That, or force.
This +1, especially the last part.
I imagine “she” will send you a picture of herself, naked, and then ask for money to help her come and see you. If you don’t fork over, she will tell you she will report you to Interpol and the FBI as a possessor of kiddie porn, and that you asked her for the porn. Etc., etc.
Not that you are in any real danger - no one in their right mind will believe this for a split second, including the police who have seen this kind of thing before, although it might be somewhat embarrassing to have to answer the question “if you knew it was a scam, why did you keep responding?”
Regards,
Shodan
After posting the ad I was hit by dozens of scammers. Most were simple spam trying to get me to sign up to a site. One was very realistic and really had me going, more so than this Russian.
I am assuming you do not live in Russia, or near Russia. So: out of curiosity, what is her explanation for responding to a presumably local CL ad far away from where she lives?
What does “had you going” mean in this instance? And saying “more so than this Russian” implies that the “Russian woman” also “has you going”.
Uh, you do know that this scammer is undoubtedly NOT a woman at all, right?
Anyone with decent graphics skills and a decent application can spot a “photoshopped” image. So can you, TGWATY?
Don’t you think it’s more likely that she just wants to steal his gold?
Might have started that way. But if TGWATY f*cks with the criminal bad enough to piss him off, it could get nasty pretty quickly.
I know you’ve acknowleged several times in this thread that you do (at some level) accept it’s a scam, so it probably isn’t necessary for me or anyone else to point out that there is not a single fucking chance that option 3 is correct. It’s not even worth listing as a logical possibility. You’re dealing with a scammer who is potentially dangerous and/or connected.
Toying with scammers can be fun (I’ve played that game myself not a few times), but playing their game, to see how far it will go, is generally a bad idea. You’re at risk of revealing your IRL identity to someone who is demonstrably morally lacking. If they think that scamming random strangers is OK, what else might they be capable of?
The woman in the photo is not who you are talking to.
If you just want to look at photos of hot russian redheads, just google that phrase and browse through the thousands of photos on the russian bride websites.
You’re not curious. Some part of you believes that she could be for real and that you will have a shot with her.
I tell her plainly that while I’d love for all this to work out, until I am absolutely certain she’s for real, she’s not getting a penny out of me.
As long as there is even the slightest chance that the scammer can expect this to pay off, you will keep hearing from them.
There ain’t no redhead. There is, but you’re not writing to her and she ain’t writing to you. Some criminal organization got her photos and a guy in Moscow or Vladivostok is writing emails to you.
Run a check on the IP address of where the emails originate. If it’s in Russia, they won’t come to USA to mess with you. They’re doing this to make money, not to spend money.
You can get more information on this kind of scam here: http://www.romancescam.com/forum/portal.php
The netflix page for Birthday Girl says it is only available on dvd, not instant streaming. I was gonna watch it, but I CBA to order a physical dvd.
To the OP, I’d say the scammer either still believes you might pay up OR they could be gathering information for identity theft. Even with just an email it is possible to gain personal details on some people, did you use a burner email? How much personal information have you given to this person?
The fact that you are writing back to her gives the scammer hope. They do this for a profit, so assume you will be led down a path that puts you in a not-so-great position.
They may get you to divulge personal information from you. Your phone number, for example. Where you live.
The fact that she’s “hot” should tell you something. Is someone hot going to reply to a craigslist ad? There are a LOT of lonely people out there. She’s looking for a bite for some quick cash. You keep telling her you aren’t paying anything, but people get tricked all the time by these scams. They wouldn’t keep trying the same old crap if it had no return.
My advice. Sincerely, stop replying and delete her messages. No good can come from it from your POV, so what’s the point?
Are you just amused? I mean, you do seem to be a bit taken in. You’re assuming that the same hot woman you’ve seen is the one writing to you. And I’m not sure why her being smoking hot even makes a difference. As everyone said, you can find thousands of pictures of hot women. The fact that a hot woman is paired with emails sent by some scammer–why does that mean anything to you?
You know TGWATY, you’ve really impressed me with the way you’ve approached this. You knew from the begininning it was a scam, and you moved ahead, risking nothing, and gaining amusement. I misjudged you initially, I can see you are bright, quick, and impossible to con. I’d really like to get to know you better. I know lot’s of gorgeous, Russian redheads, who just love American men, and don’t play all the games that American women do. They are free-spirited, and just don’t have any sexual hang ups. You should really get a chance to meet some Russian women who aren’t trying to scam you. You’d really appreciate the experience. We should get together somehow and go out on the town. Don’t worry, it’s all on me, you can leave your wallet at home. I’m just a friendly guy who likes to hang out with solid guys who really have it together the way you do. You could probably teach me a few things. So let me know where and when we can make contact. We can just talk by phone if you’re uncomfortable letting me know where you live. It’s not a problem. You can even come over to my house.
I’ve seen TinEye suggested in these situations; upload one of the images, and it will search for the same image elsewhere on the Internet. If it comes up on fifty different sites and the profile of a minor Russian gymnast from 1994, it’s a pretty solid sign that you’re being scammed.
Of course, a negative result doesn’t mean that she’s on the level, just that she isn’t dumb enough to use the first result from GIS as a profile picture.
yanno… **BMax **brings up a good point i was considering while reading this thread.
suppose your ‘new russian friend’ is a whiz at computers ala the cyber geeks on ncis or criminal minds and CAN backtrack your ip to find out where you are. i don’t know zip about computers, but is that a possibility, those of you out there that know computerspeak? could they track down the op and his physical address that way or have i been watching too much tv? :eek:
You’ve been watching too much TV. Most of what they do on NCIS and Criminal Minds is pure hogwash. It just don’t happen that way. Best you can get with an IP address (in most cases) is a general location…
LOL. good to know! 