I have been following the on-going drama that was the topic of my last full post. In case you didn’t know, LillyAnn and Gabrielle are one of a new breed of scammers, the social network scammer. On the site EveryDotConnects.com, writer Connie Reese lays out what happened from her point of view. Connie lays out, quite well, her drive for wanting to help in what ultimately became a train wreck.
Rather than repost the whole affair, KD Kelly, aka dotlizard lays out the story in a great post here as well as a collection of facts uncovered in the investigation posted here.
In a nutshell, what we are seeing is a concerted effort by bad people to get money away from us without earning it. Worse yet, these are not the “Nigerian” scam artist who promise riches from a dead king/queen/etc, or the sweepstakes you win but have to pay money to get the prize. These scams are targeted directly at the goodwill of people in an environment where they are trying to open up to people. Social networks are about connecting. These scammers are using this connection to trick us into thinking with our hearts instead of our heads. The end result is we become a bit thicker skinned. We start questioning everyone and demanding proof where we needed none before.
The saddest thing I can see coming from this is a social network grinding to a halt because we are afraid we are going to be scammed or tricked. It figures that the first big post I make in months turns out to be describing a scam in progress. I still cling to the real truth uncovered in this mess. People still care about their fellow man and are willing to help. I just hope this event doesn’t hurt the next person who really does need help to much.
1 Comment
July 27, 2008 at 2:09 am
thank you for understanding the message behind my post, which is that there really are people who need help, and what we need to do is exercise due diligence in making sure we are not being scammed, rather than stop helping entirely.
anyone with a real need will hopefully understand our caution and provide whatever verification they can, to reassure us. this benefits the people in need as much as it benefits us, in that our basic goodness is not compromised and we are still able to help.
the worst thing that happened was that nobody said anything for several days, and some damage was done in that time. afterward, so many people said, “it didn’t sound right but i didn’t want to say anything”. we have to say things.
thanks for this post, very insightful analysis of the situation.