Online scam artists are some of the worst kinds of thieves out there. Not only do they steal money from their victims but they leave them emotionally scarred. there are several people you should not add friend because it might be invasive and can complicate your life. Sometimes, friend requests can get you into troubles and be adding some people might become troublesome. As Facebook is all about your personal life and photos, it turns into a stalk book for some. So, in the end, it’s all up to you to decide whether those friend requests are really worth accepting or setting them aside would be a better idea. Here are a few tips to help you to judge whether to add a person as a friend or not. A 64-year-old woman is warning others not to fall victim to the charms of online Romeo scammers like she did.
Elderly Woman Loses $100,000 By Accepting Friend Request
#1
Patricia Meister from Queensland, Australia was swindled out of $100,000 through Facebook. It all started when she received a friend request from an Italian/Scottish businessman named Carlos who took some interest in her. Little did she know then that she was getting snared by a fraudster.
#2
“I’d never been on dating websites, and I only used Facebook for business,” she told Daily Mail. “So when I got the friend request, I thought it couldn’t do any harm, can it?”
#3
“We started chatting. He was charming, smart and educated. He was very good with English and he was very romantic,” she admits. “I was very much in love with him at one stage.”
She said the man who claimed he was based in Brisbane had told her he was working in interior design and his heritage was Italian and Scottish.
#4
Eventually, the two began speaking over the phone and that’s when Meister she started to become suspicious because his accent was curious to her.
Despite casting some doubts on him, Ms. Meister continued speaking to him as the weeks passed.
#5
He asked if she could lend him $600 since his credit card wouldn’t work while he was in Malaysia for a project.
"A part of me thought it was wrong so I questioned him, saying 'you're a businessman, your credit card should work...' His story didn't add up."
He continued asking for money and she continued sending it, $7,000 here and another $7,000 there.
#6
When he tried to pay me back, he said his bank couldn't do the large international transfer so he arranged for a courier to deliver the cash instead. Ms. Meister said she was given a link to a website with a 'tracking sheet', in which she kept a close eye on the parcel's movement.
#7
Her parcel kept incurring enormous fees of more than $25,000 and kept paying them.
On the day she was scheduled to supposedly get the parcel with the money she'd been promised, she received a phone call.
"I got a phone call from someone saying Carlos and his lawyer had been in a serious car accident so they needed money for medical expenses," she recalled.
#8
At the point, she knew that she had been scammed. Ms. Meister even tried to report the incident to police, but it was too late to recover her $100,000 at that point. The last message she received from him said: “Catch me if you can, my dear.”
“There is not just one person,” Queensland Police Fraud Prevention Officer Kathryn Collins said, according to Now to Love. “There is a whole network of people working in the background and they won’t stop until they get your money.”
