Son Being Targeted by Online Fake Person

JohnRinson

Hi

I wonder if anyone here has experience like this and can tell me what is the aim of scammers that have been targeting my 18-year old son? 

He was approached by "a girl" on social media, who lured him into conversations by pretending to be looking for a boyfriend.

It seems she sent him various pictures of herself - a beautiful young teenage girl - though it transpired those were images she'd just copied from elsewhere and were not really her.

I only found out about this after he'd been communicating with them for several weeks and had progressed to having phonecalls, which I happened to overhear one of. 

The voice I heard was clearly not a girl - it was someone speaking to him through an electronic voice changing device of some sort.

On quizzing him about what was going on, he said he'd been texting and calling this "girl" for weeks - sometimes having calls that were lasting for several hours - and messaging all day every day. He said they were planning on meeting up at some point. 

A quick check of this person's social media profiles revealed they were all completely fake and all images were just copied from elsewhere on the web. Very clearly fake to me - though unfortunately not so to him it seems. 

He says they never asked him for any financial details or money in any of these conversations - but did ask his postal address "to send a letter to", so I know they at least have that info on him. But he *says* no other personal or financial details. 

But my concern is this person (or people) have clearly invested a lot of time and energy into this. Many hours of late-night texting sessions and long voice calls. 

No money has been taken / asked for. So although this is clearly a criminal targeting him, I'm struggling to understand what their motivation is and what they might have / intended to get out of it. 

Anyone had anything similar happen? 
Thanks!

PS - this 'person' has now been blocked on all online channels so should no longer be able to reach him.

Manxman_in_exile

I think I'd be contacting the police.  But not because I thought it was a "scam"...

JohnRinson

Manxman_in_exile said:

I think I'd be contacting the police.  But not because I thought it was a "scam"...

I've just edited the original post to make clear he's actually 18-years old, not a child

Manxman_in_exile

Well isn't he old enough to think it a bit odd?

DullGreyGuy

The most two obvious things are:

1) To build a relationship and then have a bleeding heart issue and ask him for money to help pay for her dying mom's medical treatment or to pay off someone blackmailing her or such

2) To get compromising materials and then blackmail him with them 

Option 2 could be done by "professionals" who'll demand monies or in theory could be school mates etc and just sharing them around at school however the level of dedication seems beyond their normal level of concentration/commitment. I know a few lads at uni (back when ICQ etc were still a thing) fell for such pranks but if the attempt lasted more than a couple of hours it was unusual. 

There is the third option that it was genuine, those could have been her pics and the ones you saw elsewhere were the copies. As to a voice transformer? Seems odd you think that but he doesnt... given how good voice generating software is it would be odd to use something that doesnt sound realistic. 

cymruchris

Did your son connect on any social media channel that showed his birthday? (Eg facebook)

Or did she ever say 'hey when's your birthday?'

Full name, address and birthday would go some way to either getting into bank accounts (Oh I've forgotten my password)

Or potentially to fill out new credit applications from a new address as in 'I've just moved - here's my previous address'.

Both are outside possibilities - but worth keeping an eye on his credit reference agency files for searches/applications - and I wouldn't rule anything out at this stage until you're a few months down the line. Keep alert.

user1977

There'll eventually be a request for money.

JohnRinson

DullGreyGuy said:

The most two obvious things are:

1) To build a relationship and then have a bleeding heart issue and ask him for money to help pay for her dying mom's medical treatment or to pay off someone blackmailing her or such

2) To get compromising materials and then blackmail him with them 

Option 2 could be done by "professionals" who'll demand monies or in theory could be school mates etc and just sharing them around at school however the level of dedication seems beyond their normal level of concentration/commitment. I know a few lads at uni (back when ICQ etc were still a thing) fell for such pranks but if the attempt lasted more than a couple of hours it was unusual. 

There is the third option that it was genuine, those could have been her pics and the ones you saw elsewhere were the copies. As to a voice transformer? Seems odd you think that but he doesnt... given how good voice generating software is it would be odd to use something that doesnt sound realistic. 

This is one of the things that worries me too - beyond just what they might be trying to scam out of him - is how can someone fall for something that is so obviously fake. He's a normal, sensible lad with good common sense in every other way. But when I heard that phonecall it was instantly obvious it wasn't right. Even his young sister who overheard the voice too was actually laughing at how ludicrously fake it was. Yet he has sat and had calls lasting for hours with this person, saying he "thought she had a sore throat" and not even raised an eyebrow. Terrifying to think how easily he's been sucked in.

Also, the pictures she sent him were of a semi-famous Youtuber. I did a reverse image search on Google of one of the pics she'd sent him, and instantly found thousands of photos of the (real) girl, so it's definitely not a real person. 

eskbanker

Given your (understandable) caution about potential identity theft, etc, is it safe to assume that you're not posting under your real name on here?

JohnRinson

eskbanker said:

Given your (understandable) caution about potential identity theft, etc, is it safe to assume that you're not posting under your real name on here?

Correct! Thanks 

WhiskersTheWonderCat

Have you confronted him with the photos of this YouTuber?