We're the perfect target for scammers?

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I'm the opposite, in fact. My lack of trust in strangers and even people I know seems to have one benefit at least.

I'm actually very good at avoiding scams. Mainly because I view the world quite scientifically and part of that is that my default position on any claim somebody makes is scepticism. Also, I'm not gonna part with my money unless I was specifically planning on doing so and even then I will thoroughly research before I commit to making any sort of decision.

I agree. I'll add that many of us don't handle compliments/flattery well and scammers use it quite a bit since most people are so susceptible to it. For me, compliments and flattery have always been instant red flags.

If someone approaches me or calls me I'm immediately suspicious. I don't initiate or invite social contact with strangers, so they have no chance.

Jason.

I am seen as easy prey, but i am skepical but can be conned be a smooth talker, so i try to avoid such situations.

I think some aspies are easy targets, and some are very hard.

Depends on exposure to the world, how strong the sense of logic is, the type of scam, etc.

Hard to say. On one hand, I'm right there with the rest of the posters. I'm so distrustful of society and the corporate world as a whole, that I just assume that any deal I see is a scam until proven differently. On the other hand, I'm a terrible judge of people and try to give them benefit of the doubt. I can be taken at my word, so I assume everyone else can as well (I know this is naivete at its highest, but I'd want people to treat me the same way -- only I can actually be trusted). So I guess it comes down to if it's in writing, I can see a scam for what it is, but if I'm being sold in person, I might have a little more trouble.

Awesome quote!

I agree with many others here - how can you get scammed if you don't trust anyone? I can't even trust family and "friends" all that much, let alone some total stranger trying to sell me something.

In fact, I'm pretty sure the scammers can detect some sort of strong invisible shield I've erected around myself that tells them "don't even waste your time trying".

No. As people will point out risky/weird/revcruitinng people and get them banned quickly. Trolls also get wiped out quickly.

There's this guy I know from another forum who started out of nowhere messengine me about into and tried to recruit me into some risky s**t (as in investing in risky s**t and asking for personal information for a "survey" which I think is identity theft in the making). The fact that he used weird appeals (someone mentioned that earlier in this thread) which reminded me of some of the tactics Pick-Up Artists used immediately warned me of any such trickery. The "Are you REALLY my friend" and "I think you wouldn't do X if I mentioned it to you" etc thing gave it away. Badly. The face that we knew each other from a VERY questionable and sketchy forum, and the fact that he used to discuss PUA, NLP and all sorts of s**t on influencing and manipulating people on that forum and its' successor definitely gave it away.

Speaking of ferreting; I detected a PUA IRL due to his social skills and social....stuff. I asked him point-blank "are you a Pick-Up-Artist". He had an awesome surprise look and asked "What do you mean by that?". I said "you help people with social stuff and things like thaT" and he said yes.

Apparently his action backfired on something. Some assistance or counseling. And he stopped

EDIT: The forum guy. I seriously GOOGLED the group he was peddling, saw it was ran or dominated by Russians/Ukrainiane/Belarusians (the names), remember how fun and borderling illicit Russian online "Businesses" are (most of the credit card fraud people? the hackers who get the s**t? Those are still mainly Russian.), remembered the guy was half Russian and from the former USSR, noticed his typing style changed noticeably like he was high or like he was a recent Russian immigrant (he normally didnt type like that from what I remember from the forums or facebook or whatnot). And I went "yeah...-___-". I think it is him because he remembers obscure things about me.............like him playing a trance song dedicated to me on the radio on his university's station.

EDIT 2: Oh yeah. Googling the group turns up a bunch of rumors that it's a scam.

Hmmm...I'm not sure I'd describe myself as being "gullible" and having no sense of danger. As someone with a possible anxiety disorder, I feel as if I have a helluva sense of danger.

Anyway, there was this one time when someone apparently hacked into the email account of a high school friend of mine, and one day I got a desperate email supposedly from my friend saying that her family was abroad in the UK and had been mugged for everything but the shirts on their backs. Apparently, the Embassy and Scotland Yard had simply blown them off, and she had no choice but to email her friends asking for the British equivalent of $2,000 to be wired to her family's hotel.

I read the email twice, went into a panic, and ran upstairs to tell my mom and stepdad that we needed to wire the British equivalent of $2,000 to my friend right away, but they quickly pointed out to me that it was simply a scam (pointed out to me the "bcc" in the sender/receiver box, etc) but I still worried. I did, however, try to call the office at our old high school (it was the summer after graduation) and let them know that my friend's email had been hacked, and to let her know. I also told my dad about the email, and he agreed it sounded like a scammer.

So, like I said before, it's not that I'm gullible and have no sense of danger, it's just that I'm overly anxious and would do basically anything to help the people I care about. If someone had told me years ago that that very concern for those I love would get me into trouble someday, I would have been incredulous. It's insane.

I've also gotten some emails in the past from people in Africa who claim that they have, like, thousands of dollars with my name on it in some secret bank account somewhere (Oh, if only it were true! ), but knowing what I now know, I just delete those.

A few members on WP have fallen for the PM scams that are regularly sent. Despite the warning on the PM screen not to send replies to emails given in PMs from strangers due to them being scams! I guess some members are so lonely that they just can't resist when they get a PM from someone saying "I saw your profile and would like to get to know you blah, blah, blah".

These PM scammers aim to either fill your email inbox with spam or worse attempt to get you into a fake online friendship / romance then ask you for money because they are supposedly having some sort of medical/other financial crisis. I've read about even so called savy millionaire businessmen falling for this sort of scam.

If anyone gets this sort of scam PM please quote it and paste it in the moderator attention thread so we can ban them before any other members fall for the scam. But please be sure to give the WP member name of the scammer so we know who to ban.

These PM scams are often targeted at new WP members.

I always wondered what dire consequenses awaited me if I handed over an email address. Spam isn't really a worry for me........if the service provider doesn't filter it out, I just send everything to trash except for the people I specifically want to hear from. Refusing to give out my email address doesn't stop me getting these messages, not by a long chalk.

Over the years I've been asked for an email address by members a few times here. I don't always comply, but not particularly because of fears of being scammed. If it's a woman, I always think of my personal circumstances at the time, and if I happen to already have a connection with another woman in any way, I'm less likely to agree because in my experience that can get complicated. Where I've complied, there have been no scamming problems at all, and I'm sure that the people concerned were entirely genuine, at least on that level. Nobody ever asked me for money..........that really would set off an alarm.

That's not to say that it's safe for everybody. Like most people here I'm quite intelligent and I don't particularly trust strangers. Anybody who doesn't know what the scams are, or is too trusting with strangers, might be in danger. But me, I wouldn't completely trust anybody, not even in (what looked like) an online relationship.

Oh, wow - thanks for the warning!