• Okay, I have just had an extremely peculiar experience. I'd like to know if anyone else here has experienced anything similar, can suggest what it was all about, or if I have just accidentally picked up an authentic obsessed and devoted (cough) "fan".

    I headed to bed tonight and popped onto a chat site to browse peeps and see if anything interesting occurred (read: bore myself to sleep). I spotted another user living in my county and so flung a half-hearted message their way to reach out. To my surprise she replied straightaway and asked if I had Hangouts. This instantly rung alarm bells as she knew nothing about me but I'm quite happy to kill time amusing myself with a fake/scammer. I like the thought that they think they're fooling me, I enjoy testing/studying their behaviour from a psychology POV, plus I feel like I'm providing a small service to humanity by keeping them busy so they can't scam someone more gullible. So I said sure, and we connected on said app.

    I expected that within a few messages I'd be being asked to follow a link to a dubious site or to send money to a random account etc., possibly with the promise of online sexual activity being used to try to lure me in. Much to my surprise that did not happen.

    She sent a couple of "live" pics and she looked too good to be true, suggestively dressed without being overly revealing. We talked a little without giving too much away. I was careful only to send a couple of live (face) pics which could not be reverse image searched and linked to any online profiles/accounts of mine, so the only information she had was my (not primary) email address. I tried to trip her up by checking her age; 35, matching what she had listed on the chat site. So I assumed some sort of long game was being played. Chat for a while, maybe get flirty, THEN ask for personal info/money/whatever.

    That didn't happen. After half an hour tops she was calling me sweetheart every other line, and by the time an hour had passed she was couldn't stop telling me that I was the best thing to happen to her, I made her so happy, even that she loved me. Nobody talks like that about somebody they just met, and she knew virtually nothing about me. Her grammar slipped occasionally and she had an Eastern European look about her so I became more and more sure this was a scam of some sort, but it was entertaining so I rode it out.

    I tested her again, asked to see her again. She sent a couple more "live" pictures, wearing the same as she had been before but now with glasses on too... seemed to pass that test. She just got more and more intense about me, without getting sexual. Seriously the stuff she was writing even after half an hour was like poetry.

    Then she said she started to feel tired and should try to sleep. We said our goodnights, and that was it. An hour and a half with no scammy behaviour of any description yet with behaviour which just doesn't add up.

    I know I'm an overthinker sometimes, but what the fuck was that? I am having great difficulty believing that genuine peeps typically offer their email address to a total stranger after just a hello, let alone that such a person should also turn out to be a drop-dead stunner who decides after 30 minutes you're the man they've been waiting for their entire life when they still know next to nothing about you.

    She definitely appears to have gone to bed/sleep. She wasn't on the chat site we met on whilst we were talking (I kept checking) or since, nor Hangouts in the hour since we said goodnight.

    If this is a scam, what's the play? The only thing I can think of is somebody using saved photos from a series and being generally bored getting some kind of kicks. And if it's not a scam, well oh crap... 😂🙈

    What do we think? @Lurker I'd say you aren't allowed to laugh, but you can, I probably bring this shit onto myself 😂


  • random bot. nothing to see here


  • maybe she was bored trying to play with u. or some challenge with her friends? but this is super odd


  • Maybe a more sophisticated scam, or not. Only one way to find out


  • @Eye keep us posted lol


  • @Matt_Aranha a very long game? A more deeply sly scam? Maybe the scammers have upped their game? Keep us posted Matt.


  • Shall do @Littlelion12 @Scottish - I'm intrigued to see what today brings... kudos for the effort whatever they're up to 😂


  • @Matt_Aranha it took me 10 minutes to read this whole 😂😂😂😂😂
    Nice work


  • @Mickeyyyyy You are a true hero for sticking through it 👍👍😂😂😂


  • @Matt_Aranha next stop moby dick 😁


  • @mikeJB Sounds like a very intelligent and fun bot. Would this be like Cherry 2000 or Her variety?


  • Bot, bored person, gay person hoping to "trade", whatever.
    Chances she's real are minimum since, ehm, who uses hangouts?


  • @Matt_Aranha you are a hero to type such long text....
    Hats off to you 👍👍👍👍


  • @kh1123 said in New, odd, scam? I'd love some insight...:

    @mikeJB Sounds like a very intelligent and fun bot. Would this be like Cherry 2000 or Her variety?

    Ooooh tell me more? I've been very entertained by the idea that this could be a sophisticated bot, but I'm not familiar with Cherry 2000/Her.

    This is certainly way above the usual level of bot you would find on chat sites. If we assume it is a bot... it disengaged from the site I found it on immediately after meeting me and the profile has not reappeared, so it doesn't juggle users on that profile (which does not mean to say it cannot be working under other names, of course). It knows when to go bed because it is late and tired. It doesn't have ready made responses which pop up automatically as other bots typically do (the dot dot dot frequently appears for appropriate lengths of time as responses are typed). It makes spelling mistakes or grammatical errors and then acts human enough to apologise and correct itself in the next line. And it's only potential purpose I can ascertain is perhaps self-fulfilling interaction to learn more and further become realistic. We had another half hour of interaction earlier this afternoon and I still have yet to be asked for any personal details/information/explicit photographs or to do anything remotely red flaggy.

    Certainly the technology for this sort of AI must exist; it seems to me to be quite wasteful to fritter it in this manner.


  • @Matt_Aranha nice now it took me 5 minutes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


  • @Antho_vn said in New, odd, scam? I'd love some insight...:

    Chances she's real are minimum since, ehm, who uses hangouts?

    I am aware of examples.


  • @Matt_Aranha Shady, truly shady. You must have met a scam artist of the highest order. It could have also been a mentally ill person pranking you for their own sick pleasure.

    The wisest course of action would be not to pursue any more interactions with this "person", or else you might place your personal information in danger.


  • @Matt_Aranha said in New, odd, scam? I'd love some insight...:

    @kh1123 said in New, odd, scam? I'd love some insight...:

    @mikeJB Sounds like a very intelligent and fun bot. Would this be like Cherry 2000 or Her variety?

    Ooooh tell me more? I've been very entertained by the idea that this could be a sophisticated bot, but I'm not familiar with Cherry 2000/Her.

    Certainly the technology for this sort of AI must exist; it seems to me to be quite wasteful to fritter it in this manner.

    Nope, bots are not that far yet. if somebody as critically minded as you felt you were talking to a real person, than you were talking to a real person.

    It might either be legit interest, combined with a personality that just is quite a bit too engaged and hopeful (people like that definitely exist, and they tend to lose interest after a while, you know borderline?), or

    there are lots of women in eastern europe/asia, who actually hope to marry a western man, maybe even without any ill intent... And that is something that happened often even before the internet. I'd put my bets on this last option.

    I wish you the best :heart:


  • @Silhouette Alas I have never been wise in such matters, even when my eyes are wide open my curiosity and inquisitive nature are too strong... what can I say, I get a thrill from danger 😂

    I completely agree with you though and would be saying the same thing to anybody else.


  • @Matt_Aranha it's always easier to give advice than take it Matt, I'm the same myself. Incidentally do you know the song all i wanted was danger by the milk? It's quality, the whole album is, kind of funky modern urban soul from south east England. Album is called tales from the Thames delta, one of those you play without skipping a track. I've a feeling you may dig it