Would the real Judy Eliassen please stand up
Mark Honeychurch - 30 October 2023
I recently received a friend request from Judy Eliassan, the office admin for the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists - an Auckland-based organisation I’m involved with that fights for secularisation of our country. This friend request was odd, as I was a little surprised that I wasn’t already friends with her. But at first glance the account looked legitimate, as we already had a mutual friend. So, not thinking too much of it, I clicked the Accept button. A couple of hours later I realised that, no, I was already Facebook friends with the real Judy, and the account I had just friended was a cloned account (the cloned account is on the right below):
Now, this is a scam that happens on Facebook a lot. There’s no hacking involved - if your account has ever been cloned like this, you can be reassured that nobody’s needed to get hold of your Facebook password or find a backdoor into Facebook (if they had, they wouldn’t bother to create a fake account - they’d just use your real account). When an account’s privacy settings are set to a level where everyone can see your name, profile photo and other details, it’s easy for a scammer to copy this information and use it to make an identical account. And this is what happened with Judy’s account; the scammers were able to read some of the basic details of her account, and used them to create an identical-looking account and send out friend requests to all her Facebook friends.
One of the signs that the new account was a fake one was the lack of history. Here’s the real Judy’s Facebook wall, with lots of photos posted over the last few years, some historical posts, etc.
Fake Judy’s account, however, looks a little bare in comparison:
Now, I’d like to think that usually I don’t fall for these tricks, and in the past I’ve always reported the fake account. But, given that recently I’ve had some fun with leading scammers on, I figured I’d wait with this one and see what happens.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the scammers to leap into action. At 1am (which I’m pretty sure is way later than the real Judy’s bedtime), I received a message from the fake account - “Hello…how are you doing today?”, to which I responded with a noncommittal “I’m good - how are you?”
I was told by “Judy” that her life was going well, as she’d recently been helped out financially by the Publisher’s Clearing House - PCH:
Everything is working well for me, I’m happy with every single thing happening around me, thanks for asking and I don’t know if you’re aware of the PCH… It’s the PUBLISHER CLEARING HOUSE program that gives out money Consideration to help people maintain good standard of living, buying of homes, paying bills, eradication of poverty and set up more Business..have you heard from them? This program i got $100,000.00 delivered to me when i applied for the PCH program and you don’t have to pay it back. I could send you their agent contact to apply for it if you wouldn’t mind
Now, even if I wasn’t already aware that this was a scam, the bad grammar would have tipped me off. However, when I expressed my keen interest with an overly-effusive “Wow, really? Why would I contact them? Could I be eligible for this as well? If so, then please do send me their contact details!”, I chose to click the link I was given to a Facebook profile for “Agent Patrick Smith” from the PCH. I mean, just look at this man, doesn’t he look trustworthy - like he could be my grandpa:
Sadly, Agent Patrick Smith didn’t want to talk to me, and ignored my messages - so I was told “This is the second link if they didn’t get back to you on time just message him there okay”, and was given a second link to a different account to message.
Hmmmm, I wondered - two almost identical accounts called “Agent Patrick Smith” being used for a popular scam. What are the odds that Facebook are actively shutting these down, and blocking attempts to create new accounts with the same name. Well, a quick search for “Agent Patrick Smith” in People on Facebook suggests that the company really doesn’t care about this. These are just some of the accounts I found:
This is as disappointing as it is unsurprising. In recent years Facebook seems to have really dialled back on their desire to tackle fake accounts, presumably in the name of profitability through receiving a boost to their daily active user numbers. Given that many of these accounts are trying to scam the company’s legitimate users, though, I just don’t think it’s good enough.
Anyway, I started a conversation with Patrick number two, to see if I was eligible for any of this cash money Judy had told me about (in all following conversations, the scammer’s text is left-aligned, and my text is right-aligned and italicised):
Hi Patrick, I was told by my friend Judy to contact you about the PCH program. I’ve messaged you on another account, but you didn’t respond. Are you online?
My name is Agent Patrick Smith in charge of the PUBLISHER CLEARING HOUSE (PCH) going on,We need some information from you before we confirm maybe you are the Qualify of This Program are you ready to apply for the program?.
Yeah, abso-fucking-lutely!
What is your full name so we can check on our Database?
Mark Honeychurch, like on my Facebook profile.
Please Hold on while I run a verification check on our Data Base
Thanks.
Congratulation!! your name is in our data base..we just confirm that you are the Real person we want to Reach ,This is an empowerment program set up by the Federal Government to help the people The compensation money giving to you by the Federal Government it’s not a loan.to help Retired, Widow,Its also for all workers and the community to support or establish their own business or use it to do all what you need do you understand?
Yep, I think so - although your English grammar is a little hard to understand.
Okay now, We will need to confirm some information before we can start processing your application. Are you ready to fill the application form for now?
Yep, I’m ready. Oooh, this is exciting!
GRANT VERIFICATION FORM
FULL NAME:…
MOTHER NAME…
HOME ADDRESS:…
STATE AND CITY…
FACEBOOK EMAIL…
PHONE NUMBER:…
OCCUPATION:…
MONTHLY INCOME:…
SEX:…
MARTIAL STATUS:…
DATE OF BIRTH:…
AGE…
CASH OR CHECK…
PICTURE OF ID or DRIVER LICENSE FRONT AND BACK…
Yep, the “form” I had to fill in was just a bunch of all-caps labels with ellipsis after them, and a fun typo (I’m really not sure what my martial status is). Not sus at all. The driver’s licence was going to be an issue, and I’d given up on a previous scam because I didn’t want to upload any personal ID. But then I had a fun idea, so I stalled for time, saying “Can I get back to you tomorrow with these details? I’ll need to find my driver’s license and take a picture of it.” They tried to get the rest of the details from me, telling me “Okay you can fill out the rest now but you’re going to send the DL in the morning”, but I lied and responded with “I might as well send it all to you tomorrow. It’s pretty late here now, so I need to head to bed.”, and put my plan into action…
The next day, Agent Smith kept pressuring me for my information:
Hello
Hi
We are waiting for you now to fill out the form so that we can run a verification on it
Yep, that’s right.
Good
Do that now Asap
Sorry?
Sorry for what ?
No, I think you misunderstand. In English, when someone is rude to us, we say “Sorry” as a way of pointing out their rudeness - as a way of asking them to check over their words, and give them a chance to walk back what they’ve said.
Okay
You have to fill out the form now
_But I’m at work now, I can’t. I can fill it in when I get home after work.
And, just for the record, “Do that now Asap” is a very rude way of asking me to fill in a form!_
Okay
I’ll message you this evening once I’ve completed the “form”.
Okay
And he chased me up again later that day - by this point, I was getting annoyed with the Agent’s over-use of the word “Okay”, so I started mirroring it:
Hello Mr. Mark hope you didn’t forget to fill out the form so that we can run a verification on it on time
Nope, I’ve not forgotten. I’ve just managed to sort out a picture of my driver’s license. I’ll send it all through to you soon.
Okay
…
Hello
Hi
We are waiting for you
Yes
You have to fill out the form now
Yes, you said that already.
Okay
When are you going to fill out the form now so that we can run a verification on it?
_No, not now. Soon.
Please be patient.
Thank you!_
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
I gave my youngest daughter my driver’s licence, and asked her to create a forgery based on it, but with fake details. I assumed she would get out her colouring pencils and draw me something, but she’s a child of the modern age so she jumped onto Google Slides (an app they use frequently at school) and went about creating me a masterpiece:
Yes, that’s me in the photo - she asked for an old picture, and I found a digital one from a little over 20 years ago. I love what she’s done here - especially my signature, which honestly is closer to my real signature than I want to admit! I sent this back to Agent Patrick, along with answers to the questions, in a wall of run-on text:
FULL NAME:…MARKHONEYCHURCHMOTHER NAME…SAMHOME ADDRESS:…7VENUSWAEYSTATE AND CITY…WELLINGTON2FACEBOOK EMAIL…YESPHONE NUMBER:…0900 45 678OCCUPATION:…ITMONTHLY INCOME:…YESSEX:…MMARTIAL STATUS:…MDATE OF BIRTH:…090909AGE…13CASH OR CHECK…CASHPICTURE OF ID or DRIVER LICENSE FRONT AND BACK…
Now, obviously the driver’s licence image is nonsense that should be picked up on immediately. Also, some of my answers to the questions are a little daft - apparently I’m 13 years old, and my address is 7 Venus Waey, and my phone number is 0900 45678. Some details also clearly don’t match what’s on my fake driver’s licence, like my address and my date of birth - is it the 20th of September 2001, or the 9th of September 2009?
I was warned by the Agent that I could be disqualified if I didn’t provide correct information:
Before we proceed, please be 100% sure that the information you provided about you are your real and correct information about you because we will verify it and if found not really yours, you might be disqualified. Do you understand?
I said I understood, but Agent Smith checked my data anyway - obviously he’s keen to give his money away, and didn’t want me to fail because of a stupid typo. At this point, I was trying to put more Okays in my messages than Agent Smith was, to out-okay him. I think I was winning!
You have to check the form again you have to fill it complete okay
Which part?
Email…
_Ah yes, I have an email
So I put YES in that part.
Was that not right?_
Email is not there
Okay
Send the Email now
Okay
Date of birth
_It’s in there.
I think._
Month income
Did I not put that in there?
You have to send the three now
Okay
_EMAIL: MARKHONEYCHURCH75@GMAIL>COM
DOB: 9th of September 2009
MONTHINCOME:~2581_
So, was my personal information accepted? Did my daughter’s convincing fake ID manage to pull the wool over the eyes of Special Agent Smith of the Publisher’s Clearing House? You’re going to have to check my next newsletter to find out - although the fact that there is a part two might be a hint as to how this is going to go down.