A Mystery Friend Request on The Facebook: Friend Her or Hit Delete?
A few days ago, I received a friend request on The Facebook.
Yes, I’m calling it The Facebook.
The request came from Amy Ford.
My immediate reaction was pretty simple:
Who is Amy Ford?
I have absolutely no clue.
Then the second thought kicked in:
Who would randomly want to be friends with me?
And that's when a little insecurity started creeping in. I'm old. My kidneys are failing. I have one fully intact leg. My eyes aren't exactly operating at 4K resolution. I'm a little chubby.
Yet here comes this attractive stranger wanting to be my friend on The Facebook.
Okay.
What could go wrong?
One Mutual Friend
Before immediately hitting delete, I looked at the profile.
We have one mutual friend.
One.
That's enough to make me curious, but certainly not enough to make me think, Oh, of course! Amy!
Her profile says she's in New York and references Korea, along with the University of Leeds. Her bio says:
“Hi everyone! I’m a somewhat well-known beauty from Korea, LOL.”
That's an interesting introduction.
And yes, the name Amy Ford initially caught my attention, along with the Korean references. Of course, someone from Korea can have an English or Western name, so the name by itself proves absolutely nothing.
But combined with everything else?
My curiosity started winning.
So I Started Digging
I looked through her public posts.
There are posts about New York.
Central Park.
Ballet.
A Cybertruck driving through Manhattan.
Porto Rico Importing Co. in Greenwich Village.
New York Fashion Week.
Plenty of photographs, locations, and little slices of New York life.
At first glance, it looks like someone documenting life in the city.
But then I started looking at the profile as a whole.
The account shows 16 followers and 33 following.
We share only that one mutual connection.
There are highly polished profile and cover images featuring the same woman, including a collage labeled “NEW YORK,” “BEAUTIFUL LIFE,” “SOYEON,” and “SEOUL, KOREA.”
Then there's the University of Leeds reference.
Maybe every bit of it is legitimate.
Maybe Amy is exactly who the profile says she is.
Or maybe this will become another chapter in my growing collection of strange things people send me online.
I don't know.
And that's precisely why I haven't hit Confirm.
I've Seen This Movie Before
After documenting recruiter scams, suspicious social media accounts, fake car sellers, PayPal scams, Geek Squad scams, mystery invoices, and the other nonsense that seems to find its way to me, I've learned something:
Curiosity is powerful.
It's also exactly what questionable accounts can rely on.
The temptation is obvious.
Accept the request.
Don't volunteer any personal information.
Don't click anything.
Don't send money.
And see what happens.
Will “Amy” send a perfectly normal message?
Will she never contact me at all?
Will we suddenly move from Hello to cryptocurrency investing in 14 minutes?
Will an uncle show up with an incredible investment opportunity?
Will WhatsApp or Telegram show up?
Maybe none of that happens.
That's what makes this interesting.
So I'm Putting It to You
I'm genuinely undecided.
There isn't enough here for me to declare that the person behind this account is a scammer. A profile that looks unusual to me isn't proof of anything, and neither is someone's name, appearance, nationality, school, number of friends, or posting style.
But there are enough things that don't immediately add up for me that I'm hesitant to click Confirm.
So, readers, I'm handing you the mouse.
What should I do?
👍 Accept the friend request and see what happens?
🗑️ Delete it and move along?
And more importantly: What do you look for when a stranger sends you a friend request on The Facebook?
I have a feeling the comments on this one could be more entertaining than the friend request.
