How safe is it to accept and chat with unknown Facebook friends?

[MissSunshine2]

Some woman from England sent me a Facebook friend request. I’m pretty sure I don’t know her, but she looks familiar, somehow. She claims to just be lonely and wanting to make friends, which I suppose is possible, these days.

My question is, whether it’s safe to chat to her? She hasn’t asked me for any money and she looks English. Her grammar isn’t bad either.

when I consider it, she resembles a few people I know, she looks a bit like someone I went to tafe with and someone that I was seeing for a while and fell out with. There’s a resemblance to both people.

I do know for a fact that it’s common for many people to have extra aliases online. I’ve been tricked before when I was more gullible and believed everyone is as honest as I am.

Updates

1 mo

She tried to set me up with a very ugly guy from Germany, that looked like Gollum. Mystery solved. Offloading uglies mission failed. I blocked her.

[RichardCranium6201]

Oh I'm sorry this happened to you. I'll fill you in on all the bs I know, and how to tell the real from the fake.
So 1 thing about internet, is people can hide all they want, and pretend to be what ever they want.
And what's crazy is, the kind of people imma bout to talk about, ain't new to their job. They are smart
and do their home work before reaching out. But once they make contact... they get dumb. All the ones I see, all have basically the same story. They are from your area, might even get detailed, down to the street address of a nearby city. Once they get people to interact, they start their sob story. How u react, tells them how to proceed, whether to ask for money or wait. Now if somewhere in the convo, ur curious, so u ask for a pic. They will send u hundreds of pics. And say it's them. That's the wrong question. 2 things you can ask that will let u know if it's real person being lonely, or not. Ask for a phone call. U want to hear the voice. Almost all will have a excuse why their phone don't let them talk. Or another, ask for video chat. Any body lonely would be more then happy to accommodate either 1. Maybe someone thinks their slick and does call, listen for the accent. But u have to be careful who's texting or leaving u messages to. There's a web site any body can go on, and create a fake message. Put a picture of what ever, but what that is, if u click or tap on it, it can give them access to every thing in your phone. Same with all those social sites. I can look up a name, find out who their friends are, message them acting like I'm their friend, and I can send you something u have to tap on, but once u do, your giving me access to everything im asking access for (without asking you personally)... my advice, don't tap or open any thing any body sends you. If your friend sends u a message out of no where, and it has something u need to open to see it, call your friend and ask if they sent you that. If they say yes, ur fine to open it. But if they say no... beware. I've dealt with so much of these hackers, it's crazy. And what's crazy, once u find them out, and tell em, they disappear and u or police won't ever be able to find em. And they just start over.
All of this, I found out first hand from getting hacked. I hope this helps. Oh yea, don't have any thing linked with any thing... like don't keep your banking info in your phone. Don't have your banking info linked to like fb, or tictoc, or what ever is in your area. That way, if by chance u still managed to get hacked, they won't get shit.

[Summeroflove]

Well if it seems weird it probably is

[sage2021]

If you are having any questions about her and who she is from your past that you fell away from, maybe it's not such a good idea to start a friendship with someone who you know nothing about.

She might be trying to gather information from you 😕 and you could easily fall into a trap.

[MissSunshine2]

Well, today, I was thinking that it was very strange that this lady from England found me on Facebook and it seems more likely that it’s actually someone who I already know, who knows I’d ignore them if I knew who they really are. Why would someone from England bother befriending someone from Australia, when they’ve supposedly never even been here?

[MissSunshine2]

What sort of trap, do you think it could be, potentially?

[sage2021]

People are strange these days. Just ignore her. Okay? 👍🏼

[MissSunshine2]

Yes, I’ve noticed a lot of men I know make fake online aliases. A lot of people don’t too, though

[sage2021]

Thank you for the MHO 🙂🧡

[jazzy34]

I block people I don't know. There are so many scam artists out there. Please be advised that scam artists use different tactics to bait you in. So, the whole "I'm lonely and need someone to talk to" could be a ploy to get into your life. Be careful and proceed at your own risk.

[Master_Debator]

Don't bother... it's all about information. She won't be the one blowing up your phone with that info gained later... it will be some broken English speaking 3rd worlder.

I mean really think about it... Have our elders that's been ripped off by the nigerian prince/princess taught you nothing? The IRS or banking agents that have a heavy India accent... nothing?

I'm scared to even talk to old military friends... because you know what happens? They always want to move in with me and party with drugs and get hookers... I've been married for like 20 years now and I have kids... makes no logical sense right? So when a random stranger is just lonely and wants to talk to me... probably more nefarious than my old military friends.

You have to choose... you want to add crazy to your life or just enjoy your peace?

[TonyMetal___86]

I usually block new unknow people on facebook who sends me a friend request, so you're an English girl? 😄

Have you ever been to Essex?

[MissSunshine2]

I’m Australian 🙂

[TonyMetal___86]

An Aussie, okay 😄

[WellBye]

Stranger danger, you know. Why would a sane person try to befriend random people, she's either a scammer or a lonely antisocial person.

[Unycorn]

Don't accept friendship.

Facebook is not safe I guess generally. I would never trust a stranger.

[EunSusu]

I guess it depends on who it is, where they’re from and how real their profile looks? Either you’re chatting with a bot, a catfish or could be a creep whether it be a woman or a man (usually a man).

[Nikki1989]

It is just as safe as anywhere else.

[Iron_Man]

It’s the same thing on here. I’m always safe everywhere I go. Nobody’s ever knocked on my door to punch me in the face

[Bklynbadboy12]

Nope dont do that if you dont know then dont except. That will give a complete access to photos of you and your fa

[Bklynbadboy12]

Family

[exitseven]

I always suspect that it would be creepy.

[loveyouoak]

It's not safe at all.

[Jeff51]

I dont friend anyone on Facebook.

[Anonymous]

If I don't know you, I'm not accepting.