Last year, one of my friends told me about a dating site she had signed up with, and asked me to set up an account there. I did; the site was nice to look at but completely useless insofar as actually meeting people was concerned. I dabbled with it for a few weeks and then forgot about it. I think the last time I was there was in July or August.

Today, I get two e-mail notifications from that site. Here's the weird part. The first one, after going on for a bit with the typical soporific drivel, says this:

"I hope you'll want to connect, and if you do, don't reply directly to this message. I'm using my best friend's account, and I don't want her to think you're writing for her."

OK, fine; this sounds a little deceptive, but no more so than the Van Buren administration.

Then, in the second one, I read:

"Btw, I'm not using my profile to contact you. I asked my friend to lend me hers cause I'm not sure how all this really works. If you're interested, please send your replies to my email address so we can chat."

What the hell is going on? Suddenly there's this epidemic of people using other people's accounts to make contact?

Needless to say, I have no interest in contacting either of them. But I may need to borrow someone's account to send out some messages....!

Lex..

How do these people always find you?...

"Cavalcade"? Damn, I need my dictionary. cavalcade |ˌkavəlˈkād|
noun
a formal procession of people walking, on horseback, or riding in vehicles.
ORIGIN late 16th cent.(denoting a ride or raid on horseback): from French, from Italian cavalcata, from cavalcare ‘to ride,’ based on Latin caballus ‘horse.’

Thesaurus
cavalcade
noun
bystanders cheered as the cavalcade passed by procession, parade, motorcade, cortège.

I never should have signed up with that ScamTarget site. Wow, if I had known then....

Lex,

It must be singlesnet, I got the same letter.

All they want is you to goto an adult porn sight, I'm above all that, so I never replied.

I'm not. Sign me up. Oooops, I shouldn' have wrote that.

Seaworthy you need to invest in a Library card!

Yes Lex, those are almost ALWAYS scammers. 99.9999999999999% of the time.

They're from those mail-order brides sites looking for someone to send 'em some money so some nubile young chick can "come to your city to visit you".

Love is sure to blossom. You lucky dog you.

Lex, I got a similar letter through my jsh email from some person I had not met before. I am pretty sure I reported it to Mike and everybody, but thought you would be interested in knowing it happens here too. Could you email me with that site name, in case it is one I used to frequent?
I appreciate it.

Kayak, believe it or not, these weren't from them!

Although I HAVE gotten dozens from there -- I was a paying member from Feb - May 2006 (and that was an experience worth several posts of their own!), and I still average 1-2 messages a day over there. But the scammy ones I get there generally tend to be the Russian type, with the "I will like to know you" English.

But thanks for the heads up on the porn site. That does fit in with the tenor of those notes. I have no interest in that either. Porn kind of lost its allure about the time I turned 15....!

I was a paying member for sevral monthes too, all I got was e-mails like you are talking about. I even said in my profile that if thats what your all about, I'm not interested and still got harassed by cyber sluts. So I dropped the whole site.

Daniel, e-mail is on the way.

Oh, and I just happened to notice that BOTH messages were sent at the exact same time....

Good thing I'm the trusting type, otherwise I MIGHT be a little suspicious....

If it weren't for scammers, I wouldn't get any messages at all.

<-------signing up at sugardaddie.com as we speak

Lex, it isn't that it's the site that these emails are coming from, it's that these people ARE scammers and they know that you have an account there and actually just want to test the waters as to whether you are desperate enough to fall for their trap. I've seen tons of these type of scams and have played with a few just to have fun. Best thing to do is ignore them and they will go away, worst part is once they have your email address they can hack into your computer. Safeguard yourself and be aware of this and let them scam someone else.

Hey, I'm continuing to read the backlog of messages over there, and here's a far more typical example:

"Hello, How are you and how was your family and friends.I am new to this kind of things, am only giving try and see what is going to come out. I will like to know you more better."

I wonder what it was that came out?

Many dating sites will put up fake profiles and send emails from them to sucker people into ponying up some cash in order to send replies.

True
Singlesnet
Mate or Mate1 or something like that
and of course all the "adult" dating sites

Those are some of the sites that employ that strategy.
I'm sure there are thousands more.

But, Lex, how far were said girls from you? 879,300 miles? Former Soviet Union?

And I'm adding you to the list of people I am not playing Scrabble with.

M