Bizarre Grindr Scam

Then this text...

You don't have to go to Russia to find bad grammar, OP.

Then this text...

And finally this text with this weird photo.

That's when I stopped responding.

Nobody's clicking on your empty green outlined boxes.

I did and they are indeed weird. Stay away OP.

Nothing says "safe" like divulging credit and other personal information on a Panamanian website on which you attest to be seeking anonymous gay sex. Girl, no.

SPAM...DUH!

FFS why would you have even begun to respond? Completely stupid.

It said he's only 5000 feet away, R9.

How can spammers and scammers do that from another country?

I wonder if the poor blond guy knows that he's being used as bait?

FAKE GPS!

One of my friends in India fell for a scam from a guy he met on Grindr. It ended up costing him 7K dollars. All money he couldn't afford to be without. The scammer did move his location to New Delhi so my friend thought the guy was right there. I can't believe how naive he was but it is still sad.

Weird.

R12 Why would your friend give $7,000 to some stranger on Grindr?

My Indian friend was a complete idiot. The sammer convinced him there was a check for 10K that he needed to cash and my friend would get a big part of it if he gave him 7K. All so crazy I know.

Tell them you’ll wire them $10,000 if they send you a face selfie with them holding a spoon. That Stops them.

I wouldn't worry about "the blond guy" but rather "all the blond guys" because there's at least four different dudes in those photos.

I like how the scammer used a masked photo to make you think he's conscientious.

Why don't you send him your Social Security number. Then he will come over and love you forever...

Yeah that's not terribly surprising, these types of scams happen on lots of apps and Facebook groups. I have experience with them from when I used to moderate a FB group. They would set up a fake profile using photos stolen of a 'boy next door' trust worthy looking type and they would send DMs to our members engaging in chit chat and then try to get them to sign up to something or to communicate on telegram. Some scammers targeted male members with a fake profile of a half naked women who apparently knew a lot about horse racing and wanted to give them tips (lol) for a fee! So many of our members got scammed when you'd think they'd smell a rat but there are a lot of educated idiots out there!

I don't use these apps. Is spoofing location a common practice?

Yeah, I've seen this spam quite a few times before. Just report and block, that's what I do.

I am getting approached by scammers nonstop on Words With friends these day. The scammer usually has a picture of a very large breasted young woman. They start off with a friendly chat and then ask for your Whatsapp number. I have never giving them the number so not sure what would follow.

Anything electronic is these days R21. Spam is a fucking curse.

If you look at the pics OP has posted - there are actually 4 different blond guys. Two of the pics are of the same guy - the rest are 3 separate guys.

[quote] Spam is a fucking curse.

Totally agree with you, R24.

It is the WORST thing about the internet.

Why can't anything be done about this bullshit?

r25 What can be done about it --and robocalls, telemarketers, infomercials, etc.-- would be for people to stop falling for these scams. They only continue to do it because it's profitable. I tell people -- do not EVER answer the phone unless you know who's calling. Period. There's absolutely no reason to nowadays.

OP, GET OUT! The texts are coming from inside the house!!!

My mom died of COVID last year and she left me a small inheritance; my goal is to not touch it and try to let it build so that I have a small nest egg in MY old age.

I can't help but think that if there were no COVID I'd be out there trying to numb my grief and wasting the money and I'm a prime target for some scam.

Of course, if there'd been no COVID my mom might be alive.

There are location-spoofing tools for iOS and Android. Usually it's South Asians and South Americans, in my (limited) experience, on Grindr.

Who needs long distance scammers? The boys in Switzerland are real and in town and they attempt to scam mature guys all the time. Some even know who you are. And some of my mature friends get taken, let them into their lives for a day for a month or months, and get taken. It even turns violent. People are dumb. I don't get it. I think its old men who just can't deal with the options have have for sex. 1) pay a known local prostitute who's been around awhile and will not scam you - just fuck you for cash 2) try to find another eldergay for a fuckbuddy or lover, and make do 3) self love or 4) give up sex. Hope springs eternal and they get scammed. So delusion. Because the reality isn't great, if you don't want to give up sex. It's not easy. There is no solution.

OP, I had the exact same experience with a bot on Grindr last summer. Similar situation, pics of some young, attractive dude who ws very close distance-wise. The grammar and sentence flow was very "foreign"-sounding. Then the bot sent out the weird safety spiel and the link to a website, along with a pic of some smashed up face. I could tell it was a scam almost immediately (there's no attractive young model guys in my remote rural area). I mainly continued chatting to just see where it all went. I find it strange that anyone would fall prey to these, as they stand out like a wolf in a pig pen. But I suppose someone new to Grindr, and social media generally, may not fully comprehend how odd it comes across. Glad you weren't scammed.

R23 I recently re-downloded Words with Friends. I too noticed the thing is littered with bots. I got game invites from all these players with pics of young, scantily-clad girls. Initially, I didn't think anything of it (didn't even really notice the pictures at first) and started playing with them. Then they tarted hitting me up via the chat function that's available during your game with them. It was truly odd, as WwF seems like an awkward platform on which to scam people. But I suppose they take whatever they can get. With that said, I feel like Grindr has had less bots over the last several months. Doubt it has anything to do with Grindr's security, and more to do with scammers not having any luck nowadays.

r28 also they could be using something like Bluestacks a mobile emulator which has a built in GPS emulator

[quote] [R28] also they could be using something like Bluestacks a mobile emulator which has a built in GPS emulator

Why isn't Grindr cracking down on these bullshit scams?

Oh, I forgot.

China (who owns Grindr) is SCAM CENTRAL.

They probably encourage it.

China doesn't own Grindr anymore, they had to sell it. That's why it rid itself of the race filter, the Chinese don't care about being woke but the current, American, owners do. Bad move, a lot of black people who are uncomfortable around white people now may not find other black gays because of that.