Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 1/14
Well I just had a Larry David moment, and now I just wanna crawl into a hole and die.

(Not really. I'm not really threatening to hurt myself. Just super embarrassed.)
06:46 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 2/14
I got a FB friend request from someone that didn't have a pic, and the name matched the daughter of a good friend of mine who was only recently of appropriate ago to be on social media.
06:47 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 3/14
This account did not have a pic attached, which I did think was a little weird, and on top of this, only had two friends in common -- and folks, I have a lot of FB friends who get duped by scammers, so I figured maybe those other two accounts were compromised.
06:48 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 4/14
So I proceeded to ask a series of questions designed to elicit answers that would help me determine if this was a real account or not.
06:49 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 5/14
I started with, "why no pic?" and, like 14 hours later, I got a response. "Don't have one I like I guess."
06:50 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 6/14
So I asked, "what do your parents think about you being on FB?" and the person said, "they're cool with it, I'm on insta too" ... and tbh I was thinking, "well this could still be a scammer who has learned how to mimic the linguistic rhythms of teens."
06:51 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 7/14
So I said, "what about your sister?"

And they said, "huh?"
06:53 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 8/14
And I said, "what does your sister think? Answer carefully."

That may sound like an innocuous question, but reader, I happen to know that her sister died several years ago.

So I was hoping for a, "why would you ask that?" or some kind of negative response, because the others were so generic.
06:55 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 9/14
So she said, "She's busy doing other stuff."

And I thought, "bingo, this is definitely a scammer."

So I said, "Sorry that was a test and you failed. Goodbye, I will be blocking this account."

And I did. I deleted the request and reported the account.
06:56 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 10/14
But then I got worried that maybe someone else might fall for this, because this is someone that I know through church circles, and Lord knows sometimes Christians can be gullible. So I texted her dad and said, "hey some scammer is posing as your daughter on FB."
07:00 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 11/14
And he texted back immediately, like "hey thanks for the heads up."
07:00 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 12/14
And then I got another text like 30 minutes later.

"Wait, were you responding to her friend request?"

And then I said, "OMG THAT WAS REALLY HER??!?!"
07:01 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 13/14
Friends, I just invoked this poor girl's dead sister for what seemed like no reason, and then when she responded in a confusing way, I blocked her.

There's no getting around it... I AM THE ASSHOLE IN THIS SCENARIO.
07:03 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0
Jelani Greenidge
A
thread 14/14
I'm thankful that after unblocking her account and apologizing, she was cool about it, and -- at least I hope, anyway -- we can still be actual friends IRL.

But GOOD GOD THAT WAS AWKWARD.

So just call me the Black Larry David, and if you need me I'll be kvetching about restaurants or something.
07:06 PM - Mar 27, 2024
0
0

 

{{ notificationModalContent }} {{ promptModalMessage }}