Weird Friend Requests

This has been becoming more and more frequent.

Less than a month old accounts that I have never seen before friend request me. After accepting, they start with "Hello, how are you?" I greet them back and ask the same. They answer and immediately ask," Where are you from?"," How old are you?", and sometimes," Where do you live?". Just for them to close within the week. I always lie.

Is this some sort of data collecting? Why is it happening more and more frequently? What is going on?

gimme some usernames

That would be naming and shaming.

DM them

Oh shoot i hope it isn't data mining of any sort cuz I always accept them.

As long as you don't give any information or lie you should be ok.

I've never accepted a random friend request (why would I?) but now I'm tempted. See if I can figure out the scam.

None of the randoms I accepted have ever done anything or sent me weird messages. They just sit there stagnant.

Thanks. I'm no longer tempted.

@AbyssalSludge

Hello, how are you?

Where are you from?

How old are ?

Where do you live ?

I'm going to guess that it is a romance scam of some kind, targeting lonely people. If you engage, they will turn the conversation to romance. They're looking for victims who will fall in love, and then they milk them for money. "I am low on rent this month" or "My brother is in debt to bad people" or whatever. They might exchange compromising photos or information and then blackmail the victim. Ironically, intelligent people are more likely to fall for this kind of scam, because they believe themselves to be too smart to fall for such a scam, so be careful, especially if you think you are too smart to fall for such a scam.

Well, I'm not lonely. And they haven't really asked those types of questions.

LOL