March 7, 2006

Sometime early in February 2006 - I received a peculiar message [in thick russian engrish] on my MySpace.com account from someone calling herself "Alena".

The message was pretty long winded and flattering, which in itself is kind of strange, because I had almost NO details about myself on there. I rarely got any messages at all, nevermind "fan mail".

In her message, Alena asked me to reply directly to her email address (also odd) as opposed to replying to the myspace account, because apparently the myspace account she was using belonged to her "friend". (i'm guessing that whoever was behind this caper knew that it would be a very short time before their myspace account got deleted)

At the time, curiosity got the better of me, and I did write to the address, and simply said "who are you?". That's IT. That's all I wrote. One line, no signature, just that. Not even a capital on the "Who".

A couple of weeks later, I got a reply to my mail, but by this time I had completely forgotten about the strange message on myspace.

I almost deleted the email from Alena, but just by chance, I opened it up and read it, because for some reason the subject line didn't quite register in my brain as spam.

Wow. Hot girl huh? And she's mad about me, or so it would seem.

I was perplexed. Obviously it wasn't a mistake; this person had definitely sent an email to me. But I was pretty sure that no sane person could be this excited about a 100x200 pixel picture of me on a desloate myspace account. So that leads me to the next logical conclusion, that this had to be a hoax. (I've never been personally targeted for a hoax before. How exciting!) So in a moment that was a combination of curiosity, and (based on that sexy picture) some teeny bit of hope that this chick was for real, I wrote back. Perhaps it was that bare belly that got me hooked. I'm such a pervert.

Immediately after hitting the send button, I started to regret having done so; my logical faculties were really starting to kick in, and the more I examined her email, the more I became convinced that this had to be a hoax. It sort of struck me as the same kind of crap you'd hear from a fortune teller. Stuff that could apply to just about anyone.

I started googling, and sure enough, this is a pretty common phenomenon. I can only imagine that in the most unfortunate of cases, the scenario ends up with some schmuck parting with his bank account number, and getting nothing in return but a few sexy pics of some innocent east european girl who has no idea that her photos have been used in the deception. (ever heard of identity theft? this is it!)

But what the hell. I havent given any real personal information, so I didn't worry about it.

A day or so goes by, and i receive email # 2 , and, uh, email # 3 (two emails in one day? must be a clerical error at the hoax headquarters)

Another nice pic... and what's this? she is talking about meeting and falling in love? It looks like I've underestimated the power of myspace!

I wrote back to her (him? it? is it a bot??) asking how on earth she can be talking about falling in love (don't hoaxers have any sense of timing??). I think she had received all of 100 words from me up to this point. It was pretty hard to believe the hype. (Unfortunately I didnt keep a copy of this one in my sent items, sorry)

Ah, but apparently I misunderstood. She only "search for the man". But she lays it on pretty heavy right after that! And my GOD is this girl hot!! I wonder where they're pulling these pics from?

So now that I know for sure there is someone on the other end, I ask some semi-pointed questions with a little bit of schmaltz - I dont really want the con to know I'm on to them, I am rather enjoying this! This is risky. Responding to a pointed question might be enough of a nuisance to stop a busy con artist and move on to an easier target.

Not surprisingly, this is what I got back. And I thought that would have been the end of it.... but I was in luck! I think the situation must have got handed to a level-2 tech support (er, con support), because my questions have been answered!

Blimey! She's just becoming more and more head over heels in love with me with each passing day. And really, who can blame her? So now, there is little for me to do but to confess that I share her feelings.....

I will keep you posted as to the response (if any) :-D

PS - If there was any possibiltity as to the reality of Alena's existence, it can be pretty much obliterated by the by the fact that the emails have all originated from here - a site that people use as a proxy in order completely obfuscate their real whereabouts.