The 0.1% keeps me going.

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howdidifindmyselfhere?

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So I have found myself in a bit of a weird situation recently.

I had a friend request come through to me on one of the social media platforms out there, and although as yet I have not accepted it, we have been messaging each other for the past couple of weeks.

Normally I would of just ignored it as I didn't recognize them, but they caught me at a low point so I sent them a message asking how they know me. My account is pretty well locked down to friends only and there are no public photos of me anywhere on there. In our conversations in turns out that they saw a video I shared way back in 2018 which for some reason was set to public, the video wasn't of me, so they decided to add me as a friend.

Anyway, the problem is that although I am enjoying the conversation that I have been having with them, (as said, they caught me at a low point, I was feeling lonely, I had a lot on my mind, my father was in hospital and my mother is in ill heath too) I am 99.9% sure that they are not who they say they are, but the remaining 0.1% is hopeful that they are and is what is keeping me messaging them.

So has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation, where you know that something isn't right, but in a weird way it's warm, it's cozy, it's comforting, so you carry on with it, knowing that sooner or later it's going to have to come to an end?
 
Yeah. Yeah I had that sort of situation when I was fifteen. Girl I knew online who would turn into a future ex. We didn't pretend to be entirely different people but neither of us was who the other was expecting. For a while we just projected this perfect idea onto one another.
Personally, I would be honest. Its easier if you own up to it now and say that is a friend in the video.
As for their identity... well, you haven't given alot of detail but when in doubt; ask.
Oh and don't wire any money over.
 
Yeah. Yeah I had that sort of situation when I was fifteen. Girl I knew online who would turn into a future ex. We didn't pretend to be entirely different people but neither of us was who the other was expecting. For a while we just projected this perfect idea onto one another.
Personally, I would be honest. Its easier if you own up to it now and say that is a friend in the video.
As for their identity... well, you haven't given alot of detail but when in doubt; ask.
Oh and don't wire any money over.
Thanks for the reply.

So I have been nothing but truthful to them and told them right from the off that it was not me in the video. They have seen a couple of photos of me and have sent me a couple of them.

I have been very cautious about it all, it's all really random and weird how they have suddenly come into my life but something just wasn't sitting right. Thanks to the powers of google, the images that they sent me have tracked back to a couple of well established social media accounts, (Tiktok and instigram). This has also lead me to an online blog, and another well established facebook account, where the one they are messaging me is new. There has been talk of money in our conversations but I have closed the door firmly on that one, (I may be crazy but I am certainly not stupid) and they are still messaging to me.

As said, I am 99.9% sure that they are not who they say they are, but the 0.1% lives in hope and keeps me in conversation with them. I guess that I have been waiting for something like this for so long that I don't want to admit to myself its not real, as that means going back to the emptiness that was there before it all started.
 
Thanks for the reply.

So I have been nothing but truthful to them and told them right from the off that it was not me in the video. They have seen a couple of photos of me and have sent me a couple of them.

I have been very cautious about it all, it's all really random and weird how they have suddenly come into my life but something just wasn't sitting right. Thanks to the powers of google, the images that they sent me have tracked back to a couple of well established social media accounts, (Tiktok and instigram). This has also lead me to an online blog, and another well established facebook account, where the one they are messaging me is new. There has been talk of money in our conversations but I have closed the door firmly on that one, (I may be crazy but I am certainly not stupid) and they are still messaging to me.

As said, I am 99.9% sure that they are not who they say they are, but the 0.1% lives in hope and keeps me in conversation with them. I guess that I have been waiting for something like this for so long that I don't want to admit to myself its not real, as that means going back to the emptiness that was there before it all started.
Money? Starting to sound like scammer territory.
What were the specifics if you don't mind me asking?

Is Facebook any good for meeting people now by the way? I swore off all social media about five years ago but now it seems like the world is obsessed with it and theres really no avoiding it. I should probably dig some photos out for it tomorrow but I got a whole dissertation thing to deal with etc etc. It can wait.

Anyway, theres some stuff you can take away from this.
On the scale of awkwardness talking to a potential scammer who mistook you for someone else has to be higher up than joining a facebook group, getting to know someone with similar interests then adding them.
In essence you're nailing the diving, you just need to aim for the pool.
 
Personally, I don't think it's helpful, to adopt a cynical attitude. You don't seem to be doing that; but, I think a lot of people fall into that trap, and it makes us all worse off. Best to just be practical and say to yourself, "I am lonely; but, that doesn't need to mean I'm vulnerable. If it's too good to be true, it may very well be; but, that doesn't mean miracles can't happen, it just means this probably isn't one."
 
I got catfished like that once, but the girl was still cute when I met her anyway, so 🤪😂
 
So I have found myself in a bit of a weird situation recently.

I had a friend request come through to me on one of the social media platforms out there, and although as yet I have not accepted it, we have been messaging each other for the past couple of weeks.

Normally I would of just ignored it as I didn't recognize them, but they caught me at a low point so I sent them a message asking how they know me. My account is pretty well locked down to friends only and there are no public photos of me anywhere on there. In our conversations in turns out that they saw a video I shared way back in 2018 which for some reason was set to public, the video wasn't of me, so they decided to add me as a friend.

Anyway, the problem is that although I am enjoying the conversation that I have been having with them, (as said, they caught me at a low point, I was feeling lonely, I had a lot on my mind, my father was in hospital and my mother is in ill heath too) I am 99.9% sure that they are not who they say they are, but the remaining 0.1% is hopeful that they are and is what is keeping me messaging them.

So has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation, where you know that something isn't right, but in a weird way it's warm, it's cozy, it's comforting, so you carry on with it, knowing that sooner or later it's going to have to come to an end?
I get what you're saying in the deepest part of my morally grey soul. I'm having online conversations with a few individuals I know I really shouldn't be but that 0.01% of me gets happy looking forward to their messages. I have someone to interact with during the loneliest part of my day. I'm not so alone even if I know it's not right. I try not to think about how it will end. It wrecks the warm fuzzy smiles.
 
I get what you're saying in the deepest part of my morally grey soul. I'm having online conversations with a few individuals I know I really shouldn't be but that 0.01% of me gets happy looking forward to their messages. I have someone to interact with during the loneliest part of my day. I'm not so alone even if I know it's not right. I try not to think about how it will end. It wrecks the warm fuzzy smiles.
Totally this. As said I am 99.9% sure that they are not who they say they are, but it's all warm and cozy, it's like the warm sunshine on my cold cloudy gray days, it's what I have been longing for deep down for so very long and I don't want to let go of this feeling even though I am sure it's not real from their side of things.
 
Money? Starting to sound like scammer territory.
What were the specifics if you don't mind me asking?

Is Facebook any good for meeting people now by the way? I swore off all social media about five years ago but now it seems like the world is obsessed with it and theres really no avoiding it. I should probably dig some photos out for it tomorrow but I got a whole dissertation thing to deal with etc etc. It can wait.

Anyway, theres some stuff you can take away from this.
On the scale of awkwardness talking to a potential scammer who mistook you for someone else has to be higher up than joining a facebook group, getting to know someone with similar interests then adding them.
In essence you're nailing the diving, you just need to aim for the pool.
I don't know if Facebook is any good for meeting people. As said they sent me a friend request and I normally would have just ignored it as I didn't know them, but they caught me at a low point in life.

They haven't directly asked for money, just gave told me of a broken smashed up phone and that they were not able to buy there son a birthday present. I maybe crazy but I am certainly not stupid, and I've told them that I really can't afford to help them out in that way.

They have tried a video call, which would settle things a lot in my mind but their broken phone stopped this from working. (They even sent pictures of the broken phone).

I can understand if they want to keep their tiktok/instigram world completely seperate from there facebook world for what ever reason, but something just doesn't add up.
 
Personally, I don't think it's helpful, to adopt a cynical attitude. You don't seem to be doing that; but, I think a lot of people fall into that trap, and it makes us all worse off. Best to just be practical and say to yourself, "I am lonely; but, that doesn't need to mean I'm vulnerable. If it's too good to be true, it may very well be; but, that doesn't mean miracles can't happen, it just means this probably isn't one."
I went into the very cautiously and with both eyes open. It does seem too good to be true and there is a lot of doubt in my mind about them, but that 0.1% keeps me living in hope that there is some truth in who they are and what they say. There is one simple fix that would settle alot my doubts, (that being for them to message me from the tiktok/instigram accounts that the photos that they share with me link back to) but in me even suggesting this may just prove that doubt to be true and I'll lose that warm cozy feeling that I currently have, even if it is based on a lie.
 
I don't know if Facebook is any good for meeting people. As said they sent me a friend request and I normally would have just ignored it as I didn't know them, but they caught me at a low point in life.

They haven't directly asked for money, just gave told me of a broken smashed up phone and that they were not able to buy there son a birthday present. I maybe crazy but I am certainly not stupid, and I've told them that I really can't afford to help them out in that way.

They have tried a video call, which would settle things a lot in my mind but their broken phone stopped this from working. (They even sent pictures of the broken phone).

I can understand if they want to keep their tiktok/instigram world completely seperate from there facebook world for what ever reason, but something just doesn't add up.

They sent pictures of a broken phone to you?
So his story so far; his phone was visibly broken but he only figured out it was too broken to use to video call you at the last minute. Before that point he just had no idea, he hadn't tested it at all. But its ok because once he realized he took the time to take and send a photo of it to you as proof that a broken phone exists. Now, he couldn't have done this with another phone because that presents an obvious solution. So the implication here is that he used the only digital camera in the known universe that doesn't record videos or double up as a webcam. He connected this to his PC/laptop to send to you. Seems like alot of effort to prove something he should have already known.

Alright, well, lets have some fun.
Right click on the photo on your PC, click "properties" and a window will open. Click on the "details" tab of that window and scroll down to the "File" section. This is where the photo metadata is located. You will see the date and time the photo was created, the date it was modified and the name of the system and user that sent it to you.
Its possible a scammer would take a fresh photo of a broken phone they just happened to have but my guess is hes sloppy and uses the same photo over and over again.
In which case he won't have created the photo on the day.
 
Yeah, they sent pictures to me of a broken phone, like it needed to be proven. I didn't ask for them nor make any suggestion that I did'nt believe that it was broken.

I like your thinking, but sadly the photos were sent via Facebook messagener rather than an email attachment so that don't have the file properties that you speak of, that would have been where I would have gone. However, as said, the google image search does link back to a well established tiktok and instigram account, from there I've found another facebook account and an online blog. There was even talk of an OF account in the blog, (somewhere I haven't gone) and not a lot of what they are messaging me about kind of fits in with any of this and they have also told me that they don't have any other accounts other than the one they are messaging me from.

Do I need to add that I am not some sort of weird stalker, you hear of this horrible story so it's only wise isn't it to do what research you can in situation such as this?

As said, I am 99.9% sure that they are not actually who they say they are but that 0.1% is what keeps me going. I can understand if they have an OF account and are actively on that, they may want to keep that bit quiet from me or other friends/family members, but it just doesn't sit right.

Anyway, thanks for you input. I feel that I should also point out that I am male and this is a women that is doing all of this, I wasn't clear in my original post was I.
 
I'm sorry to say it, but it all sounds not good and quite weird. So you'd better be very careful and remember it can be a cheating.

My situation is not about cheating but my success chance is also very small, like 0.1% and I go on.
I know how does it work, when you know you'd better stop but still go on.

I just hope you'll be safe, be careful.
 

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