I reported, in a posting in August of last year, that an article in The Wall Street Journal, which I read back in June, convinced me that my habit of picking up coins in the street was not the kind of behavioral abberation that I had more or less assumed that it was. As it turns out, I am not, by any means, the "only one" who has the habit of keeping my eyes open for money left in the street.
Another article, in the same edition of the paper, provided me with evidence that another one of my experiences is also not as unusual as I had thought it might be. Feliz Solomon, who is based in Singapore, and who covers Southeast Asia for The Wall Street Journal, reported on "How an Online Scam Cost a Senior Citizen His Life’s Savings."
Luckily, I have never lost my life's savings, but I am subjected to the scam described on pretty much a daily basis. I was interested to find out that the social media invitations that I rountinely receive are part of a gigantic internet enterprise, run by "Chinese criminal syndicates."
In this scam, young, attractive, usually Asian women seek out older men, attempting to become their online "friend." If and when they attain that social media friendship status, they then beguile these older men into establishing a channel of private conversation (What's App seems to be favored), all the better to enter into what seems to be a genuine romantic relationship, which then ends in a joint plan to make money together so that the elderly victim and the seductive woman can to disappear into what is portrayed as a new and richly satisfying life.
I have never gotten even to step one in this scam, as described (let me just brag a little bit about that), but I have received many "friendship" requests like this. At one point, I was receiving them several times a week. They usually do come from Asian women, always attractive, whose profiles are alluring, and which profiles almost always portray a lifestyle that includes wonderful food and drink, scenic depictions of various romantic locations, golf and sometimes tennis matches, and a profession that relates, in some way, to the world of finance.
Well, dang! You mean that's all not true? It's all a scam?
Well, that seems to be the message of the news story in The Journal. I had kind of figured that out on my own, but it was nice to get this confirmation from a relatively reputable source (though The Wall Street Journal is not what I would call a reputable source of "political" advice).
In case anyone who reads my blog postings might ever be tempted by an alluring woman, online, who suggests some good investments, you've been warned!
And PS: Just to be clear, and to make sure that nobody will count this commentary as sexist, I have seen some evidence that there are males attempting to gain "friendship" status with women, too, pretty much along the same lines as described above, but I, personally, am only hearing from females.
One more good reason to opt into "real life." We have all been warned!
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