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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 6

Well this is my first time baiting a scammer so bear with me (looking for advice here). I got a FB friend request from someone with my same last name. I've got tons of relatives so I shrugged and accepted. The whole thing seemed a little suspicious and within 24 hours I got a message from a (legitimate) cousin warning me that this FB account was a scammer. Well I've never baited before so I figured now was a good time to start!

Here's one of her (probably a guy really) first messages to me via FB. I'd asked her how we were related (I'm planning to omit all last names involved for security reasons of course):

Thank you for asking and contacting me. Great Great grandpa Christopher _____ had couple children including twin sons Christian and Thomas ______. During that period of time, Christian ______ took their sister to the USA and Thomas ____ was still in Norway. Start from here. Thomas ____ had Michael ____ and they moved to Sweden. Great grandpa Michael had my father Alexander ____ and my father had me and adopted the other girl. We have been looking for the rest of (my family) for years and busy working to create the strong financial resources for us. Before my parents passed away, they had a will that we have to continue to come back the ______ ancestor. Does it make sense to you?

ROFL! What an amateur to mention a will right at the beginning like that. But anyways. This person has several FB accounts that he uses to respond to himself and leave comments on his own posts. You look at the time stamps and it's only like 5 minutes apart each time, so obvious. The first account is "AlyssaPearl ______" and then she has a "Mike Edwards" and "Thuy Mai" accounts that claim to work for her and are always complimenting her.
Lately she claims to be in France and here's a post on her FB wall:

Thuy Mai I love the color.
Yesterday at 10:19am.Mike Edwards Bonjour! You are uphere finally. Yes, Ms. ____. Designer from Lafemme succeeded. The show was successful.
Yesterday at 10:33am.AlyssaPearl _____ Mike, I need to know information about the IT department in Sweden and Norway. Everything should be on my table when I get back. Did you finish installing the system for the government office?
Yesterday at 10:36am.Mike Edwards Qui! Everything is ready for you. You worry too much! Everything is done.
Yesterday at 10:39am.Thuy Mai Mike! you did a good job. Ms. ____, may I have two new prom dresses for free? I fall in love with those.
Yesterday at 10:41am.AlyssaPearl _____ Yes, you will. They will be your bonus. I need to go to the airport now. See you soon, Thuy. In France, use my black Mercedez to pick me up. But in Norway and Sweden, Mike will use black BMW. I need the other car in the USA. Prepare to transfer to my account. I want BMW. See you guys soon.

Oh my! She has a black BMW and is giving away free prom dresses to herself, she must be very very rich! She has also revealed to me that our family is secretly a member of the Windsor family royal line. Well who would have known I was related to the Queen of England? (sarcasm here).
Anyways, I've been just stringing her along on my own but figured it was time to get some professional advice. What should I do next with this person to make them think they're going to get some money out of me? So far she's only mentioned the will once and is being kind of slow to hit me up for cash. She's trying to make it look like she's very successful first I suppose. This is my latest message to her:

"So what's the deal with that will that you mentioned earlier on? You said it had to do with the ____ family name? Also make sure to take some pictures of yourself in Paris! You're such a lovely woman it'd be nice to see pictures of you in such a glamorous city. P.S. I told my whole family that we're secretly related to the Windsor family. They were all very surprised and excited! "

So what should I do next? Also is this a new form of scamming (using Facebook) or have scammers been on FB for a while?

P.S. I actually know my geneology pretty well so I know this person is so full of crap their eyes are turning brown.

Removed overlooked surname - Branwen

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 3:36 am

Do NOT bait this person! He has too much access to REAL information about you. End the facebook friendship and drop him like a hot potato.

Bruin

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 6

You sure? I mean I show very very little information on my FB and theoretically they've already had all the access they're going to get. But I suppose I should just nix them and if I feel like getting into baiting set up an e-mail for it and go about it with that intent in mind from the first place.

So, how should I sever this relationship in the best way? I'd like to discourage this person from continuing to target my family. I was planning (when I got bored with it) to send them a message mocking their amatuer attempts and saying that everyone in my family knows each other really well and that we knew she/he was full of crap from the first moment. Can you think of anything to add to or take away from that that will discourage them from trying to continue to go after my family?

Btw, I think this person also tried to hack into my FB account. Someone at 8am Thursday morning had tried to hack in, but since my password is 16 characters long and a random collection of letters and numbers, it's going to take someone better than this noob to get into my account.

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 8:53 am

maximumbait wrote:

You sure?

Oh Yes!
Drop it, right now...

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 3:59 pm

What info does he have about you? Well, lets start with the fact that he has access to ALL your Facebook friends....

Bruin

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 6

Well fair enough. I'll sever the connection right now and send them a message informing them that my family knows who is in it and who is not and that they will never succeed in scamming us. And also let them know that I'll be watching their account just to make sure no one gets on their friends list that's related to me (and any who do will get warned by me). I'll also put a nice big status updating warning everyone about this joker, and reminding them to be cautious of such things.

Was hoping you guys could give me some advice on what to write in that message to discourage them from targetting my family, but it's no big deal. I'll be watching them.

Update: This is the final message I sent them. Hopefully this will discourage them a bit:

Well it's been fun but the time has come to say goodbye to you my little friend. I knew from the first minute I looked at your profile that you weren't related to me, your name isn't Alyssa, you're almost certainly a guy, and probably located in Nigerian. Also, it's blatantly obvious that "Mike Edwards" and "Thuy Mai" are also your accounts. Like I said, you're really not very good at this. No one in the ____ family will ever fall for this kind of scam, we know our geneology going back to the mid 1400s and we know very well that we're not related to the Windsor royal line. I was just laughing my ass off when I pretended to believe you. Oh, and good luck trying to hack into my FB account (I assume that was you that tried it the other day). My password is 16 characters long and is a random combination of letters and numbers and you clearly don't have the skills to get past it. It's been fun laughing at you, and your poor skills, but I'm bored with it now.
P.S. I'll be watching your account and if anyone else in my family ever ends up on your friends list I'll send them a message warning them away. Just like two of my relatives warned me, so that's 3 of us watching you now.

So there we have it. Severed the relationship and put on a fresh password just to be sure. It's been a good reminder to me to further limit what FB knows about me. I removed all information about who I was related to (they know I'm related to them so why tell FB?) and changed my privacy settings to be a little more strict.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 30 Apr 2010 Posts: 34

you were right to get out of this. NEVER EVER EVER bait when they know who you are, or who your family is.

If it goes sour or they get angry, they can and will take it out on you. Scammers, no matter what breed, are NEVER to be messed with on a personal level.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

If she is not related to you, just ignore her. Look at this website, you will know who she is.
http://lynk.vn/

Her Vietnamese name is Ly Nha Ky. She is not only a movie star but also a businesswoman.

You are so silly to conclude one person without research.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Again, you are so stupid to conclude one person without research. Thuy P Mai is officially Miss Vietnam 2006. Look at this website. She is famous, why do you not know?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_Phuong_Thuy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_JS5NaF5pE

Alyssa xxxx, if she is not related to your family. Ignore her. But, she is the real person. She has two names. The second one is Ly Nha Ky.
http://lnk.vn
http://www.lynhaky.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kzKdXtqJBk

Removed OP's surname - Branwen

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Akh, Welcome to Eater. We appreciate you contributing your research to this thread but please refrain from insulting anyone. Calling someone stupid is not acceptable.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Moreover, Many people have same last name but it does not mean they are related.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Ima Baeder, I do not want to insult them. But clearly they do not research before they conclude a person. Do you agree that there are many people who have the same last name but it does not mean they are related? I need FAIR for everybody.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 6:11 pm

Hi akh. We can't really say one way or the other. It depends on your own family history. Everyone in my own country who bears my grandfather's name is indeed related to me - and there are thousands of them. I know that, because I've researched back to just after one family with that name came to this country.

I know which country they came from, and it was a 'rare' name there too, so it is even possible that everyone in the world with that name is a not-too-distant relation of mine.

So I would not be 'stupid' to think that someone with my family name was indeed a relative.

But, the point is that even if you think that I am stupid, you don't say that here. You can challenge my ideas if you like: you can say, 'But what if there is another family with that name that you don't know about?' or even, 'I'm not sure that your thinking is correct.' But we don't call each other names. We know so little about each other, really. So we can never make a judgement call on somebody else's intelligence. Or anything else.

Now that is fairness.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Branwen, You are fair. But, because I have the same reason. I am married to my husband and have the same last name. My husband's family google and research how many people have the same last name. It turned out that none of them are related to my husband's family. See? It is my real experience. I am just upset why people do not research before they accuse of a person. If a person is not related to them, just ignore them instead of insulting them. In the meantime, those people are the real ones and they are famous. The World is really crazy now.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 6:23 pm

akh

The original poster NEVER stated that people must be related because they have the last name. What he/she did state was that this person approached several members of his/her family claiming that they were related, talking about wills, and making money references that are certainly consistent with a set-up for an inheritance scam.

The leap that the original poster made is actually nowhere near as big as the leap it takes to assume that the Thuy Mai profile he/she mentioned belongs to the person in your Wikipedia link. Facebook shows over 500 profiles under that name--are you suggesting that every one of those profiles belongs to Miss Vietnam 2006?

I have no idea what you want or expect to prove.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

maximumbait! sorry for saying "you are stupid." However, next time, if you have the same problem, just ignore that person. And I have just google to find out whether the person Alyssa xxxx is a guy and from Nigeria? However, those people are the real ones and very famous. You can check the links that I posted here. I am a law student, I want fairness. I never accuse of any person if I do not find out yet. Everything always has the inner reason.

Removed OP's surname - Branwen

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Dorothy,
I am not sure why the famous people do this. Maybe they want to introduce themselves to the world. My point is here to prove that Thuy Mai and Alyssa xxxx are not guys or from the bad country. They are real ones. Maybe Alyssa xxxx knows and respects the xxxx family. Who knows? However, the information I knew for sure about Alyssa xxxx that her birth parents are not alive. Also, my main point for maximumbait that he should google and find out who they are before he accuses of these people. And he should not interfere the conversation between Thuy Mai and Alyssa xxxx while both of them are the real ones.

Removed OP's surname - Branwen

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 6:48 pm

akh, you may have got a bit muddled. I haven't the faintest idea who those people are for real, but nobody here is talking about the real people. We are talking about scammers using fake names. Sometimes scammers totally invent names, and sometimes they just pick a name (of a real person) off the internet.

It's not the real people having a chat on Facebook: it's scammers with fake names ... which just happen to be of real people.

Thank you for apologising to maximumbait.

Here's your next challenge: if you want to say something else, and nobody else has posted in-between: use the 'edit' button and add your new comment to your previous post, instead of making a brand new post.

You'll get into the swing of it soon, I'm sure!

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:09 pm

akh,

You still seem to be missing the point. Just because there are real people with those names does not mean that the people contacting the original person are the people in your links.

Take this letter for example. I removed a bunch of the text and just left a few key parts in:

Quote:

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI.WASHINGTON DC

I RECEIVED AN EMAIL ALERT FROM UPS IN REGARD TO YOUR PACKAGE WHICH HAVE BEEN WITH THEM FOR TWO WEEKS NOW AND THE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING AGENT IN CHARGE PLANNED TO RETURN YOUR PACKAGE TO THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE OF NIGERIA.

THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU MASTERCARD CONTAIN IS $20 MILLION USD AND THIS INCLUDE INTEREST RATE UP TILL DATE.

GET BACK TO ME IF YOU ARE READY TO SEND THE CHARGE FEE WHICH IS $70 SO I CAN SEND YOU THE INFORMATION YOU WILL NEED

ROBERT S. MUELLER AND KATRINA JACOB
SENIOR OFFICE DEPARTMENT
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI.WASHINGTON DC
J. Edgar Hoover Building 935
Pennsylvania Avenue,NW Washington,
D.C.20535-0001, USA

If I google Robert S. Mueller I will find that there really is a Robert S. Mueller, and he really is the Director of the FBI. Robert S. Mueller is not in Nigeria.
By saying that this letter is a scam, am I saying that there is no Robert S. Mueller or that Robert S. Mueller, director of the FBI, is a scammer? Absolutely not.

This letter was written by a Nigerian scammer who does not know, and is not related to the real Robert S. Mueller. He just used his name to make himself look believable.

The same is true of the Thuy Mai profiles. Nobody--including the original poster--is claiming that there is a not a real Thuy Mai who was Miss Vietnam 2006. All the original poster stated is that a person using that name (and there are over 500 profiles with that name on Facebook, many of which probably are fake) appeared to be a scammer, just as the person who wrote this letter using Robert S. Mueller's name is a scammer.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Dorothy, I know everything about this. However, Thuy Mai and Alyssa xxxx have not hurt the xxxx family. As I read the information, they have not asked him about money. They are rich enough not to ask anything from this man. Do you understand what I mean? Your information mentions about money. But, the information that this man mentions about finding out whether she is related to his family. If not, she will know how to withdraw and he should be politely to say to her that she is not related to her instead of insulting her. I know many American friends who have the same last name but they are not related to each other. America is the country of freedom, so people have the right to change their name to whatever they want.

Removed OP's surname - Branwen

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 8:19 pm

Quote:

Dorothy, I know everything about this.

If you are personally involved in this, please do tell. Otherwise you are still missing the point.

Here is what you said:

Quote:

Her Vietnamese name is Ly Nha Ky. She is not only a movie star but also a businesswoman.

You are so silly to conclude one person without research.

So, let's look at the Alyssa xxxx you speak of.

Quote:

Name: Ly Nha Ky
Date of birth: July 19, 1982
Place of birth: Vung Tau, Vietnam

Her own website states:

Quote:

With Western face and an unfamiliar name, many people think that Ly Nha Ky is mixed or is a foreigner. But in fact, she is 100% Vietnamese

Now here is what the facebook "Alyssa xxxx" said to the original poster:

Quote:

Thank you for asking and contacting me. Great Great grandpa Christopher _____ had couple children including twin sons Christian and Thomas ______. During that period of time, Christian ______ took their sister to the USA and Thomas ____ was still in Norway. Start from here. Thomas ____ had Michael ____ and they moved to Sweden. Great grandpa Michael had my father Alexander ____ and my father had me and adopted the other girl. We have been looking for the rest of (my family) for years and busy working to create the strong financial resources for us. Before my parents passed away, they had a will that we have to continue to come back the ______ ancestor. Does it make sense to you?

This "Alyssa" claims to come from Norwegian ancestry. The original poster also states that "Alyssa" claimed to be related to the Windsor family. The person who contacted the original poster and several family members is clearly not the wealthy Vietnamese model you are talking about. It really is that simple.

Removed OP's surname - Branwen

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 8:20 pm

The real Thuy Mai and Alyssa xxxx may well be rich enough not to ask anything from anyone. But a scammer or scammers pretending to be them/pretending to have those names do wish to steal money from people.

I repeat: we are not talking about the real people here - we are talking about scammers.

akh: If you are not quite clear yet what a scammer is, or what a scammer does, I suggest that you read some of the other forums.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Branwell, you are right. I have no idea about scammers. i do not understand why rich people do this. For my experience, if it is not money, it should be related to emotion. someone hurts someone else. Who knows. I give up this topic. Just be extremely careful!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jul 2010 Posts: 10

Dorothy, Alyssa is mixed. That's I know from many people. How do we know where she is from. Remember that she is a rich businesswoman. She has many companies from everywhere. In the real life, if it is not money or if it is not a scammer, anybody in this family hurt someone else. I mean about emotional hurt. What do you think? In the original poster, he does not mention about money. It might be a type of emotional hurt.

Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 9:14 pm

akh: the 'edit' button is on the right at the top of your posts. If you have something more to add, even in response to a different person, please USE it, and add your comments to the previous post you have made.

Rich people do not approach people that they do not know and tell them lies. Scammers, however, do use the names of rich people, and pretend that they are them.

You have said that you have no idea about scammers. And yet you are posting on a forum dedicated to baiting scammers. That is not a sensible thing to do, if you are in ignorance.

We will be very pleased to welcome you here after you have learnt a little bit about what we are about, what we do, and what we know.

But, at the present moment, you are not making much sense, because you are simply not understanding. There are lots of things to read here - if you have an interest in staying around, please go and read .... and read ... and read.

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