Instagram "Friend Scams"

[rm5]

I really feel the need to address this in a separate thread, because this is the third time this has happened to me in the last week.

So, it goes like this: I get a DM from a random person. I look at who they're following, and they're following a lot of the same people that I am—and not only that, but they follow people who I know personally, in real life, so I initially think that they're friends with these people in real life. I'll respond to the DM with some sort of friendly greeting, in case these people actually are sensible—maybe they are in fact friends in real life with some of the people I know...

Then things take a sharp downturn. They'll usually ask me where I'm from, ask if they can call me, things like that. Hell, during one of these encounters, the person asked me if I was married or had a girlfriend...

I'll then ask them how they stumbled across my profile and why they're messaging me so late at night (or so early in the morning for that matter, because it's usually at like 2 in the morning), and they don't respond—all they say is, "I wanted to make more friends" or whatever.

Then, the whole ordeal ends, because then I start getting upset because the person just won't answer any of my questions, and they're just a creep in general... so I just block them.

Has anyone else been in this situation? I'm almost starting to think these "people" aren't even real humans...

 

[Macky-Mac]

Perhaps theses are "romance" scammers

The goal is to get you emotionally involved with your new "friend" and then they'll ask you to help them get through some "temporary" financial trouble with a "loan"

 

[compwiz1202]

Perhaps theses are "romance" scammers

The goal is to get you emotionally involved with your new "friend" and then they'll ask you to help them get through some "temporary" financial trouble with a "loan"

Yea or they send you a false money order and tell you cash it and get yourself something and send the rest back. Then it gets found out as fake after forever and your back charges you back so you are out the money you sent back.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I really feel the need to address this in a separate thread, because this is the third time this has happened to me in the last week.

So, it goes like this: I get a DM from a random person. I look at who they're following, and they're following a lot of the same people that I am—and not only that, but they follow people who I know personally, in real life, so I initially think that they're friends with these people in real life. I'll respond to the DM with some sort of friendly greeting, in case these people actually are sensible—maybe they are in fact friends in real life with some of the people I know...

Then things take a sharp downturn. They'll usually ask me where I'm from, ask if they can call me, things like that. Hell, during one of these encounters, the person asked me if I was married or had a girlfriend...

I'll then ask them how they stumbled across my profile and why they're messaging me so late at night (or so early in the morning for that matter, because it's usually at like 2 in the morning), and they don't respond—all they say is, "I wanted to make more friends" or whatever.

Then, the whole ordeal ends, because then I start getting upset because the person just won't answer any of my questions, and they're just a creep in general... so I just block them.

Has anyone else been in this situation? I'm almost starting to think these "people" aren't even real humans...

Never. I think your mistakes were as follows.

1. Responding to some random DM.
2. Having the app notifications switched on (especially at night!).
3. Letting it get to you. Just hit ignore and move on. Life’s too short to get wound up by stuff like this. There are far worse things than random DM’s to get upset about.

 

[InvertedGoldfish]

Get off social media, problem solved

If you wouldn’t talk to a person without zuckbook, the gram, etc, they arnt really your friend anyways

 

[InvertedGoldfish]

Yea or they send you a false money order and tell you cash it and get yourself something and send the rest back. Then it gets found out as fake after forever and your back charges you back so you are out the money you sent back.

HA!

I had a email version of that years ago, some scammer tried that BS on me, I gave him the sheriffs name and office address to send his fake check too, never heard back

 

[C0ncreteBl0nde]

I get this a lot on TikTok and Instagram. I had to quit following the random men back to avoid all the "Hello beautiful...blah, blah, blah" messages. Finally I started telling them my age and that I don't have any money and miraculously the messages stopped!

 

[Silencio]

People try to do this all the time via email or even SMS messages. Yuck. I've greatly reduced my profile on the Internet / social media, so I don't see things like this very often.

I keep my social media profiles private and only accept follow requests from people I actually know.

 

[rm5]

I get this a lot on TikTok and Instagram. I had to quit following the random men back to avoid all the "Hello beautiful...blah, blah, blah" messages. Finally I started telling them my age and that I don't have any money and miraculously the messages stopped!

I should stop following people back unless I know where they're coming from. That's the solution i think

 

[ArkSingularity]

People try this on me all the time. I used to perform a lot of music locally, so I'd run into people who would try to follow me without really knowing me. Most of it wasn't really a concern, but sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. There were some folks who just wanted to message me about music, others would try to scam me or try to get me to fall for those password reset code scams or try to send me sexually explicit stuff. There are some creepy people out there in the world.

I am on social media much less than I used to be because of a lot of that. It's just more stress than it's worth, I don't think I'm really cut out for it.

 

[I7guy]

Perhaps theses are "romance" scammers

The goal is to get you emotionally involved with your new "friend" and then they'll ask you to help them get through some "temporary" financial trouble with a "loan"

Or crypto scam.

 

[rm5]

People try this on me all the time. I used to perform a lot of music locally, so I'd run into people who would try to follow me without really knowing me. Most of it wasn't really a concern, but sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. There were some folks who just wanted to message me about music, others would try to scam me or try to get me to fall for those password reset code scams or try to send me sexually explicit stuff. There are some creepy people out there in the world.

This is PRECISELY what's happening to me. The scammers are following my real life musician friends, so I think it's someone who was an audience member at a gig or something, but it's really just a scammer.

 

[rm5]

Or crypto scam.

Haven't gotten any crypto scams yet...

 

[retta283]

I had deleted my FaceBook account due to this. Friends of friends of friends who had left me alone forever suddenly all wanted to chat. Everyone was lonely or something... My phone was ringing and beeping multiple times in 10 minutes from these people, and eventually I couldn't make it stop so I just deleted my account. You block one set of these clowns another pops out. And yes, as you said, they were mutual contacts of people I had really friended. It's incredibly bizarre.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Perhaps theses are "romance" scammers

The goal is to get you emotionally involved with your new "friend" and then they'll ask you to help them get through some "temporary" financial trouble with a "loan"

I was playing along with one just for kicks. Was waiting for the punch line. Then there it was. She wanted my Verizon credentials, so she could get a new phone. I think I laughed so hard she could hear through the Twitter DM.

 

[rm5]

You know what was hilarious? With the last one, I asked if they were in any way connected with the other two scammers (I mentioned them by name), and they immediately blocked me. So that tactic worked, too. Probably better to just block without any intervention though

 

[rm5]

I had deleted my FaceBook account due to this. Friends of friends of friends who had left me alone forever suddenly all wanted to chat. Everyone was lonely or something... My phone was ringing and beeping multiple times in 10 minutes from these people, and eventually I couldn't make it stop so I just deleted my account. You block one set of these clowns another pops out. And yes, as you said, they were mutual contacts of people I had really friended. It's incredibly bizarre.

What's slightly strange to me is that this hasn't happened on Facebook for me... What I'm concerned about is that fact that all my irl friends are getting scammed by the same people, because they're also being followed by them

 

[smirking]

The goal is to get you emotionally involved with your new "friend" and then they'll ask you to help them get through some "temporary" financial trouble with a "loan"

Ding ding ding! Most likely this. @rm5 hate to tell ya, but this probably wasn't the first time it happened to you and it surely won't be the last time. This scam is as old as civilization itself and it'll be around until humans are extinct.