It all started when I began actively seeking men for our secret group, Beyond Black & White Singles. I went to financial and investment pages and joined them, in hopes get great guys for my amazing girls. I thought it would be harmless. Bat my eyes at a few of the single guys and recruit them for our group, and learn some stock tips. Win win.

Little did I know there was an entire cartel of gang members working to scam the members of such groups and bilk them for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. As I started meeting men–some real, and as I would later discover, some fake–I noticed a pattern. All the incredible looking guys I saw had their relationship status as “widowed.”

Now granted, it is a possibility that young men who married can lose their wives. But I saw a SUPER high concentration of men in certain financial circles claiming this status. It’s a statistical impossibility for the amount of men I encountered to all be widowed. For example, out of 10 men I would review, two or three would say they are widowed. Unless there’s a mass rampage of hot guys murdering their loving wives, I’m just not buying it.

And then one of my close girlfriends got enmeshed with a “widowed” man named Pedro who claimed to be rich, powerful, kind, widowed, and looking for a mother for his young children. He also preyed upon her firm religious commitment to Catholicism, and appeared to be everything she was looking for. Sociopaths study their prey.

I thought he was amazing too. But just to be cautious, I advised her to get a background check on this man, which checked out. Not only was he loaded, but he was a government official. I was so incredibly happy for her. It was a whirlwind–he swept her off her feet, and told her she was everything he’d ever wanted. She felt the same. They were talking about making a life together. Until one of my contacts discovered that the man who my friend was engaging with was either cat fishing or cheating on her wife, and gave me the link to the REAL man’s Instagram.

What I found shocked me to my core. Turn’s out the man’s wife was VERY much alive. He was being impersonated by a Nigerian 20-something who is part of a gang of men who actively work to bilk unsuspecting people out of their money.

In this particular case, the hacker knows “Real Pedro” and took on his identity when he was rejected for a job. Once the jig was up, he spilled all the beans.

Yes; he noticed that I informed the “REAL Pedro” he was being impersonated, because this man has completely hacked his account. We have warned “Real Pedro” but so far, we haven’t heard confirmation that he’s taking any action. Although he’d better.

Here’s what FAKE Pedro had in store for my friend. He initially planned to extort her.

Come to find out this imposter is a graduate of the University of Nigeria. I found out because I inadvertently recruited one of his partners, who spilled this entire tea. I’m keeping (his fake name) anonymous, but will be reporting his profile. He informed me that they BOTH attended the university (University of Nigeria) and are on the same team of hackers/scammers, and the rabbit hole goes deeper than you could ever imagine.

The men I found through the financial pages claim “widowed” relationship status because it keeps away meddling questions and elicits sympathy. My contact told me that he infiltrates financial pages to get people to invest small amounts of money (around $500) in order to rob unsuspecting investors of their capital. They poach photos off of Instagram, and often use white people to con Americans.

I did a cross check of the men and then looked at their friends (that didn’t show) but who LIKED their posts. OMG..look…does this name look familiar?

When I asked him how big the network ways, he simply said, “More than you can imagine. No one in social media is safe.”

At the time of this post, Facebook allowed for the imposter to use his name, career, everything, and as of this report, they have done NOTHING to remove this imposter from their platform, despite many of us reporting it.

This is the fault of Facebook. They do nothing about the voluminous amounts of fake profiles on their site, preying on innocent men and women.

So…why do you think the Powers That Be in the country are downplaying the real risk of all of this? Why are there more safeguards? Where are all the articles and warnings?

Because if we really knew how unsafe we all were, none of us would use social media at all–at least those of us with half a brain. And once the information dried up, so would their money. They’re counting on you to believe that this is just a random, spotty occurrence, when in fact, these people are among us freely and no one is safe.

My account was hacked just last week. A company used my account to pay for ads to the tune of $300. Luckily I was able to get it reversed, but I’m not naive enough to think it’s an isolated incidence. Wake up people. Stop being so naive. If you think you’re safe, you’re probably being hacked right now. They’re counting on your ego and hubris.

So how can you tell if an account is fake? The imposters become more sophisticated as time goes on, but your best bet is to cross check their friends, and be suspicious if they don’t show you how many “friends” they have. I discovered the cartel of scammers by looking at the people LIKING their posts and replying, and cross checking their profiles. In order to try to make their profiles look more authentic, they will enlist their gang of thugs to reply, further lending credibility to the profile. 

It’s all connected, folks.

This conspiracy is bigger than any in our government want to admit. Because if the veil is removed, we realize there is no safety, and if people en masse withdraw from all the social media and electronic everything, the economy would collapse. If we really knew how truly vulnerable we were, companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon would go out of business. That’s billions of dollars in revenue that count on both your ignorance and your trust.

If I were to offer an opinion, I think that the narrative up until this point trying to caution the public about predators online and leaving the onus or all responsibility to the common people has absolved the organizations who are making BILLIONS OF DOLLARS exploiting us. There is no really culpability for them. And as we are robbed blind, of our emotions or money, they do the Kanye shrug and tell us we should have known better.

Are you okay with this? I know I’m not.

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