artist is taking so long.