Outside the people who read my blog (btw, thank you for reading), I have told very few people about my exploits with the Scamette. The few I have told have responded in ways from complete hysteria to sympathy. Not sympathy for me, but for the scammer.
Yes, you read that correctly.
One of the guys at work, "Larry" came in to my office the other day, right after I got done telling my TL about Scamette. Larry had his customary cup of thick strong, black coffee and plopped down in the spare chair we have for guests.
"What's so funny?" he asks. My TL is still snickering and doesn't say anything. I am not sure he can really...he is snickering pretty hard.
"Want a Russian girlfriend, Larry (Larry is European, but he has been in the US for 15 years or so)?"
"What?"
I then begin to explain to him what I am doing. He looks at me and says, "That's cruel."
My jaw hits the floor. "Cruel?" I ask.
"Yes, cruel. Taking advantage of a poor foreign person like that."
He was not joking. He honestly thinks that it is perfectly acceptable for people to attempt to scam other out of money or even harm them physically, but it is not okay to waste their time by "baiting" the scammers. This is what society has become...sympathetic for criminals.
My new neighbor across the street summed it up nicely:
Prisons are full of murderers, rapists, thieves, etc. Most of which are guilty and their crimes horrific. Put a pedophile in prison and all of a sudden the inmates think their crimes pale to those of that pedophile. I am not saying any one is better or worse than the other, but why is it that all of a sudden, there is a moral code in prison and pedophiles are the bottom of the food chain? However, I digress.
I tell Larry that before he judges me, he needs to understand what is actually happening:
Some group rents an office or an apartment in an inconspicuous place (in Europe or Africa) and furnishes it with 10-12 PC's with satellite internet access. They then hire one 18-26 year old person per PC to correspond with men (and women as well) in hopes that they can scam money from them. The payout for the young person is 10-15% of the take.
The scammer steals photos (usually of very attractive people) from photo sharing web sites and uses them to lure their mark in. If the person is naive enough, they may send money to the scammer or the scam may include getting the person to go to Russia or Nigeria where they will be robbed or even killed. This has happened.
"But El Gee, no one believes those things...everyon knows they are bogus!"
Not everyone. The web is full of stories of people who were ripped off by Russian, Brazilian, and Nigerian romance scams. It is big business and people fall for it. Evil people with evil intentions are hiding in the dark waiting for the right opportunity to pounce.
Consider me a spot light.
I have no sympathy for the people perpetrating these acts. I have friends that while they have not been ripped off, are lonely enough to possibly fall for something like this. I hope they read this.
Larry still thinks I am cruel but I do not care what he thinks. Yes I know some people think this is a huge waste of time and it is easier to delete than reply and bait. However, it is not about time. It is about people. Good people being targeted by cold heartless people hiding behind the pictures of pretty people.
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