Second attempt :
Also heard nothing back yet.
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You should also include a note that says that the IP associated with the phone number will be charged 10 USD per message as a donation to the Church of the Light Bringer
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The next iteration of my messages will most definitely include that, lol.
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Yep, to get them to panic.
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Nobody said religion was free.
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Oh, I’m glad someone else does this! I posted a convo on Facebook that I recently had with a text scammer, and one of my friends told me it wasn’t really worth it, because they’re usually just wage-slaves who do whatever their overseer tells them to do. I said that I’m never mean to them, but if they’re going to waste my time, I’m going to waste theirs, too, and act dumb while doing it so they think they still have me on the hook. 
I’ve started sending them links to PDF Bible downloads (after putting them through a URL shortener to hide the giveaway text) and tell them my brother is WAY more interested in meeting people and being friends, so they should get ahold of him, instead. If they persist, I just send them the link to the YouVersion app.
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(I am not a guy, but no reason to let the scammer know that. I AM friendly, though!)
(So sweet that the scammer tried to console me.
)
(That was a link to a New Revised Standard Edition Bible download, put through a URL shortener for funsies. BTW, I DO know what Telegram and WhatsApp are. But the scammer doesn’t know that.)
FIN
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Oh, my god. THIS IS AGING ME! I don’t have enough life left to deal with that kind of nonsense. Just let me drink in peace.
This is political but it definitely has become a scam.
Would you like to donate to the Republican National Committee so you can help Republicans in their efforts to get elected in the House, the Senate and in the states, but you don’t want to donate to Donald Trump? You can’t. The RNC is splitting donations with Trump 50/50.
Would you like to attend an RNC fundraiser so the money will go directly to them and not to Trump? You can’t, but you also have to donate a minimum of $11,500.02 before the RNC will get anything.
Why that specific amount? The first $6500 goes to Trump. The next $5000 goes to Trump’s PAC.
So what about the two cents? Well, that 50/50 deal means that Trump gets the first penny and the next one goes to the RNC.
If you’re a Republican politician and have been using Donald Trump’s name and/or likeness in your campaign material, he now requires you to give him 5% of your fundraising. But if you were to, say, give him more than 5%, he would “look favorably” on this generosity during his next administration.
And you want The Donald to look favorably towards you. After all, you’ve got a real nice political campaign there. It would be a real shame if something “unfortunate” were to happen to it. So isn’t paying a tithe, uh, protection fee, uh, licensing fee (yeah, that’s the ticket!) worth not having that happen?
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Scammers on upwork.com is makening me upset 
Another PSA instead of mocking scammers.
I’ve heard about the tactics that are used to lure people to an area with the promise of work, but when they arrive, they get strong-armed into forced labor. Very often, it’s prostitution.
There’s a variant that has a different kind of prostitution for both men and women that’s mostly run by Chinese gangs in Southeast Asia: being forced to sign contracts to do online romance scams called “pig butchering”. It’s got a pretty good hook rate of 70-80% of the marks fall for it. They keep stringing the mark along, getting them to put more and more money into cryptocurrency, and even when there’s no more, they keep up the pressure. And then the money’s gone.
The end result is the marks are decimated financially and emotionally, and some don’t survive, like Dennis Jones, who killed himself after being ruined. He didn’t talk to his family about being scammed. Instead, he posted messages on Facebook, and that’s where his family found out what happened…
The surprising thing about this article is one man that was forced into being a scammer under threat of execution was allowed to leave after his contract ended. He thinks it was because he wasn’t good enough at scamming.
If someone you know is being scammed online, especially in a romance scam, it may not be a lone person on the other end. It may be a team that’s well practiced in the tactics that keep a mark hooked. It may also be one or more people aren’t doing it by choice.
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It is so darn depressing. 
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Now I feel just a little worse about calling those scammers scumbags to their faces. Not a lot, but a little.
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Once again I look at having gotten into a committed relationship almost 20 years as having caught the last helicopter out of Kabul/Saigon.
Today, my business FB page got over 20 of this exact same message.
Seems a bit fishy to me.
Vіоӏαߙіоᥒ ᴡαгᥒіᥒց ѕуѕߙᥱм
*Yоꭒг αϲϲоꭒᥒߙ һαѕ ƅᥱᥱᥒ іԀᥱnߙіƒіᥱԀ ƅу оꭒг ѕуѕߙᥱмѕ αᥒԀ ƅꭒѕіᥒᥱѕѕ ραցᥱѕ αѕ νіоӏαߙіᥒց оꭒг ρоӏіϲіᥱѕ Ԁꭒᥱ ߙо ϲоᥒѕꭒмᥱг гᥱρогߙѕ оƒ ᥒоᥒ-ϲомρӏіαᥒߙ ϲоᥒߙᥱᥒߙ ƒгом αԀνᥱгߙіѕᥱгѕ, іᥒϲӏꭒԀіᥒց ϲоꭒᥒߙᥱгƒᥱіߙ ρгоԀꭒϲߙѕ αᥒԀ ѕᥱӏӏᥱгѕ оƒ ϲоꭒᥒߙᥱгƒᥱіߙ ρгоԀꭒϲߙѕ. Ϲоᥒߙᥱᥒߙ ߙһαߙ імραϲߙѕ оꭒг ϲоммꭒᥒіߙу!
*Ꮲӏᥱαѕᥱ ϲһᥱϲk αᥒԀ ցіνᥱ уоꭒг оρіᥒіоᥒ vіα ߙһᥱ ӏіᥒk:
Sketchy link deleted.
*ӏƒ ᥒо гᥱѕρоᥒѕᥱ ᴡіߙһіᥒ 24 һоꭒгѕ, ߙһᥱ ραցᥱ ᴡіӏӏ ƅᥱ ߙᥱмρогαгіӏу ӏоϲkᥱԀ.
Ｗᥱ ꭒᥒԀᥱгѕߙαᥒԀ ߙһᥱ іmρогߙαᥒϲᥱ оƒ ѕᥱϲꭒгіᥒց уоꭒг ѕіߙᥱ qꭒіϲkӏу αᥒԀ αρρгᥱϲіαߙᥱ уоꭒг ϲооρᥱгαߙіоᥒ αᥒԀ ߙімᥱӏу ƒᥱᥱԀƅαϲk Ԁꭒгіᥒց ߙһᥱ гᥱνіᥱᴡ ρгоϲᥱѕѕ.
Ꭲһαᥒk уоꭒ ƒог ߙαkіᥒց ߙһᥱ ߙімᥱ ߙо ѕꭒƅміߙ уоꭒг гᥱρогߙ.
A ߙᥱαм оƒ ᥱхρᥱгߙѕ
lol
I got one purporting to be a document I need to review and sign. First linkee purports to be for Adobe cloud, then when I got there, another link which lead to a highly-suspicious OneDrive link and which asked me for my O365 login credentials.
I just noped out of there. Usually I log in with highly offensive credentials, but that day I was a bit pressed for time.
I’ve learned not to be as rude as I’d love to be when answering with my FB business page. When spam comes in and I’m mean to them, they report my page for abuse and I have to ask the bot restore my privileges.
See? I’m adaptable. I can learn things.
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