That fella above is Lucito Gonzalez. He asked me to be his friend on Facebook and, as I always do, I checked out his profile before accepting. Turns out he's a four star general who works at US Army -- and, amazingly enough, only started there on the tenth of March. Wow, what a guy! He also lives in Kabul, Afghanistan -- but I suspect he'd be willing to travel. Lucito is just the latest in a string of guys, usually with oddly transposed names -- like Faircloth Robert or Boyer John. They almost always have a picture of a man in uniform, surrounded by American flags and weaponry (such a turn on.) My current favorite is Okomi Godwin Ohobo, who charmingly lists his occupation as Captains in De Company.
These requests give me a chuckle and then I mark them as spam and move on. Unfortunately, there have been so many lonely women taken in by these requests that it's become a lucrative cottage industry in some parts of the world.
It works like this. The spammer engages the victim in on line chat which quickly becomes more and more personal. He is falling in love with her wit, her picture, her personality, and is eager to meet her in person. Perhaps this will lead to marriage, he hints. The poor deluded victim, heart all a-quiver can't wait to meet this sweet talker in person. And he is ready to travel, to be at her side -- only first there's a financial difficulty he has to resolve. If she could just lend him the money, all would be well and they could be together at last . . . It seems hard to believe but far too many seniors have fallen for this scam -- to the tune of thousands of dollars. Parents worry about what their children are up to on the Internet -- now some adults have to worry about who their parents are meeting on line. Lonely hearts at any age are vulnerable.