I guess I was trying out the lead section of Hotel California by the Eagles on my guitar. Then, suddenly a notification popped on my computer that I had received a contact request from an unknown user on Skype. Her profile picture was blurry and her personal info was incomplete.

At first, I refused to accept the request but I don’t know why I accepted that request eventually.  Then it was obvious that she would message me. Her first message was, “Hello, are you there?” Anyone receiving that message would surely reply. At least, I did. Then, she started being moody with me. I knew she was in need of a companion. You will surely have guessed what happened next. She wanted me to see her. All of her.

She said, “Make sure kids aren’t messing around. Now I will send you a crushcam invite where you can see all of me. All you have to do is accept the request on the website.” 

I doubted her, so I asked, “Why don’t you first update your personal info and profile picture so that I can believe you.” My request was met with irresponsiveness from her side. I noticed this was not the first time she had been passive in replying to my message. I knew she couldn’t be any of my friends pranking me so I thought of looking up the website on YouTube. There, I found president Obama inviting the Super Bowl Champion to the White House which was none of my business. So then I switched to Google where I finally found all of my answers. Instead of talking to a real person, I was talking to a bot. Although I must admit, it was extremely fun chatting with a bot.

Lastly, my best guess regarding this chatting bot is that it was surely a scam:  credit card fraud. Elise mentions in her article at Ensisoft lab that they were requested to fill out the registration form but that their credit card information was mandatory for registration, something they had not agreed to. In the end, it was all about gaining credit card securities.

I was saved from all of that because of Google. I want to thank Google for making me aware of such scams even if I don’t have a credit card of my own. I suggest anybody who has been the victim of similar frauds to immediately contact their card provider or bank so that the card is immediately blocked and their funds are secure.

Manandhar is a Bachelors student at The British College