Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Honey Trap Con Artist Scheme


The notion of the honey trap is used in reality and in fiction. You can find it as a technique of the private investigator and the spy, turning an asset or a mark to do their bidding or expose them by the use of some fetching eye candy that puts them in a compromising position. Incidentally, it also happens to be used by the infernal nuisance that is the internet scammer (homo spammeritis annoyingus). I have seen such techniques used before- I recall one Kate Desmond with the standard Nigerian scam message and a picture of a party girl.

This turned up in a Facebook group page recently, the same comment in several discussions, by one Lacroche Rose (at least that's the name she, he, or it was using). A look at the Facebook profile gives us these model shot photos and claims she's originally from Quebec, and lives in Canada, Kentucky. Another look online says there actually is an unincorporated township by the name of my country in Kentucky... but seriously. Come on. 


moi je suis rose LACROCHE je travaille entant que cordinatrice et en meme temps secretaire d'un actionnaire Mr maxime viret un preteur d'argent pour tout vos besoin,Vous êtes à la recherche d’un prêt pour la mise en place de vos projets ou pour consolider vos dettes. Vous avez besoin d’un fonds de financement pour la réalisation de vos projets. Avez-vous reçu une interdiction bancaire et pour cela, les banques n’acceptent plus de vous faire de prêt. Moi je tiens à vous dire que je suis disponible pour vous aider dans vos problèmes de demande de prêt partant de 10.000€ à 15.000.000€ avec un taux de pourcentage très avantageux qui pourra vous aider a vous en sortir. Si vous en êtes intéressé, n’hésité pas à le contacter pour plus d’informations sur mon offre. De grâce, personne sérieuses et capables de me rembourser veuillez bien le contacter par e-mail:



I'm pink LACROCHE I entant cordinatrice that works and at the same time secretary of a shareholder Mr maxim viret a lender of money for all your needs , you are looking for a loan for the implementation of your projects or to consolidate your debts . You need a fund for the realization of your projects. Have you received a banking ban and for this , banks are no longer willing to make you a loan. I want to tell you that I am available to help you with your loan application problems starting from € 10,000 to € 15 million with a very attractive percentage rate that will help you get by. If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact him for more information about my offer . Please, serious person and able to pay me back please contact us at e- mail:


Looking more at the profile, we get more tell tale signs of the Nigerian Scammer. The one like she has is a Nigerian politician. What person living in a quiet rural corner of Kentucky has only a single like: a politician in another country? A number of her "friends" (aside from the guys drooling over her come hither pictures) happen to hail from certain parts of Africa known for launching internet scams. 

These pictures are no doubt taken from stock photos of a model who has no idea she's been co-opted into another variation on the Nigerian Scammer ploy. The scammers hope that enough guys will be thinking with some other part of their anatomy (well, guys tend to do that) instead of their brains by dangling photos like these before them. Their best hope? That the suckers will shrug after asking themselves, "What's the worst that can happen if I give her all my banking code information?" 


And even with translation software not quite getting the translation right, how hard is it to sort out who you're referring to, "Rose Lacroche"?  Is it your boss or you that supposedly has access to all this dough just waiting to be loaned out through Facebook of all things? Because how many secretaries in the world have that kind of ready access to that kind of money? You say it right there: "do not hesitate to contact him for more information about my offer."  Yeah, right. And then there's your closing line: "please serious person and able to pay me back"... what is that all about? Were you drunk when you wrote that?

Nice try, scammers. Why don't you do us all a favour? 

Cover yourself in barbecue sauce and honey mustard. 

Take a sleeping pill.

And lie down near a pack of hyenas.



14 comments:

  1. Who do they think reads their garbage?
    Jane x

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  2. I thought of you, William, because I've been getting requests on FB from people who I don't know and you can't even click on their names to view their profiles.I'm thinking they are scammers.

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  3. Hope you make a lot of money off people wanting to know about scammers!

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  4. Remember the one who hit on several of you guys at Writers Digest?

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  5. @Jane and Chris: in this case, drooling idiots who actually believe the model is the person they're dealing with.

    @Roger: most definitely.

    @Eve: they never will.

    @Kelly: I get them from women on Facebook with the same sort of concept- lots of selfies with come hither looks. I only take friend requests if we have mutual friends or if I've interacted enough with a person in a group or page there long enough to know who they are.

    @Cheryl: I wish!

    @Norma: was that "Kate Desmond" herself?

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  6. You'd be amazed how many young men (from Africa) want to be my Friend. There is also the distinguished looking white male with silver hair. Once it was even one with all black hair. He probably dyed it. They must really think us clueless.

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  7. I love hyenas. Then again, I am not covered in barbecue sauce and honey mustard.

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  8. Petrea you win the best comment today !

    cheers, parsnip

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  9. If you love to write, you already know that sex, drugs, and rock & roll are the lazy person's weapon of enticement into all things which are scammy. :)

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  10. I read somewhere that if a newsreader was a very attractive young lady.. when men were asked afterwards what the news headlines were, they wouldn't have a clue :) maybe scammers work on the same principle :)

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  11. It is rather amazing what a pretty face can do! Too bad it isn't generally good things :)

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  12. Some time in the last two years the hot spot for romance scammers moved from Lagos Nigeria to Accra Ghana, though the bosses tend to be Nigerian. Nigeria must have gotten tired of being known primarily for the romance scammers, advance fee scammers and the Nigerian Prince scammers.
    Interestingly, there have been some political moves within Ghana to kick out the Nigerian invaders and their scams. The Ghana BNI supposedly takes the scammer operations very seriously.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_National_Investigations

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Comments and opinions always welcome. If you're a spammer, your messages aren't going to last long here, even if they do make it past the spam filters. Keep it up with the spam, and I'll send Dick Cheney after you.