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Watch out for predators
Replies
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I’m considering starting a running post on my profile with scammers profile names and screenshots of their chats. Anyone feel like contributing?
It’s getting really old.3 -
@Heidijjo You sent me a friend req this week. Since I don't do the friends thing here with anyone, I sent a PM politely declining, as I typically do. I'm just checking that you actually received that? I recall some talk earlier here that messages don't get received except by friends, something like that.3
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chris_in_cal wrote: »
Like clockwork.chris_in_cal wrote: »I don't want to be constantly pursued here by a user who comments on nearly everything I write.
You can Block them in the DM function, unfriend them after blocking them, set them to "Ignore" in the Community. That may not be all of the effects you might hope for, but it seems like it's some of them.
Doing that stuff without reporting their bad behavior to MFP just leaves them free to bother other users.
LOL.chris_in_cal wrote: »For instance if some MFP user constantly is a 'reply guy' to nearly every post, a good social media platform would allow me to simply block them, and mute any replies.
. . . even better and making all of us more safe would just be a simple button that allowed me to mute another account.
Nothing more onerous than just clicking a button.
You can . . . set them to "Ignore" in the Community.
That's your "Mute" button for replies. Use it.I’m considering starting a running post on my profile with scammers profile names and screenshots of their chats. Anyone feel like contributing?
It’s getting really old.
I hear what you're saying, and understand why you might want to do that.
If you do, make sure nothing visible to others on MFP, or anything you post, will let people find and harass you in the rest of your life: No real name, no location, no IG or FB references, etc., etc. See if your profile photo brings up anything personal if someone does an image search on the web. These aren't necessarily only solo skeezy guys who'll drop their bad habit here if outed. Most? Sure. But I wouldn't count on all of them being that.
In addition, I'd suggest taking a look at the MFP Community Guidelines. Doing something like what you suggest is at least skating on the edge of some of the rules, and violating those rules can get your ID restricted from the Community or deleted from MFP, just as is done to the creeps who get reported. I wouldn't want that to happen to you.
Please be careful. This is a noble impulse, but there are risks.
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chris_in_cal wrote: »
Like clockwork.chris_in_cal wrote: »I don't want to be constantly pursued here by a user who comments on nearly everything I write.
You can Block them in the DM function, unfriend them after blocking them, set them to "Ignore" in the Community. That may not be all of the effects you might hope for, but it seems like it's some of them.
Doing that stuff without reporting their bad behavior to MFP just leaves them free to bother other users.
LOL.chris_in_cal wrote: »For instance if some MFP user constantly is a 'reply guy' to nearly every post, a good social media platform would allow me to simply block them, and mute any replies.
. . . even better and making all of us more safe would just be a simple button that allowed me to mute another account.
Nothing more onerous than just clicking a button.
You can . . . set them to "Ignore" in the Community.
That's your "Mute" button for replies. Use it.I’m considering starting a running post on my profile with scammers profile names and screenshots of their chats. Anyone feel like contributing?
It’s getting really old.
I hear what you're saying, and understand why you might want to do that.
If you do, make sure nothing visible to others on MFP, or anything you post, will let people find and harass you in the rest of your life: No real name, no location, no IG or FB references, etc., etc. See if your profile photo brings up anything personal if someone does an image search on the web. These aren't necessarily only solo skeezy guys who'll drop their bad habit here if outed. Most? Sure. But I wouldn't count on all of them being that.
In addition, I'd suggest taking a look at the MFP Community Guidelines. Doing something like what you suggest is at least skating on the edge of some of the rules, and violating those rules can get your ID restricted from the Community or deleted from MFP, just as is done to the creeps who get reported. I wouldn't want that to happen to you.
Please be careful. This is a noble impulse, but there are risks.
All of this, and honestly, it seems like a waste of energy. The scammers won't care, they're not here on the forums, they're just flicking out invites and hoping something sticks. Personally I'm just going to stick with not accepting any requests unless I know whop its coming from (and even then, I'm probably going to accept, but then not interact outside the forums for the reasons previously mentioned).2 -
@AnnPT77 I was just looking at the MFP Community Guidelines. I haven't finished reading it all, so I may have more questions.
I'm fairly new to social media and I don't want to seem ignorant. But, what is trolling? One of the rules says, "I will report trolls instead of engaging them." Since I don't know what a troll is, how would I know that they are a troll to be able to report them?
Thanks for your help!2 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »@Heidijjo You sent me a friend req this week. Since I don't do the friends thing here with anyone, I sent a PM politely declining, as I typically do. I'm just checking that you actually received that? I recall some talk earlier here that messages don't get received except by friends, something like that.
No. I’m sorry. I didn’t get a message. But it’s not an issue. I added several people who wanted accountability buddies. I think you may have been in that thread.0 -
SurferGirl1982 wrote: »@AnnPT77 I was just looking at the MFP Community Guidelines. I haven't finished reading it all, so I may have more questions.
I'm fairly new to social media and I don't want to seem ignorant. But, what is trolling? One of the rules says, "I will report trolls instead of engaging them." Since I don't know what a troll is, how would I know that they are a troll to be able to report them?
Thanks for your help!
The definition is a little squishy, as with so many terms, but basically it's intentionally posting controversial or stupid-seeming or mean things to bait other people into replying. Insincere posts intentionally baiting others into making an emotional or argumentative response, pretty much.
E.T.A. If someone's being creepy right out here in public on a Community forum post, trolling or not, it's always fine to use "Flag/report" and say why you think the post is inappropriate. The moderators will take a look at the post (after a bit of a delay, but usually within few hours to a day IME), and delete the post if they feel it goes against the Community guideliness.
That's different from the creepy DMs, which would need to be reported through the Help function or to an MFP staff person or something like that, IMU.0 -
SurferGirl1982 wrote: »@AnnPT77 I was just looking at the MFP Community Guidelines. I haven't finished reading it all, so I may have more questions.
I'm fairly new to social media and I don't want to seem ignorant. But, what is trolling? One of the rules says, "I will report trolls instead of engaging them." Since I don't know what a troll is, how would I know that they are a troll to be able to report them?
Thanks for your help!
The definition is a little squishy, as with so many terms, but basically it's intentionally posting controversial or stupid-seeming or mean things to bait other people into replying. Insincere posts intentionally baiting others into making an emotional or argumentative response, pretty much.
OK..I think I understand. Thank you!
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chris_in_cal wrote: »
Like clockwork.chris_in_cal wrote: »I don't want to be constantly pursued here by a user who comments on nearly everything I write.
You can Block them in the DM function, unfriend them after blocking them, set them to "Ignore" in the Community. That may not be all of the effects you might hope for, but it seems like it's some of them.
Doing that stuff without reporting their bad behavior to MFP just leaves them free to bother other users.
LOL.chris_in_cal wrote: »For instance if some MFP user constantly is a 'reply guy' to nearly every post, a good social media platform would allow me to simply block them, and mute any replies.
. . . even better and making all of us more safe would just be a simple button that allowed me to mute another account.
Nothing more onerous than just clicking a button.
You can . . . set them to "Ignore" in the Community.
That's your "Mute" button for replies. Use it.I’m considering starting a running post on my profile with scammers profile names and screenshots of their chats. Anyone feel like contributing?
It’s getting really old.
I hear what you're saying, and understand why you might want to do that.
If you do, make sure nothing visible to others on MFP, or anything you post, will let people find and harass you in the rest of your life: No real name, no location, no IG or FB references, etc., etc. See if your profile photo brings up anything personal if someone does an image search on the web. These aren't necessarily only solo skeezy guys who'll drop their bad habit here if outed. Most? Sure. But I wouldn't count on all of them being that.
In addition, I'd suggest taking a look at the MFP Community Guidelines. Doing something like what you suggest is at least skating on the edge of some of the rules, and violating those rules can get your ID restricted from the Community or deleted from MFP, just as is done to the creeps who get reported. I wouldn't want that to happen to you.
Please be careful. This is a noble impulse, but there are risks.
Thank you for your sound advice.
It’s always the same thing. They friend request me, ask what devices I’m using and share a sob story about theirs. Am I married or single? Do I have kids? Where exactly am I from, specifically what city. Almost always in the military away from home.
When I start firing questions back, they unfriend. 🤣 They get defensive when you question them. I had one guy say, “But that’s not what I asked you.” 😆😂 Poor thing.
If I just quit responding at first flag, they just sit there quietly. Watching…………
🥸🤡🥸
That being said, I’ve run into some great accountability buddies and some new peloton riders. So all is not negative.
Not sure where to report their usernames to, but I have a list. I’ll figure it out. 🫶🏻
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SurferGirl1982 wrote: »SurferGirl1982 wrote: »@AnnPT77 I was just looking at the MFP Community Guidelines. I haven't finished reading it all, so I may have more questions.
I'm fairly new to social media and I don't want to seem ignorant. But, what is trolling? One of the rules says, "I will report trolls instead of engaging them." Since I don't know what a troll is, how would I know that they are a troll to be able to report them?
Thanks for your help!
The definition is a little squishy, as with so many terms, but basically it's intentionally posting controversial or stupid-seeming or mean things to bait other people into replying. Insincere posts intentionally baiting others into making an emotional or argumentative response, pretty much.
OK..I think I understand. Thank you!
It doesn't happen as often anymore but years ago, it wouldn't be uncommon for some jerk, probably a kid, to join the forum and to go around the threads insulting people and throwing out fat jokes etc. That kind of behaviour was the original 'trolling', it's basically posting with the intention to get a rise out of people.1 -
chris_in_cal wrote: »
Like clockwork.chris_in_cal wrote: »I don't want to be constantly pursued here by a user who comments on nearly everything I write.
You can Block them in the DM function, unfriend them after blocking them, set them to "Ignore" in the Community. That may not be all of the effects you might hope for, but it seems like it's some of them.
Doing that stuff without reporting their bad behavior to MFP just leaves them free to bother other users.
LOL.chris_in_cal wrote: »For instance if some MFP user constantly is a 'reply guy' to nearly every post, a good social media platform would allow me to simply block them, and mute any replies.
. . . even better and making all of us more safe would just be a simple button that allowed me to mute another account.
Nothing more onerous than just clicking a button.
You can . . . set them to "Ignore" in the Community.
That's your "Mute" button for replies. Use it.I’m considering starting a running post on my profile with scammers profile names and screenshots of their chats. Anyone feel like contributing?
It’s getting really old.
I hear what you're saying, and understand why you might want to do that.
If you do, make sure nothing visible to others on MFP, or anything you post, will let people find and harass you in the rest of your life: No real name, no location, no IG or FB references, etc., etc. See if your profile photo brings up anything personal if someone does an image search on the web. These aren't necessarily only solo skeezy guys who'll drop their bad habit here if outed. Most? Sure. But I wouldn't count on all of them being that.
In addition, I'd suggest taking a look at the MFP Community Guidelines. Doing something like what you suggest is at least skating on the edge of some of the rules, and violating those rules can get your ID restricted from the Community or deleted from MFP, just as is done to the creeps who get reported. I wouldn't want that to happen to you.
Please be careful. This is a noble impulse, but there are risks.
Thank you for your sound advice.
It’s always the same thing. They friend request me, ask what devices I’m using and share a sob story about theirs. Am I married or single? Do I have kids? Where exactly am I from, specifically what city. Almost always in the military away from home.
When I start firing questions back, they unfriend. 🤣 They get defensive when you question them. I had one guy say, “But that’s not what I asked you.” 😆😂 Poor thing.
If I just quit responding at first flag, they just sit there quietly. Watching…………
🥸🤡🥸
That being said, I’ve run into some great accountability buddies and some new peloton riders. So all is not negative.
Not sure where to report their usernames to, but I have a list. I’ll figure it out. 🫶🏻
Some ways to report would be to email the support address (support@myfitnesspal.com), use the "Submit A Request" thing under "Help", or DM the MFP staff. (You can DM MFP staff without being MFP friends with them.)
There's a form that used to work for this sort of thing, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeMXsYdgi8RHydw1Qn-yJCgbygOCL7LUPWbeS6iynnax1I3YA/viewform , but I'm not sure whether that's actively being monitored at this point.
Any of those routes, it would be helpful to explain what's inappropriate, kind of like you did in your post above, rather than just listing the IDs.2 -
Just use common sense people. If the initial interactions are sketchy, chances are future interactions will be as well. Nobody needs to use a covert app to communicate when they can do so here, or via a "gasp" actual phone conversation if someone was comfortable enough.
Scammers are nothing new, and it's not just men. And we can't stereotype that all military men, men with cats, etc, etc are scammers.
As a former military man with a dog that would put cats to shame, I now feel like I'm less trusted.
For those that do want more open communication than MFP has without using other communication means, consider starting a group of friends where you can all check in with each other, motivate, etc... but without someone wanting a third party app ID or something of that nature.2 -
robertw486 wrote: »Just use common sense people. If the initial interactions are sketchy, chances are future interactions will be as well. Nobody needs to use a covert app to communicate when they can do so here, or via a "gasp" actual phone conversation if someone was comfortable enough.
Scammers are nothing new, and it's not just men. And we can't stereotype that all military men, men with cats, etc, etc are scammers.
As a former military man with a dog that would put cats to shame, I now feel like I'm less trusted.
For those that do want more open communication than MFP has without using other communication means, consider starting a group of friends where you can all check in with each other, motivate, etc... but without someone wanting a third party app ID or something of that nature.
@robertw486, to be clear, and I hope all are clear: To say that many romance scammers who target women are pretending to be military men or doctors with photos of dogs/cats is NOT the same thing as saying all military men who have dogs/cats (most of them real and decent humans) are scammers.
I wish I could show you the profiles of the obvious romance-scam FRs I've gotten on Facebook, literally dozens in total. It's simply a fact that there's a very high proportion of "military men" (yeah, right) and "doctors" (equally implausible) and sometimes even "military doctors", often with photos that include adorable dogs/cats. High incidence that they "live abroad", too.
A bunch of the repeat FR scammers here have had the pattern of supposedly-handsome men with either young children or cute pets, claiming to be (oh-so-sad) widowers just looking for companionship. In some cases, image search has turned up whose photo it really is, and it's not someone with the claimed name.
If there's a stereotype here, it's the scammers who are doing the stereotyping, not the people who observe the scammers' repetitive patterns.
Here on MFP, you have a long track record as a good guy. You're far from the only one. Most guys here IME are good guys. I won't speak for others, but back when there was a point to FRs here, I accepted many from men, after checking out various aspects of the ID. I still accept some, even though I don't see the point. (I'm sure I made some mistakes in both directions, BTW.)
I understand why you might feel stereotyped, truly. I'd encourage you to be outraged at the scammers about that, because they exploit things that in real and decent guys like you are signals of empathy and integrity, such as military service, affection for animals, love of their children. They're unconscionable. Their exploitation of your integrity is what has made some women fearful.
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robertw486 wrote: »Just use common sense people. If the initial interactions are sketchy, chances are future interactions will be as well. Nobody needs to use a covert app to communicate when they can do so here, or via a "gasp" actual phone conversation if someone was comfortable enough.
Scammers are nothing new, and it's not just men. And we can't stereotype that all military men, men with cats, etc, etc are scammers.
As a former military man with a dog that would put cats to shame, I now feel like I'm less trusted.
For those that do want more open communication than MFP has without using other communication means, consider starting a group of friends where you can all check in with each other, motivate, etc... but without someone wanting a third party app ID or something of that nature.
There’s a reason why men pushed back against the Me Too movement with the hashtag “not all men”. And then women pushed back with “but always men”.
I am going to second @AnnPT77 above; a lot of the fake requests we (as women - can’t speak for men) receive, pretend to be forces, doctors or dentists. I’ve also had some “engineers”. The scammers choose them because society celebrates the men who give themselves to service, in protection roles or in saving roles, or in roles which are financially well rewarded. They hope this gets over the first hurdle of suspicion so that they can start to gather information.
I’m sorry, as Ann said, if you feel stereotyped, but absolutely get angry at the people who have the nerve to take your credentials and use them to scam others.
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@robertw486 please don’t take this the wrong way. You don’t see what we see on the female end of this.
If I got a friend request from a nice looking fellow like yourself, I’d immediately be “yeah , right”.
But then, I’d look at your posting history and be like “Yeah! Right!!!” That’s what’s the ultimate decider for me.
Any male these days, or any user with no profile pic gets the same analysis. Prove to me you’re an invested member. Don’t be the guy who joined four hours or four days ago, and already has 70+ friends.
In any event, I’ve only had one legit friend request in months, from someone here on the boards who asked if they could, for advice, and subsequently did so. Never heard a single peep from them.
And finally, friends groups are no longer a thing here. MFP killed that last June. There’s no easy way to keep up or share updates other than here on the boards.
I joined several groups when newsfeed disappeared in June. Most died within the week.
I’m a member of a 100 day challenge here, but OMG it’s a PiTA to keep up with. No set protocol for how to post updates and it’s a cluster. I’m going to stick it out to the very end, but won’t be rejoining. Very little personal interaction and if there is, it’s lost in these massive copy + paste posts updating every day.
These threads are the best communication, but feels like so few participants. 😢
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I'm a member of the 200+ Ladies thread. It gets renewed every month. It's for 200+ ladies or those who used to be 200 lbs and upwards who are in the process of aiming for their goal weight. It's a relatively small group but a lively group.
I agree with everything that's been said here about the predators/scammers. I wish there was a way to weed them out.0 -
@robertw486 Please don't be offended that it seems that men are being isolated. I checked your profile and you've been around awhile. I want to apologize for any distrust that you feel. There are many great guys on MFP.
It's just the scammers will steal photos from other sites...many with men in uniform or holding cute pets. And, usually, it says they joined just hours or days before. Also, it could even be a woman who stole the photo and is the one that's posting.
I don't get many friend requests. But when I do, if it's not someone that I've been communicating with in one of the discussions that I'm involved with, I just decline the FR.
BTW...My husband was in the Navy. And, thank you for your service!2 -
I’m a sucker for pets, and someone on here started off asking me questions about training etc. all sounded fine, normal. Then he said he had cats and offered to send a photo. I unthinkingly agreed. I mean, the cats were in the shot. So was his bottom half, if you see what I mean.3
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claireychn074 wrote: »I’m a sucker for pets, and someone on here started off asking me questions about training etc. all sounded fine, normal. Then he said he had cats and offered to send a photo. I unthinkingly agreed. I mean, the cats were in the shot. So was his bottom half, if you see what I mean.
Yuck, how gross! I hope you reported him!
What are guys thinking when they do stuff like that? I suppose it's like a "flasher" mentality.3 -
I'm a member of the 200+ Ladies thread. It gets renewed every month. It's for 200+ ladies or those who used to be 200 lbs and upwards who are in the process of aiming for their goal weight. It's a relatively small group but a lively group.
I agree with everything that's been said here about the predators/scammers. I wish there was a way to weed them out.
I believe MFP actually does some technical things behind the scenes to exclude repeat offenders, but there are limited technical tools for doing that, and there are ways for scammers to defeat those measures, such as by using public computers at libraries or the like. The user name can be different, the source computer can be different, the photo can be different.
Some fraction of the scams are essentially organized crime things coming from around the world, and those folks can have technical tools on their end that can make their computers look like a different source from one time to the next.
Honestly, the best tool we have is to aggressively report the scammers and creeps to MFP. They may not be perfect, but as I've said before, my experience has been that they do take these things seriously, and do take action. For sure, they're much better about it than other social networks like Facebook.
To the extent that some of these come from organized scamming outfits, an organized outfit may observe that MFP whacks the scammer posts/DMs/IDs pretty quickly, and stop targeting MFP as low-return on effort investment. I do think those romance scams are possibly a smaller percentage here than elsewhere, but with a bigger percentage of solo creeps who essentially want sex chat. Those sex-chat guys may keep trying, dunno; but there may still be hope of getting them to go elsewhere to mine for victims if they keep having IDs deleted.
That's not much, but I think it's the best we've got.
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claireychn074 wrote: »I’m a sucker for pets, and someone on here started off asking me questions about training etc. all sounded fine, normal. Then he said he had cats and offered to send a photo. I unthinkingly agreed. I mean, the cats were in the shot. So was his bottom half, if you see what I mean.
Oh. My. Lord. Any excuse to be an exhibitionist, eh? Although I'd potentially fall for an offer of a corgi puppy pic so no judgement here! [scammer dudes: do NOT FR me and pretend to be corgi owners!]
I've never had any identifying photo on here. It's mostly the alpaca, think I might have had a bicep up for a wee bit. So I do tend to attract less scammers because I'm not obviously female. When I get a FR from a male user, and one who is not familiar to me from the forums (for the record, none of the guys I'd recognize from the message boards have ever FR me), it's an automatic delete.
For some strange reason I hadn't even been active on the boards for quite a while and got bombarded with requests from handsome new male users. I'm guessing they spammed absolutely everybody. Nice try4 -
@ythannah
Welcome back!!!!!2 -
robertw486 wrote: »Just use common sense people. If the initial interactions are sketchy, chances are future interactions will be as well. Nobody needs to use a covert app to communicate when they can do so here, or via a "gasp" actual phone conversation if someone was comfortable enough.
Scammers are nothing new, and it's not just men. And we can't stereotype that all military men, men with cats, etc, etc are scammers.
As a former military man with a dog that would put cats to shame, I now feel like I'm less trusted.
For those that do want more open communication than MFP has without using other communication means, consider starting a group of friends where you can all check in with each other, motivate, etc... but without someone wanting a third party app ID or something of that nature.
In regards to my comment about military men… I simply provided an example of the carbon copy sob story I’ve been given before they ask us to send money. They claim to be from the states, claim to be stranded in some military situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Etc, and they need help. It is obvious garbage and so similar in wording that it could be copied and pasted from conversation to conversation. The only thing that changes is the profile it comes from.
So, that being said, no one here is trying to insult, instill distrust or stereotype. We are simply sharing our experiences with the scammers we’ve encountered in hopes that someone might read it and it will save them the trouble. I hope that clears it up.2 -
In regards to my comment about military men… I simply provided an example of the carbon copy sob story I’ve been given before they ask us to send money. They claim to be from the states, claim to be stranded in some military situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Etc, and they need help. It is obvious garbage and so similar in wording that it could be copied and pasted from conversation to conversation. The only thing that changes is the profile it comes from.
This may sound boring, but my husband and I binge watch reruns of the Dr Phil show on OWN network in the mornings while drinking our coffee. We didn't watch the show when the episodes were new. But he has had many guests that are being catfished (men and women). These people send thousands of dollars because the cat fishers are telling them they stuck someplace and need money to get back to the states. The guests seem so naive. But it happens all the time. Dr Phil pointed out that the scammers use the exact same wording that was used in other scamming situations when corresponding to their victims. I think there is actually a website where the scammers just copy and paste the baloney they write to there victims. We've watch shows where the victims are usually older, widowed, and lonely and send them their life savings.
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SurferGirl1982 wrote: »In regards to my comment about military men… I simply provided an example of the carbon copy sob story I’ve been given before they ask us to send money. They claim to be from the states, claim to be stranded in some military situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Etc, and they need help. It is obvious garbage and so similar in wording that it could be copied and pasted from conversation to conversation. The only thing that changes is the profile it comes from.
This may sound boring, but my husband and I binge watch reruns of the Dr Phil show on OWN network in the mornings while drinking our coffee. We didn't watch the show when the episodes were new. But he has had many guests that are being catfished (men and women). These people send thousands of dollars because the cat fishers are telling them they stuck someplace and need money to get back to the states. The guests seem so naive. But it happens all the time. Dr Phil pointed out that the scammers use the exact same wording that was used in other scamming situations when corresponding to their victims. I think there is actually a website where the scammers just copy and paste the baloney they write to there victims. We've watch shows where the victims are usually older, widowed, and lonely and send them their life savings.
I’m not even a little surprised. I don’t watch much television, but I imagine there is a lot of information out there. Very sad for those who are kind hearted and trusting, being taken advantage of.2 -
Ladies, ladies, ladies. Now I actually do feel a bit bad. Because my comment on feeling stereotyped was mostly tongue in cheek, and they don't have a good crying laughing emoji.
And I'm sure it's more men than women, but you would be surprised how many of those creepy interactions happen with women as well.
BUT I do think everyone stereotypes to some extent, and it's somewhat human nature. Almost every female that has posted in this thread has shown they know that many guys can be creepy online. So that loops back to my common sense statement. If you know it happens quite often, just use more caution with those interactions. There is no reason to use anything other than public communications means unless you already know and trust someone to a level that assures you they are not just another creepy guy.
If I want to see @claireychn074 s lats look like, I can ask her to post a photo in a forum thread and send me a link. In turn I can send a photo of my dog the same way, or on a public photo sharing site off of MFP. At least that way if someone does something creepy they will be exposed to all and likely banned.
Be cautious and protect the alternative means these idiots use to do the creepy stuff.4 -
I currently have a fresh friend request from a recently joined person with a profile picture of a middle aged man wearing doctor-like clothing etc. I'm trying to decide if I'm bored enough to mess with him. I'm pretty tired, so maybe I'll just decline.1
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robertw486 wrote: »Ladies, ladies, ladies. Now I actually do feel a bit bad. Because my comment on feeling stereotyped was mostly tongue in cheek, and they don't have a good crying laughing emoji. And I'm sure it's more men than women, but you would be surprised how many of those creepy interactions happen with women as well.
BUT I do think everyone stereotypes to some extent, and it's somewhat human nature. Almost every female that has posted in this thread has shown they know that many guys can be creepy online. So that loops back to my common sense statement. If you know it happens quite often, just use more caution with those interactions. There is no reason to use anything other than public communications means unless you already know and trust someone to a level that assures you they are not just another creepy guy.
If I want to see @claireychn074 s lats look like, I can ask her to post a photo in a forum thread and send me a link. In turn I can send a photo of my dog the same way, or on a public photo sharing site off of MFP. At least that way if someone does something creepy they will be exposed to all and likely banned.
Be cautious and protect the alternative means these idiots use to do the creepy stuff.
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robertw486 wrote: »At least that way if someone does something creepy they will be exposed to all and likely banned….
MFP went through a period a while back with a bunch of new female users sporting Penthouse XXX level profile pics, trying to friend anyone and everyone.
They were creating new users faster than mods could take them down.
They said it was a bot attack. I just felt sad. Having done limited travel in rural Eastern Europe, I recognized the style of bus stops (yep, women taking lewd images at the bus shelter) and other localisms in the backgrounds that pegged some of them to that area. I felt really sorry for them, having to resort to that. I sincerely doubted they were brought up like that. I actually used to look at one of a gal spread eagled on a bus stop bench and wonder why life had taken her from the (probably) farm to there, and worry what would happen to her.
Anyways, that’s why we can no longer PM people who have not already accepted us as friends. And if I remember right, we could share photos via PM until then, and that got taken away, too.
Sad, but necessary.
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Ah yes, the great bot attack. I remember it well. As a matter of fact, I just recently deleted some Word files I had used to copy/paste names to report as I went down the rabbit hole helping attempt to kill them all off. And just the other day saw one of the less exposing photos that is the byproduct of someone not deleting them as friends, some of the thumbnails still exist.3
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