EPISODE · Jul 22, 2018 · 3 MIN
Facebook Friends Part 2
from Megan Publishing Services Podcast · host Owen Jones
Facebook Friends Part 2(From part one: "Then there was a huge group of 'beautiful women'. This group is the one I found most interesting. Naturally...")I would say there were about four hundred in my group of new Facebook friends. They all came from Texas, and most of them from Austin. None of them had any friends, or one or two older men, no interests, no place of birth, zilch. Most of these liars had a birth date in the Nineties. Only about a dozen of these females, if that is what they were, complied with my request to vote for my book. Most ignored it and asked whether I was married, had kids, made good money, owned my own house, etc. When I say most, I mean 395 out of 400!I started to wonder about these people after about ten of them asked me to send them an iTunes card. So, I started asking for selfies taken there and then, in an attempt to check that they were actually women. About half sent me photos that could have been copied from anywhere. I assume that they were older women, in a relationship or even men.When I questioned them further, some got angry, some sent me nude photos (again could have been copied from any porn site, and some, probably a hundred, said the camera on their smartphone was broken. About a hundred sent me probably genuine selfies, some rude, and offered to come and live with me 'because they had fallen for me'.Further conversation revealed that nearly all the women were currently in sub-Saharan Africa attending their sick mother, but would be returning to Austin 'soon'.This is an industry, really... a large industry. Nearly all those people were African, but there were other groups of Asians and South Americans. Mostly on the make. Many young women in the last two groups offered private, live sex shows for payment, but I never asked how much. $5-$10 would be my guess. I did see a few free samples and they did seem live, as opposed to pre-recorded.I met about a dozen men who asked me to help them get funds out of their country by giving them my bank details, but they stood no chance.Finally, I met two women, one in Mexico and one in Ghana who were brilliant. They both offered to help me (in non-sexual ways), and I think that we will be friends for a long time.So, that was my experience - two friends out of the new fifteen hundred.However, I learned to take precautions with my Facebook account's permissions, after one angry person started posting on my timeline in an obnoxious manner because I wouldn't buy her an iTunes card and I felt really sorry for a girl who was (genuinely) worried about her mother's health. She wanted $200 to set up a fruit stall, but I didn't send it.Update: the 'Mexican woman' actually got me a job interview with a Scandinavian bank, which I am following up :-)
What this episode covers
Facebook Friends Part 2(From part one: "Then there was a huge group of 'beautiful women'. This group is the one I found most interesting. Naturally...")I would say there were about four hundred in my group of new Facebook friends. They all came from Texas, and most of them from Austin. None of them had any friends, or one or two older men, no interests, no place of birth, zilch. Most of these liars had a birth date in the Nineties. Only about a dozen of these females, if that is what they were, complied with my request to vote for my book. Most ignored it and asked whether I was married, had kids, made good money, owned my own house, etc. When I say most, I mean 395 out of 400!I started to wonder about these people after about ten of them asked me to send them an iTunes card. So, I started asking for selfies taken there and then, in an attempt to check that they were actually women. About half sent me photos that could have been copied from anywhere. I assume that they were older women, in a relationship or even men.When I questioned them further, some got angry, some sent me nude photos (again could have been copied from any porn site, and some, probably a hundred, said the camera on their smartphone was broken. About a hundred sent me probably genuine selfies, some rude, and offered to come and live with me 'because they had fallen for me'.Further conversation revealed that nearly all the women were currently in sub-Saharan Africa attending their sick mother, but would be returning to Austin 'soon'.This is an industry, really... a large industry. Nearly all those people were African, but there were other groups of Asians and South Americans. Mostly on the make. Many young women in the last two groups offered private, live sex shows for payment, but I never asked how much. $5-$10 would be my guess. I did see a few free samples and they did seem live, as opposed to pre-recorded.I met about a dozen men who asked me to help them get funds out of their country by giving them my bank details, but they stood no chance.Finally, I met two women, one in Mexico and one in Ghana who were brilliant. They both offered to help me (in non-sexual ways), and I think that we will be friends for a long time.So, that was my experience - two friends out of the new fifteen hundred.However, I learned to take precautions with my Facebook account's permissions, after one angry person started posting on my timeline in an obnoxious manner because I wouldn't buy her an iTunes card and I felt really sorry for a girl who was (genuinely) worried about her mother's health. She wanted $200 to set up a fruit stall, but I didn't send it.Update: the 'Mexican woman' actually got me a job interview with a Scandinavian bank, which I am following up :-)
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Facebook Friends Part 2
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