The ongoing saga of me documenting a lonely hearts scam.
A friend of mine mentioned that perhaps this is a real person reaching out to me just to have a conversation. Yes, that is very possible. but I really doubt it. Let’s talk about how I have come to this conclusion.
- Anatomy of a “Lonely Hearts Scam” Day one!
The other day I was minding my own business when I received a random message on Whatsapp. I honestly only use the app to talk to a few people. Looking at the message was obviously a scam of some kind. As I am currently studying the psychology of scams I figured this would be aContinue reading “Anatomy of a “Lonely Hearts Scam” Day one!” - Anatomy of a “Lonely Hearts Scam” Day Two: Alignment
In a previous post, I was contacted by a con artist who mistakenly thought that I might be a good mark. Little did they know I study con artists and online scams. If you are just joining us start there. What is Conversation Alignment? Conversation Alignment is establishing a bias in our minds artificially byContinue reading “Anatomy of a “Lonely Hearts Scam” Day Two: Alignment” - Am I sure this is a Lonely hearts Scam?The ongoing saga of me documenting a lonely hearts scam. A friend of mine mentioned that perhaps this is a real person reaching out to me just to have a conversation. Yes, that is very possible. but I really doubt it. Let’s talk about how I have come to this conclusion. Looking at the informationContinue reading “Am I sure this is a Lonely hearts Scam?”
- Anatomy of a “Lonely Hearts Scam” Day Three: Hinting at Romance
IF you are new here I study scams as well as repair Mac computers and just a touch of cybersecurity. I don’t just study who did what and why. But how the scams work. I study the psychology of scams and disinformation. The goal is to someday get a degree on this very topic. NotContinue reading “Anatomy of a “Lonely Hearts Scam” Day Three: Hinting at Romance” - Lonely Hearts Scam: Day 4 “Be my hero”
It’s been a busy week for me on the whole scam front. Someone attempted to con me into a remote access scam yesterday. They were disappointed when I wasted a lot of their time. (Shame that my call recorder did not work…I will get them next time) Then I had a second lonely hearts scammerContinue reading “Lonely Hearts Scam: Day 4 “Be my hero””
Looking at the information we have
None of the below is reason enough to think that it’s a scam but when you add them all together it’s really hard to think it could be anything else.
They contacted me out of the blue. This was not a dating website. This was a random connection on Whatsapp. There are no records on any of my devices for this person.
Attractive! The profile image is of an attractive woman (who by the way does not show up on any of my reverse image searches) Once again not something that is impossible.
Willing to chat even after mentioning it’s a wrong number. How many times have you called the wrong number and then chatted for hours?
TImezones don’t match up. The scammer seems to be most active at night. Now she says she is in China. However, China is not too far off with the time zones here in Sydney. It is hard for me to believe that someone never looks at their phone during the day. Not impossible but very rare.
The Phone numbers are from the UK. and the numbers changed to another UK number. Because Whatsapp is tied to a phone number when a chat message is sent it shows the number it’s connected to. So when a second chat window popped up with a different number that was a red flag.
She hints at having money. Not a problem in most cases but once again adding this all up suggests that there is something else going on here. When was the last time you bragged about having money? Really?
She is starting to hint at romance. and setting me up to be the “Hero”. While I can be a charming guy, I have gone out of my way to be boring in this case. Once again .. though by itself does not mean this is a scam when you add it all up…
Does it seem like a scam?
For those who have been reading the text and think “It does not seem like a scam” then the con artist is doing their job. At what point would you think that a con artist is going to start a conversation that is obviously a scam?
Remember the lonely hearts scam only works if a romance starts to build. So they have to seem as normal as possible. They will be patent and take their time.
What if I’m wrong?
Ask yourself this? Does it matter? I’m taking the same precautions regardless. The information I’m posting about scams would not change. However, if that is the case I’m happy to apologize for using this person as an example. After we meet in person.