Scams & Scammers

I regularly get Facebook friend requests from supposed American senior military men. Now, I know that I am reasonably intelligent, have a pleasant personality & am outgoing. But I also know that I'm past my "best before" date & I'm not conceited or desperate enough to believe that these men are genuine. Apparently it is a well known scam. https://www.aura.com/learn/military-romance-scams They may be using genuine identities, but they are not who you might think they are. A Google search brought up a huge number of links about this scam.

This is a despicable practice. The scammers target single women, often older, who they hope are lonely & vulnerable. The victims are presumably flattered that someone who is good looking & fairly high up in the services wants to link with them. We all have the capacity to suspend disbelief , especially if our quality of life isn't what we would like. The scammers are clever, manipulative & utterly unfeeling for their victims.

At some point in the "relationship" they will ask for money. This should trigger a healthy dose of scepticism in the victim. But by then they are invested in the "relationship" & want to belive that it is real & loving. If you are a reasonably genuine person you don't want to believe that a) you could be silly enough to fall for this scam & b) that people could be cruel enough to do this.

But they can & do & people regularly fall for it. Sadly not only do people loose quite large sums of money, but their faith in people is utterly destroyed & their confidence in themselves is shattered. It must be heartbreaking for the victims who are left knowing that they have been cruelly conned.

I do use social media, but I don't have hundreds of friends because I do actually know all of my friends. I am secure enough as a person not to feel the need to appear to have a huge & unrealistic friendship group. How did we get to the point where people feel that validation as a person requires masses of "friends" & "likes"? 

Don't even get me started on "Influencers". The clue is in the name. 

What sort of a society are we becoming when our "friendships" are largely on line via Texts, Twitter,  WhatsApps, Emails & Instagrams. No wonder people are having relationships with Robots & AI!