.... I'm talking about the fake profiles that have been following me on Twitter of late! I get followed by roughly 20 of these per day at the moment, and am writing this so that you recognise them and don't follow them back 😂😄
They target middle-aged women and are clearly made by people looking to carry out some scam or other ~ you never know what you might be clicking on if they send you a link in a DM 😱😲😳. As Julia has said, in a comment below, it's a numbers game; the people who make these profiles are often run by the master scammer, who knows that if they make enough of them and follow enough people, eventually they'll get a 'hit' ~ someone who is foolish enough to send them money.
Please click the links and enjoy...
Take a look at @Steven21773017
(Note 2024: Steven has recently had a head transplant)
He is a perfect example; a photo that's clearly taken from photobucket or similar, and a bio in bad English. No tweets. They're usually 'medical doctors' or 'bankers' or 'army officers', and claim to be 'simple' or 'humble' or 'love God'. 'Am honest and caring man' is another favourite. Sometimes the maker of these profiles has taken two pictures from whoever's profile they downloaded the photos from, and used one as a header photo too...like Lucas20Davis who is even tweeting the occasional one!
Harry Smit is a great one - look at his tweets; he hasn't realised you need to leave a gap between words to make the user name link work...!!
@dennisham3131 can't seem to decide how to spell his name and, though a 'military office', cannot write basic English....
And then there's @willians6643007 who is clearly the identical twin of @Lewis336David!
whose picture is actually that of Dr Steve Jones, NY hypnotherapist (see below).
They target us in the hope that we are lonely, naive and looking for love; they've probably seen all these programmes like 'My Online Nightmare' about women who fall 'in love' with men they meet on the internet, and get conned out of their life savings. My sister says she gets them popping up on Skype; they're always respectable looking, middle-aged men in military uniform, but have no actual profile. Those on Twitter are the lowest of the low when it comes to internet scam hierarchy; they don't want to pay for online dating profiles, and aren't even intelligent enough to make sure their English is right and their profiles convincing!
I was followed by one this morning who claimed to be 67, and left the army in 1971. That would have made him 18. Yet he was born in 1947, which would make him 70. Looks like the maths is as bad as the English....
Be careful. They might con you out of your life savings.
Then again, I doubt they'd know where to start.
(Note: Nov 2017. This is Dr Steve Jones, a New York hypnotherapist. His pictures are used for many of the profiles.)
He is a perfect example; a photo that's clearly taken from photobucket or similar, and a bio in bad English. No tweets. They're usually 'medical doctors' or 'bankers' or 'army officers', and claim to be 'simple' or 'humble' or 'love God'. 'Am honest and caring man' is another favourite. Sometimes the maker of these profiles has taken two pictures from whoever's profile they downloaded the photos from, and used one as a header photo too...like Lucas20Davis who is even tweeting the occasional one!
Harry Smit is a great one - look at his tweets; he hasn't realised you need to leave a gap between words to make the user name link work...!!
@dennisham3131 can't seem to decide how to spell his name and, though a 'military office', cannot write basic English....
... but centre stage must be given to @albertgrandy3
At least this one's tried harder with the bio!
....although he appears to be the same person as @Drjimwilliam, a man of 'dignity and honest', albeit about 10 years older..... and @wonderwilliam56
....although he appears to be the same person as @Drjimwilliam, a man of 'dignity and honest', albeit about 10 years older..... and @wonderwilliam56
And then there's @willians6643007 who is clearly the identical twin of @Lewis336David!
whose picture is actually that of Dr Steve Jones, NY hypnotherapist (see below).
They target us in the hope that we are lonely, naive and looking for love; they've probably seen all these programmes like 'My Online Nightmare' about women who fall 'in love' with men they meet on the internet, and get conned out of their life savings. My sister says she gets them popping up on Skype; they're always respectable looking, middle-aged men in military uniform, but have no actual profile. Those on Twitter are the lowest of the low when it comes to internet scam hierarchy; they don't want to pay for online dating profiles, and aren't even intelligent enough to make sure their English is right and their profiles convincing!
I was followed by one this morning who claimed to be 67, and left the army in 1971. That would have made him 18. Yet he was born in 1947, which would make him 70. Looks like the maths is as bad as the English....
Be careful. They might con you out of your life savings.
Then again, I doubt they'd know where to start.
(Note: Nov 2017. This is Dr Steve Jones, a New York hypnotherapist. His pictures are used for many of the profiles.)
I've had a load of these - not sure what they're expecting to gain but they seriously need to up their game with the spelling.
ReplyDeleteAnd the rest, ha ha!!!! I really do think that they hear about these scams that people perform on lonely middle-aged women, but don't quite realise what's involved!!!
DeleteI'm clearly doing something wrong!! I only get spammed by juice cleanser nuts haha. Does my profile pic scream 'detox me!!' or something? ;)
ReplyDeleteYou're too young for them, Shelley!!!
DeleteRe the juice cleanser, It's nothing to do with your profile pic, it's to do with what you've liked and bought in the past. If you 'like' pages on FB about that stuff, and buy the products, you will come up on searches as a potential mark for these people. Thus, data mining. It's why I always do the supermarket shop in cash, and other things!!!
OMG, Terry, I've had nearly all these follow over the last few weeks. And they always DM. I only follow new followers back after I've checked them but thanks for the heads up.What a world!! Must admit though, their English is quite often hilarious. B******s
ReplyDeleteThey can't DM unless you follow them back????? Or has Twitter changed its settings??? Hope not! I don't look at DMs anymore, anyway.
DeleteI have actually considered following one through and pretending to go along with it, just to see what they try to do!!
I've had some of these on FB as well - and as soon as I get a DM with a link I kick them into touch. But there must be many vulnerable people out there who don't understand their wiles and succumb to their flattery.
ReplyDeleteI know, it's tragic that lonely women will believe themselves to be 'in love' with a picture on a screen and a few well-chosen words. I watch 'My Online Nightmare' in horror that some women of a certain age are so naive, and don't realise how the internet works and the depths to which people will go. One woman was conned out of £140,000 by a photograph of a man that was clearly nicked from some website. Her 'new love' would ring her up and email, too. He read her profile and knew just what buttons to press.
Delete....basically, though, Jo, I've put this on so that people know not to follow them. They're not ex military men looking for new friends on the internet, they're scammers, and sometimes worse.
DeleteLol I love this post, luckily I haven't come across any of these yet because I'm not sure if I'd be able to resist their charms 😂
ReplyDeleteHa ha! You're much too young for their tastes, Kate!
DeleteI quite agree. For all the 99 women who laugh at them and share the joke with their friends, there will be one who is new to the internet and thinks she's found a lovely new man who wants to marry her. They work on percentages - if you look at people they're following, they're all women of a certain age. Or you can reply to their messages and string them along for a bit, if you have a little time to spare - that's quite fun!
ReplyDeleteYes, I keep thinking it might be fun to do that!
DeleteI went through a phase of being followed by ladies with their boobs and bums out for some reason. I have such mixed views about social media, loving it and hating it in equal measure and this is one of the reasons why!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I get them a lot too - I think it's having a unisex name!
DeleteI think social media is what you want it to be - you can just ignore all the crap. Or take the piss out of it now and again!
Not just me then. Wondered what the hell when I get a tweet aksin if I'm 'looking for a good time?' by a woman. Emmm, not really (Not by a man neither). I also have had a few army majors and even a couple of Generals. The other day I had a United Nations Peace Keeper - Like he'd have time to go on Twitter :)
DeleteHa ha! It's getting beyond a joke, now; I have to wade through literally about 100 of them, when I do my follow backs once every few days. I've tried blocking them all, but still they come.
DeleteI had several of these too. It’s amazing how many military personnel can’t string a proper sentence together and I’m afraid profiles that claim to love god are passed by as well.
ReplyDeleteMe too. Anyone who bangs on about such virtues is usually fairly self-obsessed, in my experience! Aside from the fact that I think it's all a daft fairy tale for people who don't want to take responsibility for their own lives, but that's another subject!!!
DeleteIt's not religion that's wrong, it's people's interpretation of it. That includes the people who don't want to take responsibility for their own lives!
DeleteAnyone who considers their religious beliefs important enough to put in their Twitter bio won't have much in common with me, anyway.
Delete'I have actually considered following one through and pretending to go along with it, just to see what they try to do!!'
ReplyDeleteMight be some great research there, Terry. Sounds like it could make a great book!
But seriously, thanks for the heads-up!
I replied to one for a laugh, and he asked me immediately if I was married. I replied a few times then I told him Twitter isn't a dating site. He said it was where he wanted his profile to be, what did I think of his profile? I said it looked remarkably like one of those fake profiles concocted to attempt to extort money from lonely women. Funnily enough, he never contacted me again - and to think he might have been my future husband, har har!
DeleteExcellent, I love it!!!! Wendy, expect to get some new followers....!
DeleteI find anybody who is Barry123 is always a bot. Anyone who can't spell you're, or uses alot or apostrophes in the wrong places is a twit and anyone who calls me rude names isn't worth the spit of my cat. *blocked*
ReplyDeleteI don't get called rude names because I don't tweet much that can be argued about (apart from having been called a conspiracy theorist a few times). Anyone with a name and lots of numbers after it is ALWAYS a bot!!
Delete