Probable Scam

[mcpowell]

Hey All, just as a public notice and word of warning.

I follow several Cozumel groups on Facebook and one of them is the dive operator I use. Bottomtime Divers is excellent, and has nothing to do with this other than Raul (owner) helped confirm it. Raul posts pictures occasionally on FB to his profile and I commented on one that was of our dive group. And then I noticed a few days later a lady named Emily has asked me to DM her as she had some questions regarding Bottomtime Divers. All of “Emily’s” questions seemed pertinent and on point, but then a few red flags started going off. And then she asked me to be her friend. Nope…Happily married here, and not interested in being a friend to a probable FB scammer.

And so I blocked “Emily” and reached out to Raul to tell him. And Raul agreed “Emily” is a scammer and had reached out to a couple of other people who had replied to his posts. I don’t know what the endgame is. But I sorta felt like if I had asked to meet, I would have woken up in a bath tub of ice somewhere with a six inch incision where my kidney used to be.

I hope this is an isolated case, but thought I would put out the word just in case.

 

[ggunn]

Hey All, just as a public notice and word of warning.

I follow several Cozumel groups on Facebook and one of them is the dive operator I use. Bottomtime Divers is excellent, and has nothing to do with this other than Raul (owner) helped confirm it. Raul posts pictures occasionally on FB to his profile and I commented on one that was of our dive group. And then I noticed a few days later a lady named Emily has asked me to DM her as she had some questions regarding Bottomtime Divers. All of “Emily’s” questions seemed pertinent and on point, but then a few red flags started going off. And then she asked me to be her friend. Nope…Happily married here, and not interested in being a friend to a probable FB scammer.

And so I blocked “Emily” and reached out to Raul to tell him. And Raul agreed “Emily” is a scammer and had reached out to a couple of other people who had replied to his posts. I don’t know what the endgame is. But I sorta felt like if I had asked to meet, I would have woken up in a bath tub somewhere with a six inch incision where my kidney used to be.

I hope this is an isolated case, but thought I would put out the word just in case.

Several times I have gotten texts "by accident" from women (they always claim to be women) calling me by a name that isn't mine. When I reply that it isn't me and they have a wrong number, they gush about how kind and considerate I am for pointing out their error, and by the way what's my name? Nope. No reply and block the number.

 

[ReefHound]

I ignore any requests in comments to message or friend.

I simply do not respond to any messages on my phone. I don't want to confirm it's a working number.

 

[gamon]

The endgame is money. It's not that they're lonely and looking to make friends.

These spammer/scammers are commonplace on FB and people really need to be less ignorant and recognize the red flags that are obvious with fake profiles.

Including but not limited to them requesting you to message them because their profile is limited by the FB algorithm as it's deemed to be suspicious.

There really is no good reason to post a thread here on ScubaBoard about a possible scam, if every possible scam was turned into a ScubaBoard thread this place would be over run with them.

Just block and move on. Or point out in a short reply that the Op is a fake profile. Hopefully people will smarten up. But from what I've seen so far it doesn't look promising.

Especially when they post a picture of a hottie.

 

[Shawn C]

There really is no good reason to post a thread here on ScubaBoard about a possible scam, if every possible scam was turned into a ScubaBoard thread this place would be over run with them.

Except that this scammer is targeting several divers using Bottomtime Divers. I follow a couple of Cozumel dive ops on FB and would want to know if anyone was targeting people in these groups.

 

[lexvil]

What a bunch of cynics! I’m gonna discuss all of this distrust with my good buddy from Nigeria when he gets here, he is very well connected in his country but couldn’t buy a ticket here or get a rental car because of all this skepticism! I had to give him all of my personal information and cc number just so he could visit and bring me a very important gift! I could go on and about you terrible people but I need to go outside and talk to this person who just put a for sale sign in front of my house, must be some sort of mistake! Oh crap that tow truck driver is also lost and is trying to tow my car! Damn!! Gotta go…

 

[DandyDon]

The endgame is money.

I get messages from pretty young ladies frequently. They usually lose interest when I convey that cypro funds are fake money.

 

[morecowbells]

Thanks for posting this! I also use Bottom Time Divers. Sometimes I will get a friend request from somebody that I do not know. I will look at their mutual friends just in case it is somebody that I met when traveling, school etc., but initially didn't recognize their name. 99% of the time, it is a scammer. Glad you posted this.

 

[hilljo88]

And have you gotten the message that you have unpaid traffic tix sent from a random phone number or email?

 

[mcpowell]

And have you gotten the message that you have unpaid traffic tix sent from a random phone number or email?

Yes. But that one repeats enough to be easily identified.

“Emily” had pretty astute questions I.e, where are surface intervals?, are the dives on the same reefs?, how many people on a boat?, is the current to strong for observing macro life, etc. this person either has a basic knowledge of diving or has done a lot of research.

I was suspicious from the start, but not certain.

I may spend a few minutes today looking at other dive operators’ FB pages today to see if they are targeting more than just people responding to Bottomtime divers.