There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce
them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I
was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things
are done.
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being approached
by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I was. By
SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things are done.
"Hello Dave. I'm Jenny. When do you return to Scotland"
Me: I think you have the wrong number
"Oh sorry, maybe I was saved wrong number. Please forgive. If you don't mind, may I know your name? Hope we can be friends"
Me: Tell me everything about yourself. Spare no detail.
"I'm Jenny, live in Chelsea, London. Where do you live?"
Me: What part of Nigeria are you from?
"My original friend Singapore"
Me: How much money are you hoping for?
"Fuck you. Fuck your mother".
On 12/04/2024 23:59, The Todal wrote:
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being
approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce
them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I
was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things
are done.
Not SMS, but anyone on FB has had such messages, so it is common. I'm
with Giff Gaff who are good are cutting out spam texts before I receive
them, so there probably have been texts targeted at me (along with 10k
other users sent at the same time).
Its always best to just ignore such messages. The Sender now knows you
are a real person, so your number could be passed to others in the future.There's no security threat, but just a tiny nuisance deleting the messages.
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce
them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I
was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things
are done.
"Hello Dave. I'm Jenny. When do you return to Scotland"
Me: I think you have the wrong number
"Oh sorry, maybe I was saved wrong number. Please forgive. If you don't
mind, may I know your name? Hope we can be friends"
Me: Tell me everything about yourself. Spare no detail.
"I'm Jenny, live in Chelsea, London. Where do you live?"
Me: What part of Nigeria are you from?
"My original friend Singapore"
Me: How much money are you hoping for?
"Fuck you. Fuck your mother".
On 12/04/2024 23:59, The Todal wrote:
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being >>approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce >>them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I
was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things
are done.
Not SMS, but anyone on FB has had such messages, so it is common. I'm with >Giff Gaff who are good are cutting out spam texts before I receive them,
so there probably have been texts targeted at me (along with 10k other
users sent at the same time).
Its always best to just ignore such messages. The Sender now knows you are
a real person, so your number could be passed to others in the
future.There's no security threat, but just a tiny nuisance deleting the >messages.
On 13/04/2024 in message <uvdbgo$2spqf$2@dont-email.me> Alan Lee wrote:
On 12/04/2024 23:59, The Todal wrote:
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being
approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to
seduce them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago
I was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these
things are done.
Not SMS, but anyone on FB has had such messages, so it is common. I'm
with Giff Gaff who are good are cutting out spam texts before I
receive them, so there probably have been texts targeted at me (along
with 10k other users sent at the same time).
Its always best to just ignore such messages. The Sender now knows you
are a real person, so your number could be passed to others in the
future.There's no security threat, but just a tiny nuisance deleting
the messages.
I have had a spate of friend requests on FB recently, some following
posts I made when I lived in Wiltshire over 2 years ago.
I must admit I do check their profiles and they all have one thing in
common, they are very poor, so poor they can't afford much in the way of clothes. Presumably this is the start of some sort of con.
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I
was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things
are done.
On 13/04/2024 14:56, Jeff Gaines wrote:
On 13/04/2024 in message <uvdbgo$2spqf$2@dont-email.me> Alan Lee wrote:Perhaps they are all members of a nudist colony? :-)
On 12/04/2024 23:59, The Todal wrote:
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being
approached by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to
seduce them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago
I was. By SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these
things are done.
Not SMS, but anyone on FB has had such messages, so it is common. I'm
with Giff Gaff who are good are cutting out spam texts before I
receive them, so there probably have been texts targeted at me (along
with 10k other users sent at the same time).
Its always best to just ignore such messages. The Sender now knows you
are a real person, so your number could be passed to others in the
future.There's no security threat, but just a tiny nuisance deleting
the messages.
I have had a spate of friend requests on FB recently, some following
posts I made when I lived in Wiltshire over 2 years ago.
I must admit I do check their profiles and they all have one thing in
common, they are very poor, so poor they can't afford much in the way
of clothes. Presumably this is the start of some sort of con.
On 12/04/2024 23:59, The Todal wrote:
There are accounts in the news of politicians and journalists being approached
by strangers who pretend to know them and attempt to seduce them.
Has anyone here been the target of such approaches? A few months ago I was. By
SMS text. I don't know if this was typical of how these things are done.
"Hello Dave. I'm Jenny. When do you return to Scotland"
Me: I think you have the wrong number
"Oh sorry, maybe I was saved wrong number. Please forgive. If you don't mind,
may I know your name? Hope we can be friends"
Me: Tell me everything about yourself. Spare no detail.
"I'm Jenny, live in Chelsea, London. Where do you live?"
Me: What part of Nigeria are you from?
"My original friend Singapore"
Me: How much money are you hoping for?
"Fuck you. Fuck your mother".
Last summer, I had some fun. Star trek buffs will understand, luckily this Olivia didn't.
"Hey Max, this is Olivia, How's your vacation in Singapore and when did you get
back here in London?"
"Shaka when the walls fell"
"Haha really?"
"Sokath his eyes uncovered"
"oh sorry I rechecked the number and I fugured out that I mistyped last digit"
"Sokath his eyes opened"
She did talk a little more, she said Max is her cousin, and she assumes I am an
alien. ;-)
It could have been genuine, the messages are still there on whatsapp and my "security code with Olivia XXXXXX has changed" ( name x'd out). Who knows, she
wasn't going to get anywhere with me!
At that point, I would have blocked the number and reported it as spam.
Aside from the fact that the number is not on my contacts list, I would >expect anybody who actually knows me to say it's Jenny, which is an >identifier, rather than I'm Jenny, which is an introduction.
On Sat, 13 Apr 2024 13:15:43 +0100, Colin Bignell <cpb@bignellREMOVETHIS.me.uk> wrote:
At that point, I would have blocked the number and reported it as spam.
Aside from the fact that the number is not on my contacts list, I would
expect anybody who actually knows me to say it's Jenny, which is an
identifier, rather than I'm Jenny, which is an introduction.
I had an SMS a few days ago which read
Hi its Sarah. Please can you give me a
quick text back if your not busy x
That would be fairly convincing for a lot of people, because it's a common enough name that a lot of recipients would assume it's someone they know.
For me, it was pretty obvious that it was a scammer, because, although I do know three Sarahs well enough for any of them to plausibly want to message
me informally like that, they would all do it via Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp rather than SMS (and I was actually in the middle of an FBM conversation with one of them when I got the spam). And, while I may well have encountered other Sarahs in the past in a business or political
context, if one of them wanted to get in touch they'd explain who they are and why they're messaging me as well as their name - eg, "It's Sarah from
Foo Ltd, following up on our conversation at the Vapourware convention" or something like that.
The noteworthy aspect of the Westminster honeytrapper, though, is that they seem to have done enough research on their targets to be able to fake that more detailed kind of introduction. And politicians can't just ignore plausible contacts from people who give the impression of knowing them, because it could well be (and, of course, most of the time is) a constituent or other contact who has a genuine reason for getting in touch.
So you can't
just screen them out at first contact stage, you need to participate in the conversation but bear in mind that it may not be what it seems. The MPs who ended up as actual victims of the honeytrapper, as opposed to just targets (which anyone in any reasonably high profile role can be), seem to have relied too much on their ability to spot a scammer straight away and were unwilling to revisit their opinion in the light of later evidence.
And
that's always a dangerous position to be in.
Mark
The noteworthy aspect of the Westminster honeytrapper, though, is that
they seem to have done enough research on their targets to be able to
fake that more detailed kind of introduction. And politicians can't just ignore plausible contacts from people who give the impression of knowing them, because it could well be (and, of course, most of the time is) a constituent or other contact who has a genuine reason for getting in
touch.
On 13/04/2024 16:02, Mark Goodge wrote:
The noteworthy aspect of the Westminster honeytrapper, though, is that they >> seem to have done enough research on their targets to be able to fake that >> more detailed kind of introduction. And politicians can't just ignore
plausible contacts from people who give the impression of knowing them,
because it could well be (and, of course, most of the time is) a constituent >> or other contact who has a genuine reason for getting in touch.
I wonder if many constituents use Grindr to get in touch with their MP >though.
On Sat, 13 Apr 2024 21:39:04 +0100, Colin Bignell <cpb@bignellREMOVETHIS.me.uk> wrote:
On 13/04/2024 16:02, Mark Goodge wrote:
The noteworthy aspect of the Westminster honeytrapper, though, is that
they seem to have done enough research on their targets to be able to
fake that more detailed kind of introduction. And politicians can't
just ignore plausible contacts from people who give the impression of
knowing them, because it could well be (and, of course, most of the
time is) a constituent or other contact who has a genuine reason for
getting in touch.
I wonder if many constituents use Grindr to get in touch with their MP >>though.
Grindr and other dating apps are a somewhat different attack vector,
because there's an underlying assumption that people who are on them
are, essentially, after the same thing. So it wouldn't, at least
initially, raise suspicions if they give every impression of being in
search of that thing.
However, while I appreciate that politicians, like everyone else, can be single and entirely reasonably in search of a long-term or short-term relationship, I do also think that the use of dating or hook-up apps by
a politician (or anyone else in the public eye) is probably unwise.
On Sat, 13 Apr 2024 21:39:04 +0100, Colin Bignell <cpb@bignellREMOVETHIS.me.uk> wrote:
On 13/04/2024 16:02, Mark Goodge wrote:
The noteworthy aspect of the Westminster honeytrapper, though, is that they >>> seem to have done enough research on their targets to be able to fake that >>> more detailed kind of introduction. And politicians can't just ignore
plausible contacts from people who give the impression of knowing them,
because it could well be (and, of course, most of the time is) a constituent
or other contact who has a genuine reason for getting in touch.
I wonder if many constituents use Grindr to get in touch with their MP
though.
Grindr and other dating apps are a somewhat different attack vector, because there's an underlying assumption that people who are on them are, essentially, after the same thing. So it wouldn't, at least initially, raise suspicions if they give every impression of being in search of that thing.
However, while I appreciate that politicians, like everyone else, can be single and entirely reasonably in search of a long-term or short-term relationship, I do also think that the use of dating or hook-up apps by a politician (or anyone else in the public eye) is probably unwise.
Mark
"It's Sarah from Foo Ltd, following up on our conversation at the >>Vapourware convention" or something like that.
I don't recall ever meeting a Sarah.
On Sat, 13 Apr 2024 16:02:54 +0100, Mark Goodge wrote:
The noteworthy aspect of the Westminster honeytrapper, though, is that
they seem to have done enough research on their targets to be able to
fake that more detailed kind of introduction. And politicians can't just
ignore plausible contacts from people who give the impression of knowing
them, because it could well be (and, of course, most of the time is) a
constituent or other contact who has a genuine reason for getting in
touch.
A lot of politicians have solved this by just ignoring constituents
anyway,
No MPs I know answer their own correspondence (some don't even sign the replies). That's what their 2+ researchers are for, paid on expenses.
And it's not usually laziness, they simply don't have the time.
On Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:37:42 +0100, Mark Goodge wrote:
Grindr and other dating apps are a somewhat different attack vector,
because there's an underlying assumption that people who are on them
are, essentially, after the same thing. So it wouldn't, at least
initially, raise suspicions if they give every impression of being in
search of that thing.
However, while I appreciate that politicians, like everyone else, can be
single and entirely reasonably in search of a long-term or short-term
relationship, I do also think that the use of dating or hook-up apps by
a politician (or anyone else in the public eye) is probably unwise.
On a "no names no pack drill" basis I have been assured in the past that
the risk of being caught is (or was) part of the thrill.
This includes politicians kerb crawling in red light districts (before the Internet).
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