Over the weekend, I was contacted on Messenger by someone claiming to be one of the celebrities whose page I follow on Facebook. Obviously, the person was not who they were claiming to be, but for the weekend, I entertained myself with the illusion and led on my new mystery acquaintance, pretending to be a naïve fan. They asked plenty of questions, fishing for information that they no doubt meant to put to ill-intentioned use. I kept my answers vague, only mentioning details that are already easily found with a quick Google search. The responses I received to my own questions were always short, vague, and unremarkable.

Several times over the weekend, I was strongly tempted to point out flaws in the fisher’s methods. First off, proper English would have made the situation more believable. I realize that many people will fall into a habit of “text speak” when on Messenger, but that doesn’t mean their entire speech patterns go away. Seeing as this person was trying to imitate a celebrity whom I’ve deemed worthy of my limited free time, I would think the fisher would have studied the celebrity a little better, learned some of his common phrases and vocabulary. Secondly, the fisher made no effort to take time zones into account. The celebrity they were attempting to imitate was most definitely in California at the time. The fisher, as far as I can determine was somewhere in India or western Asia (maybe Russia, but I didn’t get that impression from their English). Third, and this goes back to improper speech patterns, they didn’t come close to the celebrity’s personality. The person they were attempting to imitate rarely misses an opportunity to tell a story or to tease, but the fisher’s limited English would have made those two traits difficult to recreate.

So why even bother responding to someone like this? Well, as I pointed out in the first paragraph, it did provide me with some entertainment over the weekend. The illusion was fun, and it gave me an opportunity to think about what I would like to say to this celebrity, given the chance, without being selfish in taking up his time or boring him with unimportant details that he couldn’t care less about. Secondly, I figure that if I keep a fisher/scammer focused on me, then they can’t be using that time to trick someone else who is less wary. I was somewhat raised to be skeptical and distrustful. These may seem like negative traits to possess, but they have made me a harder worker than I otherwise would have been, because I believe that I need to make good things happen in my life. Good things won’t just fall into my lap. Therefore, a celebrity choosing to contact me through any form of social media just out of the blue is more than a little farfetched in my mind. Not calling out the pretender on their BS (which I believe someone else did as the fisher shut down their Messenger account this morning) is just another of my means to keep them focused on me instead of some gullible fan. I can only hope they haven’t moved on to a new account and/or a different fanbase now, although that is probably just wishful thinking.

So anyway, I hope you all stay safe out there, and if given the opportunity to dupe a scammer or fisher, I hope you have fun with it!

Hezzie