18th October, 2017 By Christopher Boyd
Scammers often come crawling out of the woodwork in all sorts of places you wouldn’t necessarily expect. This is to their advantage when trying to keep suspicion in check; after all, we’re pretty much pre-programmed to think 419 scams will only wander into our inboxes.
Twitter, though? That’s a little different. Oh, and this scammer also wants me to adopt his pretend son in return for 60 million USD, just to keep things firmly in the land of “this can’t be happening.”
Our tale begins with a Twitter DM (direct message) from a sock-puppet account designed to look like a member of the armed forces. This is a common 419 social media tactic during times of natural disaster, as potential victims may be more inclined to believe the fake account really is part of a relief effort—and could you send that $100 via wire transfer a little faster, please?
Our fake army general here isn’t interested in natural disasters; he begins outreach with a quoted message from the Pope, and a request to send a mail about something important:
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