Blog Readers, Beware as Fraudsters Parade Fake Girls on Facebook

 

                       Many users of Facebook will agree that they have, at one time or another, received phoney messages from strange but attractive looking ladies on the .social networking site.

                      While some people have been able to separate the scam mails from the genuine ones, others have not been smart enough to know the difference. The latter easily fall prey to the tactics of faceless con men who hide beneath false identities to defraud them.

Pretending to be young ladies aged between 18 and 26 years, the criminals often target men that are naturally drawn to pretty women. Investigation shows that they always use freshly opened Facebook accounts – the types that display one or two sensual pictures of a woman and very few ‘friends’ – to bait their victims.

Having successfully ‘wooed’ their unsuspecting victim, they tactically send short messages that begin with phrases, such as, ‘How are you?’ and ‘Can I be your friend?’

As soon as they receive a response, they move on to the next stage, flirting with the victim before going on to squeeze as much money as they can get from him.

It is not difficult to spot these fake ‘girls’ on Facebook by simply observing certain similarities in their personal data. For instance, their names are as unreal as their pictures look.

Imagine receiving a messages from a certain Franklin Ariel Cortez Garcia who begins his love note by writing, “Hello, my name is Precious. Please reply me so I can send my pictures to you through my email address, mypreciousbabygal@yahoo.com.”

Another letter may read, “Hello, I just went through your profile and I like what I see. I want to know you better please reply through my email so we can know each other better. Waiting to see your mail.”

Although Facebook tries to eliminate such fraudulent messages by marking them as spam shortly after they have reached their victims, some hapless persons may fall prey before such cleansing takes place.

It is important to note that beyond the tricks, the simple explanation is that they are ‘419’ men luring people into parting with their hard-earned cash by operating fake Facebook accounts.

While the trend isn’t peculiar to Nigeria, a US-based Facebook group called Stop Nigerian 419 scams (Stomp out Scams)has been created to help everyone “become aware of, recognize and avoid falling victim to all types of Nigerian style scams, including romance, advance payment and foreign lottery scams.”

The good news is that Nigerians can avoid falling victim to these con men by taking certain precautionary measures, such as activating the privacy setting on their Facebook accounts and treating subsequent requests for friendship, especially from persons they hardly know, with suspicion.

The subject has been trending on social media with some victims of the scams recounting their experiences. Lamenting the ugly trend, @LODAFRIQ wrote, “I receive an average of two scam messages of this type daily on Facebook. #fraudsters #yahooyahoo #ole #419 .

A certain Lorliam Shija says, “Lilia Princess Edson, Rosemary Ndadaye ,Angela Mpka..are the three 419 people that sent me seductive messages last week.” Also, Ben Ezemalu wrote, “All these ‘girls’ sending me Facebook messages with e-mail addresses think I have never see a pretty girl!”

Then @imuss added a note of warning, “Only 10 per cent of boys are talking with girls on Facebook. The remaining 90 per cent are talking with fake accounts”.

Source: PunchNews