I was born in 1977. I’m part Gen X and part Millennial. I’ve been using the internet since its inception. I know all about the cowards that hide behind their computers, pretending to be someone they’re not. I know about the old Nigerian Prince scam. The Net is vast and infinite and I’ve been around it. Twice.
My dad is 30 years older than me. He is not as tech savvy as I am. He’s been very lonely after my mom died, so he’s been using his phone and computer to look at pretty girls on the internet. I’ve seen what’s in his facebook algorithm. He doesn’t know what an algorithm is, much less what it does. Still, he’s starting to investigate dating sites and apps.
But first, let’s review his recent history with scammers. Dad’s been suckered a few times before. Many years ago, he gave thousands to an “investor” that promised to grow his money outside United States rules and restrictions, and when dad wanted to pull his money, this piece of shit investor guy told dad there was a problem and he couldn’t get his money back. I don’t even remember the excuse, but it was total bullshit.
A few years ago, some guy from India called him and said he was from Microsoft. He had dad install an app on his computer that allowed the scammer to take control of it and hold it hostage for $200.
Last year, my dad fell for his first sweetheart scam. He said, “I found someone online and if others don’t approve, I don’t give a shit!” I started asking questions. What does she look like? How old is she? How did you meet? What did you talk about? He showed me a pic of a pretty young girl in her 30’s. He said she was a Christian they had a strong connection through their conversations. Dad claimed she was legit because had an image of her drivers license.
I took the photo and gave it to my wife, who reverse image searched it. It was a porn star. I looked closely at the license. It was photoshopped. I asked if he gave her money. He did. Twice. $50 and then $200. It took convincing from both me and my sister, but after providing all the evidence, he finally came to his senses and agreed she was fake and it was all a scam.
This brings us to today. recently, my dad emailed me with a link to amoredate.com and said, Son, this is my new woman. It led me to a login screen and I obviously couldn’t get in. I ignored it. A few days ago, I got a call from Kathy, and she told me all about dad and his plan to meet a woman while he takes a trip to California with Doug. She’s concerned about it and sends me a photo of the person she says wants to marry my dad, she says dad’s planning on renting a car and meeting this person with or without Doug. Her name is supposedly Maria but dad keeps giving different last names to Kathy and Kristen. Annie ran “Maria” through an image search and… guess what? The image was taken from a Russian fashion blog. Kathy said this person supposedly had written letters to Kristen, Brenda and me because dad told her about us so she wanted to convince us she’s legit. She’s not. It’s all a scam. And he’s been letting the scammer lead him on since August.
I confronted my dad on the phone. I asked him about his trip, about “Maria”, about what Kathy and Doug told me. He denied the part about going to meet her with or without Doug. He gave me another fake last name. He said the plan was to go there, meet her, marry her and stay in CA. He had been purposefully not telling me about all this. He lied to me. All because he’s desperate and lonely and gullible.
Yesterday, I thought of something: what if the scammer uses AI to provide responses to the messages my dad sends? My cousin Brenda sent me a screenshot of a letter the scammer wrote to her. Annie and I ran the text through ChatGPT. It’s AI. My dad fell for AI responses. No red flags. All emotion.
Here’s how I feel about this whole thing: disappointed, angry, confused, exasperated, and motivated to do something about it.
