Tuesday, April 25, 2023

SOLTuesday: My First Encounter with an Internet Scammer

Back in February, I began receiving e-mails from someone I do not know. What follows are his e-mails (punctuation and spelling exactly copied) and my two replies. I wonder where he really is. Have you ever gotten e-mails like these?

 

Feb. 16

1. HIM: How are you doing, I am Dr Patrick, A widower and looking for love , can we have a chat?

 

2. ME: All I want to know is how you got my e-mail address.

 

3. HIM: Nice to hear from you Sonia,

Well, I was looking on google and saw your name and email, I hope you are fine and family is doing well, I want you to understand that distance is not a barrier okay, I am from the Miami ,beach, in Florida and presently at work here in Syria, I hope you don't mind,I am a general surgeon under the UN medical team, I have traveled to Afghanistan on medical duty and have made up my mind to locate someone like you to settle down and a hospital clinic and orphanage home with production company after I return .


 I am 56 yrs old and have no children. My wife passed away.
I lost my parents during the 9/11 bomb attack, and since then I am alone, I am the only child, my duty will end here in Syria soon and I will return back home and come over to meet you, I hope I am welcome to your homeland to be a good friend for a long term family relationship.

Life is a journey and I hope meeting you will take us to a better way to meet each other face to face and be glad about it, I am one man for one woman.
I am a good Christian and you? Hope you tell me a little about yourself and send me a photo of you.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Bless you.
Dr. Patrick.

 

Feb. 18

4.Waiting to hear from you dear Sonia, All the best.

 

Feb. 19

5. Hello I guess you are not interested in the partnership with me, tell me please you are not the only beautiful woman on earth.

 

Feb. 22

6. Madam Robbins , Good evening and how are you, I hope you are fine. Sending prayers

 

April 24

7. I am alive ,I survived terrorist attack, I was so surprised to have not heard from you  ,I need your assistance to receive and secure my funds while I return soon and come over to meet you please.

 

I will give you 20% of the funds for your kind assistance.

Let me know what you think.

Best always

 

[I replied to this one: I am 100% sure you are a scammer. Do not respond. Goodbye.]

 

April 25

8. You are not correct Sonia,I am not a scammer,I am a medical doctor working here in Syria , I guess you have been scammed before that makes you think I am the same.

Well ,we have an organisation who is specially on the mission of tracking those scammers dawn .

If you can tell me about them who scam you before and provide there details.

All the best.

 

April 25

9. Sonia who scam you 100% that you are sure of? Answer my question

 

[How long will he persist, do you think?]

 

 

 

 

5 comments:

  1. How surprising to have such a persistent scammer! Can you block him? It is interesting to imagine the person behind constructing such a story. (Do you imagine some day it will be AI, and not a real person even? What if we asked ChatGPT to make up a scam story?) I hope they give up soon!

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  2. I'm finding it interesting to see how persistent he will be, and what he will say. He got to the point pretty quickly with the latest e-mails. I'm not going to reply anymore. That only encourages him.

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  3. I have always been tempted to respond to these scam emails- just to see what happens. I wonder if they ever successfully get someone i\to "help" them.

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    1. unfortunately, they do. I know of a case in which a woman sent a total of $100,000 to one of these "romancers," and when she tried to deposit the check he sent her (to "repay" her), the bank froze all of her accounts because the check was fake.

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  4. Definitely do NOT reply anymore. I had someone try and create an instagram page with my facebook photo and name. Hence, I changed my name on fb and put a crazy photo on. I feel extremely violated when scammers enter into my little internet world. I completely ignore any emails and send them to spam. Good luck to you.

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