Beware scammers creating accounts on CC!

Raising my hand as one who "didn't see this coming!" If you receive a message from someone who has an account on CC, make the effort to absolutely verify their identity before engaging in any conversations. I was in a conversation that was (admittedly stupidly!) transferred to WhatsApp where, following a lengthy discussion - fortunately platonic in nature - was told that either I pay money or "she" would start posting reputation-damaging images that were created from my innocent shared selfies. All indications from my research point to this being a new tactical hotbed for blackmail and extortion. Cuddle safely, my friends!

ReltvlyCanshes

How did they create these reputation damaging photos, i mean if it's like some sort of generated pics how did they do it? What type

TxTom

Sounds like the handiwork of the Pro Mafia.

TxTom

Sounds like the handiwork of the Pro Mafia.

SunsetSnuggles

@ReltvlyCanshes
AI technology is getting shockingly good.

I can tell a website to paint me a watercolor of a purple unicorn with a silver horn cantering through a mossy forest beside a lake with streaks of sunlight filtering through the trees and two deer in the background, and it will instantly pop out four versions of exactly that. 🦄🌲🏞🦌🦌

People on YouTube sing into a mic, tell AI to blend their lyrics with Johnny Cash's voice, and suddenly you have The Man in Black singing "Barbie Girl" to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues". (No cap, as the kids say... Listen here.)

AI can also recognize faces and track down someone's unlinked online presences.

While I've never personally run into what the OP is talking about, I have no doubt it's easily achievable. People have been slapping actresses faces on porn star bodies for forever... Kids in high school even do it to bully each other.

'Tis a fascinating and disturbing age we live in. 🥴

~ Sunset Snuggles

🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Junkie 📸 Shutter Bug

ReltvlyCanshes

@SunsetSnuggles i understands all that can be done, but there also seems to have to be a little more to the story. If it was that easy to put someone in a compromising situation why come all the way in this site when Facebook is right there

@ReltvlyCanshes Don't know. Maybe because people here are more likely to be looking to meet with/chat with strangers than folks on Facebook are? This is just anecdotal, but most people I know who are still on FB won't connect with people they don't know. Here, if a guy gets messaged by pretty much any woman, he jumps for joy.

ReltvlyCanshes

But if they are scamming and taking pictures to make them compromising and it's that easy you wouldn't need a site for that. Most times they have to have something incriminating in the first place

As someone said, if they have a headshot they can put it on someone else's body. Not that I doubt your theory that there is more to the story, though. There usually is.

_marC

Boom! Headshot

ReltvlyCanshes

That's my point you can get a headshot anywhere, you wouldn't need to come inside here and chat up someone to get it.

_marC

In all seriousness yes I have noticed a rise in fake people lately. When I first started cc it was all real people, now there are tons🥸🥸🐟

JasonCuddles

Scams are constant these days. If it's a real person you're talking to I always suggest taking up as much of their time as possible, if you're not busy.

LadyVel

I can confirm that there have been photoshops done of people (elsewhere) that look fairly real with their head being put on someone else's body.

Heck, I have edited images on the photoshop sub reddit to remove people from photos, add someone to a photo, remove an object, remove clutter, and staged photos all using editing software and that was by hand. Imagine what AI could do. 😳

And I can confirm what @SunsetSnuggles said too. Oh and here is an AI generated pic I asked it to create just from the words I told it.

ReltvlyCanshes

We all know what you can do with a computer and the internet. But you also have to ask yourself what am i doing to make certain things happen. I talk to scammers all the time, like @JasonCuddles said waste their time. I try ink for the most part they are easy to spot. But when i do engage i won't do anything incriminating i allow them to tell in themselves. I wouldn't give one a picture of me but id think if i were some sort if extortionist and i would take a head shot to put in a body, id go someplace where i didnt have to do much to get it. Lets say a school website, church website a place i have actual information and i have someone i know has something to lose. Sure they can do all of these things anywhere, but why when it's easier elsewhere. Unless they are getting much more than a headshot, they are having conversations you'd like to keep hidden because if what you said it did. But thats just me. I think behavior is the best protection and i can see through alot of BS.

My alert is simply to bring awareness to the fact that while this site might present itself as a "safe space" for those seeking purely platonic encounters, not all profiles are authentic. My discussion started when "she" asked a question about my profile pic. It was innocent enough, right? The conversation evolved into discussing our families and work -- no concerns since this place only has "real" people who want "real" in-person relationships. Over time, the tone changed with AI created images becoming the threat. Just be careful with who you choose to communicate with.

Well, if I wanted to suggest I could blackmail you for some sexual indiscretion, it would be easier if I could show you are on a site a) most people haven't heard of and might not understand and b) some outside people believe is a cover for sex work.

IdCuddleU

Just got hit with a scammer as well a few days ago. She promised to meet but was me to cashapp money so she could pay her electric bill. When I said no she hung up. Keep reporting these guys peeps. CC is quick to remove them.

SeekerInVA

When ppl ask right away to switch to Telegram, WhatsApp, or another chat site, that’s a red flag. 🚩

Also, never send money to someone who you haven’t met and verified in person. It’s just not worth the risk.

SunsetSnuggles

@ReltvlyCanshes posted: "We all know what you can do with a computer and the internet."

Many people have no idea. Especially those who didn't grow up with technology... This site is full of men that age, who know how to type but are very unfamiliar with the signs of, and vulnerable to, online scams.

@ReltvlyCanshes posted: "I think behavior is the best protection"

💯

@Loveiator3 posted: "this site might present itself as a "safe space""

It's not. 😔😒

@WriterGF posted: "if I wanted to suggest I could blackmail you for some sexual indiscretion, it would be easier if I could show you are on a site ... some outside people believe is a cover for sex work."

💯 I believe this answers your question, @ReltvlyCanshes.

~ Sunset Snuggles

🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Junkie 📸 Shutter Bug

Morpheus

And yet there are all the pros with their heavily filtered and or AI generated pics and no one seems to have an issue with that.

There's a difference between an altered picture and a completely fake identity.

jackwallace

Fake identities are filled with altered photos.
An altered or AI photo with a fake name and details creates a fake identity.

JohnR1972

@ReltvlyCanshes
There is nothing to stop a scammer from doing the same thing on Facebook. However, I believe there is a much higher concentration of vulnerable people (prey) on this site and the concentration of prey attracts predators.

I am not on Facebook but I am on LinkedIn and X. DAILY I get messages from accounts that appear to be young attractive women (about 75% of the time they appear Asian). I know they are scams but I played along with one just to see what the scam looked like. “She” immediately wanted to move the conversation to WhatsApp (which I don’t use for privacy reasons).

However in my conversation with “her” I realized the reason so many of the accounts messaging me appeared to be from Asian women is because the scammers speak English as a second language (or they are relying on Google Translate). By claiming to be Asian women, that “explains” their poor English.

On this site, as someone mentioned above, men getting contacted by an enthusiast woman is such a “win” that they are much more likely to fall for it and engage in conversation (on site or off site) than if they were contacted by a random stranger on a different platform.

BTW - My favorite spam messages I receive on LinkedIn begin with, “You look good, mind if I ask you a question”? 😂😂

JohnR1972

Everyone needs one of these… 😂

Carrie_Anne

@Morpheus 💯 so obvious and good that you reminded the newer members of CC.
Hope everyone will use some common sense here.
Before meeting, require an “at that moment “ selfie with the date written on paper to be sent. Phone calls also. That helps. & requiring communicating On Site of course.

TxTom

Without sheep what would the wolves eat?

GuyverGordon

@TxTom Chickens 🤪

SunsetSnuggles

@Morpheus posted: "there are all the pros with their heavily filtered and or AI generated pics and no one seems to have an issue with that."

I certainly have an issue with it. I started a whole thread politely asking why they do it.

~ Sunset Snuggles

🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Junkie 📸 Shutter Bug

ReltvlyCanshes

The specific type of scam that began this thread was not about fooling you with a fake picture, or taking you to another app for communication or fooling you in to sending money. It was about something to the effect of blackmail or extortion.

I know that things can happen, i know of the things we've seen before but this one is one is something I'd call rare. I explained in my comments why i thought it was rare, because i believe it take much less work to snatch a picture randomly many many times and doing some sort of trickery and asking for money than signing up for a site finding someone to talk to and then trying to find the person to fall for it.

My hope is to identify ways to avoid this particular type of trickery because it's not common and it requires participation.

@writergf brings up a great point that the simple participation in this site can be something that most would think is an issue that can look funny. Sure it can be explained away with friends and jobs and law enforcement. I'd hate to have to, but deep fakes are something much more involved, carry more ramifications to both the injured party and i would think to the extortionist if caught.

So again my point is not to say there aren't ways people get scammed, not to say that anyone can't get scammed my concern is this particular type of con.

It's like the underage scam, where you begin talking to a young lady or what you think to ba a young lady and exchanging nudes. Then this person ends up saying send me money or I'll report you because I'm 15. This for one probably won't work, because it's a middle aged guy sending these messages and is just hoping to get a quick payout without investing much time so they are doing it 30 times at once. This is why all those types of messages sound very scripted and the same each time. So the lesson in that is never exchange nudes with someone young lady way out of your league because it's probably not true.

So if none of that is happening, and there is small talk about the weather and boom you get a picture with you in the back of a pizza shop with several prepubescent teens peeing in your shirt, while you spray baby oil and throw ones at them.

I'm fairly confident that i know how to avoid this type but I've never heard of this type of thing in a place like this doing something as mundane as chit chat.

JohnR1972

“If it sounds too good to be true, it is.”