Scam and Eggs

In my previous blog series, Went From Being Married To Single , I talked about how I signed up for a couple of dating sites mainly just to see what it was like and what kind of singles were out there (detailed in Single White Male - Part 3). I didn’t sign up because I wanted to start dating right away and, for the most part, I’m still in that phase, but I did go and beef up my profile on a few sites so I could see what would happen.  And by “beef up,”  I mainly mean adding a picture or two.  I figured if no one knew what I looked like, they probably weren’t spending too much time, if any, on my profile.  I mean I skipped over people who didn’t have pictures, so why wouldn't everyone else?  As I said in the aforementioned blog, the most important thing in the profile is the picture.  Let’s face it, we’re window shopping on these on-line sites so put your best foot forward (which is advice many, many, many people do NOT take.  Woof!). 

Anyhoo, I did put up a couple pictures, answered more questions and added a little more content to my profile.  I mean, you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs and while I wasn’t hungry enough for an omelet yet I thought I should put the eggs on the counter just in case.  I was also bored one night, so there’s that, and lo and behold, I did start getting more activity. 

Mainly the activity was getting notifications that women viewed my profile and some sent me “winks” or “flirts” or whatever they call the button next to an online profile that says, “Your profile intrigued me, but not enough to actually write to you.  Thankfully, this site provided a button to show my limited interest.” 

Then, however, I got THE email.  It was short but to the point:  “How is a good looking guy like you still single?”  Hey, not bad.  I checked her profile and she was actually good looking.  Not super-model hot but pretty.  She was also somewhat nearby … an hour to hour and a half away which worked for me as distance makes the process a little easier for some reason…just cracking the eggs, as it were.  So, I wrote back with pretty much the first thing that came to mind: “Hey, I was just asking myself that same question this morning!”  Charming, no? 

And thus began a series of emails back and forth.  The first few were just some background stuff on herself, what she was looking for in a man, her business which had her traveling a lot both nationally and internationally…all done with the poorest grammar and punctuation I have ever seen.  I shared some of the same but admittedly not as detailed as she did.  In the third email, I think, she sent a series of questions meant to get to know me better.  I actually thought this was a good idea so I answered, again, without too many specifics.  In one of the questions, “What do you think about me?” part of my response was that she had really terrible grammar but I put the ever important smiley face emoticon after it so she knew I was just being playful (although I wasn’t…really, her writing style, or lack-thereof, was atrocious). 

When she replied and answered the questions herself, I thought it was interesting that she didn’t reference any of my answers in her response, including the one about her grammar.  She did talk about her current trip in Nigeria and that she was waiting for her shipment of fabrics to get through customs (she was an importer/exporter of textiles and fabrics…or something to that effect).  Apparently, it’s difficult to get items out of customs in Africa.  In fact, there seemed to be a lot of emphasis on this trip as in each email she talked about it.  I began to get suspicious so I thought I would test the waters to see if she (or whoever was on the other end) was actually reading my responses or if they were, cared about what I was saying.  In my next email, I wrote the following (please excuse some of the rather crude comments made, I was looking to get a shock out of her…if she was real):

Hi Sarah!  

Sorry to hear about your troubles.   Working with foreign companies and governments must be hard.  Flash those big brown eyes at them.  I'm sure that will work.  If not, offer him a hand or blow job.  That will get things moving!  ;)

I am having problems of my own.  The hurricane winds brought a couple trees down and one went through my garage and on top of my car!  It's going to be a while before someone can come fix it.  I don't think the rain is going to be bad but I need to move some if the stuff to the basement. I'll be thinking about you as I work and hoping I can meet you someday.  

Again, that was written to ignite some response.  If she was real and not just some automatic reply, surely something would be said.  If nothing, else, agreement on what I suggested or condolences on the damages to my house, right?  Nope.  Here’s the first sentence of her reply.  Her emails were always long so I’m not going to post all of it.  The rest just went more into her problems with customs.

i will still like to meet you first and spend some time with you oh i dont judge a book by it's cover i learn to open one chapter after the other, thanks for your email,i liked it,looking forward to meeting you soon,so i want you to know that im for real and although i dont just want this to be all words.

A couple things I started to notice as I read this email and went back to her previous ones:  There was a lot of talk about “trust” and “not judging a book by its cover” (although she used the contraction of “it is” instead of the possessive “its” which drives me crazy).  She’s building up this notion that everyone should be given a chance and people should be trusted right off the bat instead of judging them perhaps negatively.  Basically this email confirmed that I was being scammed. There’s no way you can get an email where the subject of “hand jobs” comes up and you don’t make some mention of it.  And no concern over a hurricane hitting my house?  At this point, I decided to have some fun and see how far I could push my responses.  Here was my next reply:

So great to hear from you again!  I depreciate and decree everything you said!  

Busy day for me yesterday.  I told you about the hurricane bringing down a tree onto my garage and car?  Well, it got worse.  The garage sustained such damage that a wind gust caused the rest of it to come down, including a portion of the second floor of my house.  I now have no place to live and I'm writing this to you from a local Starbucks. I can't wait for you to get back so we can move in together.  I know it's crazy but it feels so right and now that I have nowhere to go, it's perfect.  Tell me where you live and I'll start walking towards that airport.  It may take me a while but since you're still in Lagos, the timing may work out perfectly. 

It’s like one door closing and another opening! 

The start of her reply to the above:

thanks soo much,you dont know how much sunshine you bring into my day when i hear from you,i love it babe !,thank God you are here by my side to see me through, dear i just got back in from the sea port ,a little tired and stressed,my ship didnt come in and i had to go to my clients place to explain once more,i must say im really getting worried now and i just dont know what id do,hmm,your soo nice,thanks for giving me a listening hear,your special

Again, nothing about the fact that I was homeless and wanting to move in together, which is funny because she really turns up the heat in this particular email:

i dont know how to say this without sounding crazy,but This feeling of love (i think thats what it is ,couldnt be anyting else,its soo sweet,makes me feel soo good inside,reading from you gives me a sense of clam and of arrival,i feel like im home..how do u feel?.please tell me im not havng these feelings alone!!)that I hold within my heart for you runs deeper than any ocean or sea; I just wish you could see how much you mean to me. If only you could hold me, then maybe you would feel my love for you that burns with a flame high enough to last. If only you could hear my heart beat, then maybe you would understand the language of love with which it speaks

Wow!  After four emails, she was in love with me and that was without even reading the emails I sent!  So now I was just waiting for her to ask me for money which was surely where all of this was heading.  My next email:

Hey Sarah.  Great to hear from you!

I'm still on the road.  I think you live in New Jersey so that's where I'm headed. I decided to try taking a bus because all this walking was hurting my feet...well, foot.  I told you about my peg leg, right?  Anyway, I got kicked off the bus because I crapped in my pants and the smell was too much.  What could I do, though? I can't go on a bus bathroom.  I'd be too embarrassed.  So I'm hitch hiking now and caught a ride with a bunch of clowns.  We're in a small car and there's like twelve of them but I was able to squeeze into the trunk.  Not too bad and luckily there was wi-fi.  

I can't wait to see you so we can start our life together...although I may need to do some laundry first, if you know what I mean!  Wink-wink, nudge-nudge!

Her reply:

Hi Babe,so sorry for the late email,but i havent been able to write because i have encountered a problem here with my goods Dearie ! ,i have been busy seeing how i can get this solved,but i havent found a way ,i just got to the room and have been sitting at the computer for nearly an hour thinking what i should do,dont want to ruin your day but i just want to run this by you and see if theres anyway you can give your support here

She went on to say she needed to pay an “Instant Security Port Clearance” to get her items out of customs. She had a three day deadline and (this will probably come as a shock) she didn’t have the money.  She wanted me to send her $2000.  There were no instructions on how I was supposed to get it to her but I suspect if I replied, I would get an email with instructions on sending it through Western Union.  However, I did not reply.  I wanted to see if I would get a follow up email on it but I didn’t.  She said she had a three day deadline, so I assumed I would get something pleading for the money but I didn’t which leads me to more firmly believe this is an automated response.   It’s interesting to me how the scammer gave up so easily.

So, what have we learned here?  For starters, isn’t it sad that these things exist and that there are those who fall for them?  I did some research and found the exact same emails I received that someone else received so this is a known scam (if you're interested in reading all of them, you can here).  In fact, Nigerian scams are fairly popular, not just with women attracting guys but the other way around.  I read where some have chatted online with these people and I really find it hard to believe it goes that far.  I probably should have been leery based solely on the way the emails were written but in truth, that actually led me to believe it was real at first since a lot of people just simply don’t know how to write.  But people did fall for this stuff.  Some are out thousands of dollars all by sending money to someone they have never met in person.  It was incredible to read, but, as I said, sad that some people are so desperate.

The second lesson learned may be obvious but you have to tread carefully in the online dating waters.  Not only do you have to be careful in general for potential heartbreak or stalker-type folks, but also for scammers looking to get money out of you.   I’ve learned a couple things to watch out for based on this experience:

·       Grammar – If it’s this bad, there may be a reason:  English may not be the writer’s first language which could potentially be a flag (i.e. emails coming from Nigeria or Russia or somewhere like that) or they are trying too hard to make it sound real.

·        Pictures – After I realized this was a scam, I went back and looked at the pictures on her profile.  In them she is with her “friends” but she is wearing the same outfit in all of them.  Comparing that to other profiles where pictures are obviously taken at different times based on outfits, hair styles, etc. seeing a series of photos all from the same time is probably a red flag.

·         Semi-immediate words of love – C’mon.  No one falls in love within the course of a week and only by email.  That just doesn’t happen or at least it shouldn’t.  You may get excited about who you are talking to but love?  Let’s get real.

·        Immediate words on trusting someone at first sight – I think this is where they trap a lot of people.  They get you to think that people should be trustworthy because they are.  Don’t fall for that.  In the world of online dating, it’s probably better to be guarded and a bit untrusting instead of the opposite.

·        Requests for money – Do I really have to say anything about this?

So, I managed to escape a potential scam without any egg on my face.  I actually had fun with my replies but this is certainly a reminder that things are not always as they seem. 

I am still not quite ready to do a first date with someone I meet online, but if/when I do, I’ll make sure to be leery about getting into a meal of scam and eggs.