10-30-2024, 03:19 PM
(10-30-2024, 12:16 PM)ezdays Wrote: Had another "like" on CM, but "she" was gone by the time I got there. I did deactivate my profile and now I can't read any messages that I had nor can anyone send me new ones. But best of all, scammer can no longer "like" me. I never liked them to start with so I'm happy....
I always wonder why scammers keep attacking dating sites and emails, but if they get one response in 1,000 that's a good day. If out of that, they get one person hooked out of a couple hundred responses, they've got a good payday. Too many lonely people make their jobs easy and for scammers, persistence pays off.
I remember when I used to get letters from Nigerian royalty and banker's widows, willing to share their millions with me, but the Internet and free long-distance phone service made that too expensive. I still get scammers calling my landline. My grandkids are in trouble and need bail money, "charities" call for donations, people wanting to fix my broken computer and so on. I got a call yesterday from the Post Office in Mexico (yes, the call actually came from Mexico) about a package delivery address verification for my wife. You don't really want to know what I told her.... Unfortunately, there are people who fall for these fakes, and that's a pity.
It is indeed a numbers game.
Speaking of, the Federal Trade Commission and to a lesser extent (but impressively up and coming!) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have some interesting metrics.
In 2023 fraud in the US alone ran over $8,000,000,000 dollars. Yes, billions.
Most victims of fraud are young people! Inexperience I would guess, but! the deepest stings, the most money, was scammed from the elderly. Life's savings. Paid for homes. And so on.
Cultivation of the mark, the scheme is known rather nastily as "pig butchering" can last months or years. Most of it is not done by individuals, but by gangs, with tech support, actors, and as a calculated business. That explains the persistence and long range efforts.
They do need better script writers. The tales of woe are predictable, but perhaps because they work so well. Americans are gullible, and frankly many are utterly ignorant of the world. I have the Cold War and the US Air Force to thank for my perspectives which were set before my voice changed, lo that more than a half century ago when I had already been to four different countries, and watched the scams play out.
No one is completely immune. The odds just go down. Criminal law taught me that.
This player character is partially married and has been removed from the game.