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Comment by somehnguy | Hacker News Reader

The scammer almost immediately sending a bunch of photos of 'himself' is very interesting to me.

I've noticed the same technique on dating apps. 9/10 times if the person you're talking to is not real they'll send a 'casual' looking photo after 3-4 back and forth messages, completely unsolicited.

Like the author of this article it seems to be a misguided attempt to prove that they're real somehow and immediately gives away that they're not. When this happens on dating apps I like to give them my Google Voice number and play along for a bit to waste their time. They usually end up pretty angry and it makes me laugh.

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I've noticed the same technique on dating apps. 9/10 times if the person you're talking to is not real they'll send a 'casual' looking photo after 3-4 back and forth messages, completely unsolicited.

I used to do the same when online dating -- despite many people's claim to the contrary, much of dating is physical (i.e. visual) attraction, so I sent additional pics (natural, not staged) early in the conversation just to find out if it was going to go anywhere... whether solicited or not.

But I was male -- if a super attractive woman sent me pics unsolicited, then I knew it was a scam. (my apologies if any real women were out there that look like super models, but were searching for your true love online if only someone would help you pay for a visa)

So you're saying dating sites are also full of scammers trying to con people out of money somehow? That fits. I have a (decades) old account on one of them which I recently noticed was sending messages to my spam folder. I reset the password etc to get back into the account, where I found a bunch of fake pictures (i.e. not of me) along with the old text I had there and my own attributes. Was wondering what was going on. I guess my pictures weren't deemed good enough for the scam.

I had that happen and I pointed out that the website already had her photos up, and I had mine up. But she was really insistent that she send me a pic anyway so she could prove she was real. Any time someone tells you they're a real person without you asking if they're a real person is a bit fishy.

Sending unsolicited photos of yourself is weird. But sending a link to your instagram or twitter. Of course, if the scammer had social media, then people would report them to get their accounts banned or there would be comments about being fake. Not to mention having 1 followers.

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