I moved my regular avatar a little to the left and added a tiny black&white photo of my face to the blank corner.
I have never had my face in an Insta profile picture before but I was so very often called Dude, Mate, Guy, Amigo/Amico! I thought it would not hurt to show I rather be called by my name or Amiga/Amica. How little did I know I was going to be a prey for Nigerians.....
To some of my loyal followers the female edge was a surprise but they did not change the way they always liked my photo's for which I am of course very thankful.
Remarkably the amount of followers increased and all of a sudden I received Direct Messages from men who never liked my photo's, who have an Insta account with quite a lot of followers of whom the grand majority is female.
And they have more in common..... they only have 4 or 5 photo's in their accounts and all photo's of themselves. Good looking men with a interesting serious looking photo, a joyful one, melancholic etc. The comments of their female followers is always full of admiration.
They state in their Direct (or private) Message to me how happy they are to have me as a friend (standard text; I do not follow them...) and that they are looking forward to get to know me better.
Here we have the first two things we do not have in common: 1) unknown people - men and women - are NOT my friends, 2) I am not looking forward to get to know them.
But it goes further: I am so very good looking, as soon as they saw my photo they felt the need to contact me. So, what is my name, how old am I, what is my profession, do I have children, how wonderful I am on Instagram to change my life (sorry, this past part makes me laugh.....).
My parents taught me to be polite so I reply: "Thank you for contacting me but I use Instagram to share my passion for photography and to interact with and learn from other passionate photographers. Please note Insta is NOT a Dating Site!".
In return I receive replies like how happy they are to call me their honest friend and who they are, their age, their divorce, their daughter who lives with the mother and who they miss so much, that they are American citizen's with a high rank in the US Army and currently stationed in Kabul. But soon back in the US. They all LOVE travelling.....
To be honest, for a born and bred American their US English is pretty bad. Particularly for 'high ranked officers'.
My whole life I am called 'a little strange, sometimes a bit weird, unusual' but never 'stupid'!!
Of course the handsome man that choose me from all those millions of profile photo's, does not know this.
If I am in a relaxed mood, I dig for more information and often 'meet' a man who has a brilliant financial future and who can offer me the world and more. Though often I prefer to ignore them or if they keep bothering me, I become eeehhhm.... less polite.But don't we know from all the warnings sent out over the internet, that they need money as soon as you grow close (for what ever the word close is worth for in this case).
You guessed right... I am not talking about genuine honest men who crave for a new family life in their homeland America.
I am talking about Nigerian Spammers who learned English but miss the language expertise of a native. They are taught to chat up women, to show themselves as vulnerable, tickling the motherly feelings of their victims. And if the victim turns out to be a lonely woman craving for a relationship, they slowly turn this woman into a tool to steal as much money as possible.
But the poor DM'ers in my account do not talk to a desperate lonely woman. Besides that, this woman wrote a large article about Nigerian Spammers already in 2006!!
Also, she has a very good nose and smells them even at the other side of the world. She might be a little weird but, as said before, NOT stupid!
Lovely readers, I know you are all far too intelligent to allow these Spammers to talk you into big trouble. Do you hesitate if they are genuine or not? Read above again about what they all have in common and you smell them as well as I do.
Look well after yourself, a relationship is wonderful with an honest and real (I emphasise real...) person with the right chemistry but you are the base of your life and love from there. Sometimes that means that you are happy without a full time partner.
Love you all.
Helen
