FYI: Beware of scammers & fakes

IMYarnCraz33

Ladies (and maybe Gents)...
It has come to my attention just recently that there are people here on MFP who are claiming to be someone/something they are not.
I have not used the community section of this app in a long time, but recently started using it again.
A recent friend request I received was from someone claiming to be military personnel. Oddly enough the information and rank they said they were is not correct. They combined things from two different military branches.
Please be careful out there. I see this sort of thing all over the internet: apps, games, social media...
As someone who grew up in a military family, this crap infuriates me to the hilt.

To all scammers & fakes: You reap what you sow. So don't be surprised when karma comes knocking.

mjglantz

I wondered about that. Long time member of MFP and recently getting friend requests from guys that I don't know and then got some creepy emails. Unfriended them and now ask how I know a person before I friend them.

goal06082021

There's always a handful of dishonest people out to make a dishonest buck in basically any community space, be it meat or cyber. I would have named and shamed them for it if I were going to go to all the trouble to make a public callout post, since I'm pretty much over protecting these people. But yeah, this is not an uncommon scam. Scammer connects with victim in a social group of some kind, develops a relationship with them on false pretenses (usually posing as a vulnerable person - a recent widow/er, a veteran, just old/infirm/lonely, someone down on their luck, some people even fake disabilities, etc), eventually starts asking for money on equally false pretenses, in the best case. (The worst cases tend to involve trafficking with a side of murder.) SSDGM.

IMYarnCraz33

I find the people who pretend to be military typically use the same lines and copy/paste information they find online.
I get this kind of crap on my social media fairly often. This one was different. They mixed what seemed to be 2 ranks, but also info from 2 branches.

*edited by a MFP moderator

Versicolour

IMYarnCraz33 wrote: »

I find the people who pretend to be military typically use the same lines and copy/paste information they find online.
I get this kind of crap on my social media fairly often. This one was different. They mixed what seemed to be 2 ranks, but also info from 2 branches.

You can report them to admin (if you haven't already) and their profiles will be banned. But yes, this is very common. I have been lucky enough to get some really good friends. Sure the bad apple slips through now and afain, but I have a keen narcissist nose and can smell the rot fairly quickly. Plus I have no money for them to scam from me and am in the wrong country for trafficking, rape and murder. At least from them. My country is in the top five worst places in the world for women to live because of the gender based crime numbering in the hundreds per day. But yeah, it has honed my narcissist nose

4legsRbetterthan2

Good Morning All,

Thanks for sharing your concerns. We appreaciate hearing about false members here, but please report to staff members instead of posting names on the forums as it goes against guideline 8 in our community rules.

community guidelines can be found here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10701884/play-nice#latest

An updated list of staff and volunteer moderators is always kept in this thread if you need to contact one of us: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10028709/meet-our-community-team#latest

I already passed along the name of the member discussed here so no further action is needed.

Thanks for your cooperation,
-4legs
MFP volunteer moderator

ythannah

mjglantz wrote: »

I wondered about that. Long time member of MFP and recently getting friend requests from guys that I don't know and then got some creepy emails. Unfriended them and now ask how I know a person before I friend them.

Oddly enough, since I escaped the halfnaked spam bot blitz, I recently started getting the same male friend requests. Since I don't recognize any of them from the forums I didn't accept any of them. I'm too old and cynical to be flattered.