Online Scammers

If you spend anytime online, you’ve encountered attempts to engage you in an activity that can result in loss of your identity, money, or reputation.

 For example, there’s the plea from a desperate individual who needs a short-term loan from you to meet their immediate dilemma. It might be a blatant request with a now or never deadline. It might be someone building a relationship with you for a down-the-line scam. These people are often very sophisticated with their approach. They will tailor their presentation to the type of people they want to approach.

Therefore, a fellow my age gets requests on social media to like, follow and chat with young women. The typical approach is to cast themselves as either a single woman or a single mom who is lonely and seeking companionship. The pictures they post feature them seductively clothed and posed. 

Now let me make a point here. They are clothed, but everything they wear, from tights to a bikini, is about one and one-half sizes too small for them. It presents, let me be discreet here, a bodacious image of womanhood. Nevertheless, Sonia, Rachael and Beatrice all profess to want a friendship with someone sincere and open to letting the relationship blossom. 

I post the following to each of these requests.

Just so you know. I’m an eighty-year-old divorced male. I’m not interested in romance or get-rich-quick schemes. So I don’t chat, but I try to answer people’s messages.

Sometimes this ends the approach. But I often get an answer that doesn’t discourage the relationship but asks if they can have my phone number or suggest we meet. If there ever was a disconnect in their plan, it’s asking me to meet them when they live in London.

Over time, I’ve developed a cynical attitude about these approaches. I’ve reflected with friends that it’s like being approached on the street by someone who claims to be in trouble. But, how do you know who is genuinely in trouble and who is scamming you? 

This dilemma plagues me. I can’t help but wonder if a bit of attention from me might brighten some sorrowful soul’s life. But then, it occurs that a young woman is genuinely interested in a romantic tryst with an eighty-year-old man suffering because of my skepticism. So what’s a guy to do?

An interesting observation from my Lyft driver.

Ron, my Lyft driver de jour, has just given me a mask. I apologized because I forgot mine.

This leads to a discussion about people who don’t believe in using masks or getting shots. Ron tells me one of his friends stated he didn’t believe or trust science.

Ron asked him if he had used aspirin. His friend said yes. Ron asked him if he knew scientists had developed the modern-day aspirin. Apparently, this fellow did not know that.

Caption Not Needed 

(From Instagram, Provided by NYTimes)