Beware of Fake Profiles!

[tuliponmymind]

What I don't get is why older men are talking with what they think are teenage girls in private, anyhow? And then when the conversation turns to naked pics....What do you have to investigate? Why not block that person yourself? Why would a 50 something year old man be talking with what they think is a 13 year old girl about stuff like that, anyhow?

I'm not a man but I mean surely we all can put two and two together, right.

Well,I didn't talk to her first. She pursued me. I was like why are you wanting to chat with me? It was just Christian conversation at first,but she kept talking about her temptations and then it she knew what she was doing. She knows men my age are tempted by talking about sex. I was trying to give her Godly advice,but she kept the sex talk. It isn't a 13yr old girl. It is a Scammer. A 13yr old girl doesn't talk the way she was talking.

 

[1ofthem]

That is what I am saying so why wouldn't they change their profile pic?? I had asked them to put a different pic of themselves up,but they wouldn't probably because in Nigeria they have to get approval from the tribal counsel.

Exactly why did you want more pics? I mean, surely you knew better than to keep discussing something like this with someone who was "pretending" to be a child!!!

 

[tuliponmymind]

I do not want to slam any member. My heart goes out to any REAL girl who is hurting and needs help,but for anyone who is just pretending to be a girl in a Foster Home is very sad indeed. I have known women in my life who grew up in Foster Homes and that is why my heart reached out to this young girl and being alone myself made it even more tempting ton chat with her. I will pray for this person for the scammer even has a name even in Nigeria and hope they will find salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ,not in their own fleshly desires.

 

[blue_ladybug]

Unfortunately, at least half of the scammers who come on here, pretend to be teenagers..

 

[tuliponmymind]

Exactly why did you want more pics? I mean, surely you knew better than to keep discussing something like this with someone who was "pretending" to be a child!!!

I only wanting to verify the validity of the person I was talking with. I was suspicious that the member was a scammer. There were red lights. There are things to look for when you chat with a scammer. Having only ONE profile pic of one of them.

 

[seoulsearch]

Also you just got done saying this about her
"She keeps talking to you? I've seen her around and she doesn't post at all and I am concerned about whom she does talk to...especially older guys...no offence... But she really should be careful."
Then you read this unproven accusation and now she's suddenly a scammer. That's a very quick change in opinions.

Maybe she is a scammer, maybe she isn't. But it's up to the mods to handle things, not for users to stir up trouble by publicizing things, or even possibly screwing up a mod investigation by making something public while they were keeping it quiet. Users don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Mods are more on top of these things than they reveal.

I had thought about this too, that maybe the profile had been set up on purpose in order to weed out pedophiles.

I had asked a former member about this profile because they had experience in this area, and I didn't want to judge prematurely or too harshly. But now that it's all been made public I felt it might be helpful to share, especially with others who might be unaware of such schemes.

I'm hoping Oncefallen will see these threads/posts and give us some guidance as to what we should do--are we allowed to alert other members if something seems amiss?

 

[blue_ladybug]

I had thought about this too, that maybe the profile had been set up on purpose in order to weed out pedophiles.

I had asked a former member about this profile because they had experience in this area, and I didn't want to judge prematurely or too harshly. But now that it's all been made public I felt it might be helpful to share, especially with others who might be unaware of such schemes.

I'm hoping Oncefallen will see these threads/posts and give us some guidance as to what we should do--are we allowed to alert other members if something seems amiss?

I have alerted other members via PM several times, about scammers/ predators/etc.. but I don't think we're supposed to actually use the name in a thread like this..

 

[1ofthem]

Well,I didn't talk to her first. She pursued me. I was like why are you wanting to chat with me? It was just Christian conversation at first,but she kept talking about her temptations and then it she knew what she was doing. She knows men my age are tempted by talking about sex. I was trying to give her Godly advice,but she kept the sex talk. It isn't a 13yr old girl. It is a Scammer. A 13yr old girl doesn't talk the way she was talking.

Yeah, I'm sure it is a scammer, and yes they did need called out on here. However, maybe you also learned a lesson here as not to engage in talks of that nature with children "potential scammers or not."

I do agree with you that this person is a scammer and needed called out.

 

[tuliponmymind]

Yes,your right. I was duped. I was vulnerable and you know I was attacked in my only area of weakness,the flesh. I joined the Christian Chat to get away from the flesh that is rampant on other forums,but Satan is everywhere. I am a sinner and will confess my sins.

 

[tuliponmymind]

Yeah, I'm sure it is a scammer, and yes they did need called out on here. However, maybe you also learned a lesson here as not to engage in talks of that nature with children "potential scammers or not."

I do agree with you that this person is a scammer and needed called out.

Yes,your right. I was duped. I was vulnerable and you know I was attacked in my only area of weakness,the flesh. I joined the Christian Chat to get away from the flesh that is rampant on other forums,but Satan is everywhere. I am a sinner and will confess my sins.

 

[seoulsearch]

Another telling clue was that this member had not been here very long--only a few months--and never posted in the forums, and apparently never talked to other members of the same gender (though I do realize that some people struggle with homosexual temptations and are looking to only talk with those of their gender.)

This was another thing I was wondering about this profile--if it was set up by a man who wanted to have sexual talk with other men, but used a pretty young girl's professional-grade stock photo as bai.

And while there are several honest-to-goodness members here who only participate in chat and are never post in the forums, anyone who is only here for a few months and has racked up an "I'm Following" list of hundreds of members, all of the opposite gender, is most likely not here just for good Christian fellowship.

 

[posthuman]

Yes, post quoting. It's a pretty common practice on here.

there's a button for it!

 

[Miri]

Yes,your right. I was duped. I was vulnerable and you know I was attacked in my only area of weakness,the flesh. I joined the Christian Chat to get away from the flesh that is rampant on other forums,but Satan is everywhere. I am a sinner and will confess my sins.

Just change your profile setting so only friends can see your profile and send you
messages. Click on my profile and see what I mean.

Then no more unwanted drama.

It’s easy enough just click on your profile Image, then pick privacy settings and
go through them.

People just set themselves up if they open their profile up to the entire world.
You wouldn’t go in your house, open all the curtains and windows, leave the
the doors unlocked and use a megaphone to tell everyone what you are doing,
where you are going, how long you will be out of the house and what you have
of value in your house.

Yet daily people do just that with social media accounts.

Oh this is for everyone by the way, not just Tul.

 

[Oncefallen]

In all of this, there is a bunch of smoke but no fire. We never have had a rule requiring users to post their own picture on their profile ( I don't think anyone really believes that I'm a wolf).

Obviously a young female profile with nothing but older men on her friends list is concerning (even a red flag) but once again not against the rules.

Typically the only time we end up banning users as frauds is when there is irrefutable proof such as serious inconsistencies in post content about themselves but when someone has little to no post history that is difficult.

Simply put, the old adage "buyer beware" or in this case, "poster beware" is in full effect. Catfishing is just as old as the internet and in reality even if we removed every user that someone had a suspicion about, there would be just as many still here that no one caught on to yet.

IMO any adult male that is randomly conversing with underage women privately is bordering on foolish. I wouldn't think of having a "private" conversation with a young lady at my church where I am well known and even more so online.

 

[Oncefallen]

Likewise, no one has reported any conversations from the suspected user let alone anything inappropriate.

 

[tuliponmymind]

I had thought about this too, that maybe the profile had been set up on purpose in order to weed out pedophiles.

I had asked a former member about this profile because they had experience in this area, and I didn't want to judge prematurely or too harshly. But now that it's all been made public I felt it might be helpful to share, especially with others who might be unaware of such schemes.

I'm hoping Oncefallen will see these threads/posts and give us some guidance as to what we should do--are we allowed to alert other members if something seems amiss?

Well,she wanted to set up a room to send me underage pics. Of course I wasn't gonna do that,but that is very serious stuff.

In all of this, there is a bunch of smoke but no fire. We never have had a rule requiring users to post their own picture on their profile ( I don't think anyone really believes that I'm a wolf).

Obviously a young female profile with nothing but older men on her friends list is concerning (even a red flag) but once again not against the rules.

Typically the only time we end up banning users as frauds is when there is irrefutable proof such as serious inconsistencies in post content about themselves but when someone has little to no post history that is difficult.

Simply put, the old adage "buyer beware" or in this case, "poster beware" is in full effect. Catfishing is just as old as the internet and in reality even if we removed every user that someone had a suspicion about, there would be just as many still here that no one caught on to yet.

IMO any adult male that is randomly conversing with underage women privately is bordering on foolish. I wouldn't think of having a "private" conversation with a young lady at my church where I am well known and even more so online.

If you would read more of my posts you would have seen where I said she kept messaging me. I didn't initiate anything. Once again the traits of a scammer. The scammer always messages the victim first,not the other way around. Apparently you aren't the kind of bait they want or they would have messaged you too. I am friendly and my doors are always open to help anyone that needs an ear. I have the gift of helps that the Lord has given me. With that said I am also cautious who I am helping. This scammer was more than switching profile pics and just liking older men. She was attacking the weakness of believers. That is a very cruel way to act on a Christian Chat site and should be abolished immediately. There was deceitfulness of the worst kinds filled with filth and attempting to lure me with sexual talk. That isn't Christian and also isn't the mind of a 13yr. old. It is the mind of an adult who is disguising themselves as a 13yr. Nothing more.

 

[tuliponmymind]

Well,she wanted to set up a room to send me underage pics. Of course I wasn't gonna do that,but that is very serious stuff.

If you would read more of my posts you would have seen where I said she kept messaging me. I didn't initiate anything. Once again the traits of a scammer. The scammer always messages the victim first,not the other way around. I am friendly and my doors are always open to help anyone that needs an ear. I have the gift of helps that the Lord has given me. With that said I am also cautious who I am helping. This scammer was more than switching profile pics and just liking older men. She was attacking the weakness of believers. That is a very cruel way to act on a Christian Chat site and should be abolished immediately. There was deceitfulness of the worst kinds filled with filth and attempting to lure me with sexual talk. That isn't Christian and also isn't the mind of a 13yr. old. It is the mind of an adult who is disguising themselves as a 13yr. Nothing more.

Fallen if you want the evidence then look at my posts. It is all there.

 

[preacher4truth]

I got "followed" by a 15 year old on here I believe yesterday. I IMMEDIATELY put her on ignore.

Moving on...

 

[tuliponmymind]

Very good and you acted fast. I just didn't act fast enough. I really believed her story about being in a Foster Home. It was really believable at first. Then the the dirty talk came. I was so unprepared for what came next. I am ashamed of what happened,but it is wasn't all my fault. The scammer pursued me. I am just glad I didn't give them any money.

 

[selfdissolving]

Very good and you acted fast. I just didn't act fast enough. I really believed her story about being in a Foster Home. It was really believable at first. Then the the dirty talk came. I was so unprepared for what came next. I am ashamed of what happened,but it is wasn't all my fault. The scammer pursued me. I am just glad I didn't give them any money.

you are obviously playing the victim here.
you allowed the conversation to progress because you enjoyed it.
nobody forced you to respond, you chose to do it.

the truth will set you free. being honest with yourself about your motives will afford you the opportunity to address the behavior and avoid this issue in the future.