This person friended me from an online game I played asking if I wanted to be paid to be a penpal. I’m familiar with a lot of phishing scams and other sorts of scams but I’ve never seen a scam like this one. What exactly is this person trying to get from me, are they hoping to infect my device with something sinister or are they trying to phish information from me without me knowing it? They seem to put a lotta emphasis on me VIEWING this photo they’re gonna send me and it makes me think that whatever they’re gonna send me must be infected with some sort of trojan. Can someone explain to me what’s going on here?

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Oh, ok.

    I remember when I was 17, my mom would hand me the phone whenever telemarketers would call.

    I’d waste their time as a hobby. Sometimes I’d say my mom was on vacation in Jamaca, eating lots of blue flavored snow cones. Other times I’d say she was in the shower.

    Either way, I’d start a counter to see how long they’d stay on the phone with me. My record was 2 hours 26 minutes. And my mom actually ended it. She came up and asked who I was talking to. I held up the hand signal for telemarketer.

    She was in one of her pissy moods, so she grabbed the phone out of my hand, and screamed into the phone “THIS IS HIS MOM! WE DON’T WANT ANY!!!” and hung up.

    To this day, I still believe I could have hit the 5 hour mark if she had just let me.

    My reasoning was if they’re talking to me, they AREN’T talking to someone who could be scammed.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Ok, don’t do a thumbs up. But also don’t do a thumbs down either. Do one kind of halfway between up and down, where it’s kind of pointing to the side.

        We innitially wanted something where your fingers make the shape of a T, but as it turns out, it is really really hard to move your fingers into the shape of a T. Try it. It’s akward, and painful, and it kinda sorta can be done…but also we hate it, so we decided on the thumb to the side thing. Easy to do, easy to read once you see it. That was the important part.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I feel like🖕would’ve worked fine (assuming you don’t otherwise make rude gestures at your mom).

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            If Family Fued had the question “Name 10 ways to get a smack in tbe back of the head from your mom”, I think “giving her the finger” might actually be the top answer.

            All your family would hear it, and say “Good answer, good answer!” And it’s absolutely on the board. Steve Harvey would then make an outragious claim that your mom is whoopin your ass after that.

            It’s like…Jeez, Steve! Calm down! It’s 1 slap! If your mom is realing for the cane, I think you might have just been raised in a toxic home. Which for him is absolutely true.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              22 hours ago

              In your previous comment it sounded like you had discussed it beforehand, so your mom would’ve known the gesture wasn’t meant for her and thus wouldn’t smack you.

              LOL at the Family Feud extended metaphor, though!