Wouldn’t you like to get a glimpse of The Scammer’s Handbook? Well, now you can!
All you need to do is look at any scam/spam email and you see a part of what they must circulate (I imagine a 3” 3-ring binder) in order to try to entrap their victims. The amazing part for me is that I have been seeing the same phrases over and over again.
Okay, to be fair, just the other day I was speaking about how StoryZ might provide a new workshop: Improv for Roleplaying Games. And it would essentially be a repackaging of the Improv Workshop we recently did, though much of it might be done sitting down (around a table, like a Dungeons and Dragons game) while still utilizing the same principles and some of the same games.
And this reminds me that my Intro to Theatre class was essentially a performance of the script I had created over the years, and each class was a repeat/replay of the last time I spoke on that topic. This seemed fine, since having a new audience means you can tell the same stories again; the new people just won’t have heard them before. (Unless they failed the class and were re-taking it.) For the second class meeting in both Intro to Theatre Parts I and II, I presented Basic Terms of Theatre—because, when you start a new discipline or area of study, you need to have an agreed-upon vocabulary to talk about that area. For that presentation, I had a very organized set of stories, examples, and jokes that I repeated every semester. Anyone who had Part I or II and was now taking Part II or I was exempt from that class since they would be hearing everything almost exactly the same.
As for the scammers, they seem to assume their target is a new audience. But don’t get me wrong: I really don’t want them to change, because it might make it harder for some people to realize it’s a scam. At the same time, the predictability of some of it is a bit staggering, like Republican talking points in media interviews (“open borders!” “tax and spend!” “baby killers!”). Let’s look at some of those scammer phrases.
- “Age is just a number.” “She” says she’s 29/39/whatever, and I’m much older but it doesn’t matter to “her.” How nice!
- “How long have you been on this site and what are you looking for?” A good opener, this. I also once saw, “How long have you been on this internet?” Um, this internet? Is there another one?
- “How many other ladies are you chatting to?” This is a way to eliminate the other scammers from your chatlist and make “her” the sole object of your attention and affections.
There are many more, and doubtless you’ve seen some. And then of course there are the phishing expeditions that attempt to get you to click on the link. Do not click on the link! It’s not really Norton Utilities. Sirius XM, or any other service you don’t have that’s expired.
Now excuse me, I have to run—there’s a package at the u*P*s wa%reh$ou&se that’s undeliverable, and I guess I need to go pick it up? I’m also hoping my settlement check for Camp LeJeune comes today!
MUSOFYR 