In the early days of the internet I was always surprised when people came up with interesting aliases. I was impressed that they took the time and care to create a unique username.
Flip that coin. Now we see the dark side of handle creation. Not only are people attempting to hide their true identities, their goal is to scam you in any way possible. And we see this clearly on Snapchat.
I get quite a few friend requests there. And judging from my interactions with some, it’s like a giant funnel filled with scammers dripping down into my account. What amazes me most is the apparent lack of awareness in their self-naming.
First, I do enjoy those who create a name with one boy-name and one girl-name. Like “Carl Joan.” There is a female avatar, and so you wonder why her name is Carl but her defense is she went with last name, first name. Similarly, a male avatar could defend the last name as Joan.
And then there are the names that sit above the account name, like this:
Let’s start with Magdalene on line 2. The name that follows is very different, thus causing confusion and consternation.
Georgina’s real name appears to be “donlock.” Certainly not as feminine.
And then there’s Christina. Real name? Alhassan. Nope, no scam or hidden identity here!
If you do engage with them, you see that they all follow the exact same script: the modern version of A/S/L, or age sex location? and then they send you their picture—which is really a photo of a porn star that you can discover and reverse photo look up—or they invite you to move the conversation to WhatsApp or Telegram (or god forbid, Zangi, whatever the hell that is), and then you know for sure something’s gone wrong.
MUSOFYR 