Praise God. . .and text me some money.

                                                   

@الن-ت
10 hours ago
Oh people, we are your sisters, by God  We do not even find a loaf of bread inside the house that would satisfy you, oh nation of Muhammad. People are brothers. Oh God, make your righteous servants subservient to us. Oh God, make your righteous servants subservient to us. My appeal to every Muslim, My message to every Muslim brother or sister, God is witness, our circumstances are harsh and forced me to do this. Please forgive me, my brother, there is still a brotherhood of faith. I ask you for a bag of flour. My brother, we women cannot go out among men. There is still a woman with you, my brother, God has honored you. You are men. We are women. We cannot go out or work like you. My brother, where is the brotherhood of faith in your hearts? We are women. No brotherhood. No mercy, no compassion, no humanity. And give good tidings to the patient. It is the greatest hope in waiting for what We want''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' How many times I called and talked and tried hard but no one responds We are with you My mother ordered us food from the restaurant More Today my mother left crying She said why are you crying mom She said my daughter I ask God to grant me death. She said, “Why, my mother, are you praying against us?” Shesaid, “My daughter, today the restaurant owner left me.” I said, “What happened? What happened to the extra people?” A call My brothers, I swear to God Almighty on the Book of God, I am an orphan girl from Yemen, and with me are my young brothers. I swear to God on the Book of God that my brothers are no longer able to utter a word because of the severity of hunger. My family and I have a house rent of 15 thousand Yemeni riyals per month, and now we owe 45 thousand for 3 months. The owner of the house is one of the people who do not have mercy. By God, my brother comes every day and humiliates us and talks about us and wants to throw us out of the house and into the street because we were not able to pay him the rent until the end of the week. And if we pay him, by God, he throws us out into the street without mercy. I ask you by God and I seek your help by Muhammad, the Messenger of God. My brother, if you are a Muslim and you love good and want to help me, contact me or send me a message or WhatsApp on this number 00967776589266 and ask for my card name and send it and do not delay, by God. May Allah reward you with all good ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' My brother, you are a man. If you see your family hungry, you will dothe impossible to secure it. I am the eldest, but my eyes are clear and my hands are short. I do not have a father like you to forgive my tears and protect me from humiliation and insult. We ask you by Allah, if you are able to help us, do not delay on us. May Allah reward you with،، good. \\\.:]]]]<>]]]==]]&;;&&;&;

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Blogger's note. OK then, maybe I'm being cynical, maybe this person really DOES have all these issues and travails and desperately needs help. But the cry for help came in such a strange form. This comment appeared below a YouTube video about the invention of the microwave oven. These kinds of long, long, impassioned comments never do have any relevance to the actual video, but in this case I thought the obvious scam was so blatant that "somebody" ought to report it. I won't, because I'm still kind of tiptoeing around YouTube and not wanting to get in trouble. But I hope someone does.

What strikes me as particularly low is how all this is couched in religious terms, prevailing upon devout Muslims to "do the right thing" and contact their WhatsApp number for a financial donation ("and do not delay by God"). The problem is that the potential benefactor has never even met the person in question - they might be some snivelly teenager living in their Mom's bedroom, making microwave burritos at midnight (speaking of microwave ovens!). The comment has a spammy feel to it, meaning that it could be posted in 10,000 places, and if even one person bites, it's a success. Since there is such gruesome turmoil in the Middle East, seemingly all the time and into eternity, the plea would grab at the hearts of people who really do care and want to help out of the goodness of their hearts. Such people should never be exploited, but it's always the tender-hearted who are most ruthlessly abused by the indifferent greed of fraudsters who care only about lining their pockets.

                                                             

For a while, until I just couldn't do it any more, I followed a YouTube channel about romance scams, and it was the same dynamics, the same tricks, done by text and email: "Hello lovely! I saw you beautiful smile today and I want to know you better!" Or something similar. I've even received some of these myself, and they're hilarious. I've had a run of them on my Facebook page lately, friendship requests from people with pages that were pretty much empty, and with phony-sounding names and a generic profile picture, like something that comes with a picture frame. These nasty predators concoct stories that one would think no sane person would fall for (my oil rig is on fire and you have to send me $10,000 to put it out! I need $50,000 for an operation or I will die immediately!)

But fall for it they do. When I saw more than one story about women convinced Johnny Depp was in love with them, and even one where a woman was sending lunch money to Elon Musk, I just bailed, I had to. But people "bite", they bite all the time, either out of loneliness or (I came to realize) a sort of vanity. The intial "hi, lovely!" message is always accompanied by a photo of a handsome hunk in swim trunks (or perhaps a military uniform), which the unfortunate recipient is expected to accept as the real person. Almost all of these fraudsters are located in Nigeria, in what amounts to a call centre, organized to bring in maximum profits with minimum effort. 

     

There is a pattern to these things, a scheme, even a language, certain words that seem to trigger a hormonal response all the way across the world. But the hapless ladies who fall for this ruse feel oh, so flattered that this gorgeous young man (military doctor, usually, or something else high-status) would take an interest in her. They lay on the language, the most ubiquitous term being "BABE" "Hi, Babe! How is my lovely love this morning!" Spelling and grammatical errors are overlooked. This "babe" thing doesn't just make these self-doubting women feel like a million bucks because a handsome hunk wants them, it makes it easier for the scammer to keep several (or five or six) victims dancing on a string at the same time. Quite simply, they don't have to remember their names.

So while I sit here trying to figure out just what they meant by "Book of God", I hope and pray (speaking of religion) that nobody falls for this. Dear God, save us we are dying, here's my WhatsApp!