When I got home this evening, I found a comment on one of my recent postings. It said:
“I’m really
impressed with your profile and personality. I also admire your good sense of
humor here. I don’t normally write in the comment section, but I think you deserve
this compliment…I don’t want to barge into your privacy by sending you a request
without your consent. Kindly add me up as a friend if you don’t mind thanks and
remain blessed. Stay positive.”
The poster went by the name of Camilo
Perez.
I’ve seen postings somewhat like this
before, but they are most often from sexually alluring females looking to
establish a relationship – which may eventually lead to asking for money for
some reason. This one had all the elements of a scam, but was a bit more
sophisticated than others I’d seen. I initially thought of just ignoring or
even deleting the comment. Then I thought about responding back to the
individual that I had found them out. But there was so much material here that
I finally settled on doing a detailed analysis of this profile and seeing how
many “red flags” there were in what was otherwise a quite elaborate scam.
Overview
At first glance, Camilo seems like a
legitimate person. Her profile picture, shown here, is not elaborate or overtly
sexual. She is a young woman of apparent oriental descent, shown looking over
her shoulder while she is on some elaborate balcony. The round picture shows
what seems to be the same person looking over a sunset on a beach somewhere.
[Camilo]
Her intro, shown below, is also nicely
done. She appears to be some sort of senior executive of a legitimate company.
She has attended (and presumedly graduated from) a university in Singapore.
Some of the writing is in traditional Chinese, consistent with being from
Singapore. While she states she is from Singapore, she is currently living in Toronto.
She is divorced. Note that all of these are designed to make her somewhat
alluring – upper class, foreign, but well traveled, available. The details
behind these facts all have dates attached to them. She claims to be 38, has
been divorced since 2017 – the same year that her current employment started,
and the dates of her school attendance appear to be relatively consistent with
that age. Well designed. But when we look deeper the problems start to appear.
[Intro]
Looking Deeper
First, let’s look at her name – Camilo Perez.
Both the first name and last name are typically of Spanish origin. They are NOT
the name of a young woman who was born and raised in Singapore. While it’s
possible that Perez is the name of her former husband, individuals from Chinese
culture (including Singapore) do not change their surnames when they marry.
That was the first red flag to me.
I then translated the Chinese characters
in her profile. She claims to be a graduate of Raffles Junior College in
Singapore. That is a legitimate institution. The dates of her attendance are
from August 31, 1998, to June 30, 2004. That’s six years – which is correct as Raffles
provides secondary education for years 1-6 (ages 13-18). However, it is further
stated on their website that it “provides secondary education for boys only
from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both boys and girls in
Year 5 and Year 6.” But Camilo is a girl! Therefore, she could not have
attended this institution for six years, only for two. Oops!
Next, her schooling at the National
University of Singapore is listed as having started in 2003 and ended in 2008.
That’s five years. But she talks in her overview of “Four years of university
career…” and “I love these four years, and I commemorate these four years!” I
guess the 2003 was a mistake? The Chinese characters in her overview translate
to some of her course work in Communication Engineering, Computer Science and
Technology, Internet, Data Analysis and Processing.
Finally, let’s look at her employment – at
least the last employer which is all she lists. SafeFlex International Ltd, is
a legitimate company. However, all their offices and manufacturing facilities
are in India. Their website does show red dots around the world where they have
sales agents. But they have NO presence in Toronto! So how is Camilo able to
live there? And while Market Research Manager seems like a reasonable title for
a mid-career individual, she also says that she is an “Executive President,”
whatever that is. The list of top company officers on the SafeFlex website
shows that all of them are Indian, and all male. And there is no such title as
Executive President. Wrong place, wrong title, wrong gender. That’s three more
strikes.
Six problems – and so far we’ve only gone
through Camilo’s intro.
Facebook Accounts
Camilo’s Facebook name is Camilo Perez.
But her Facebook address is zhuimeng/008. Is this an indication of who is
behind this account? I thought I’d check to see what else I could find about
zhuimeng.
Zhuimeng/003 is named “Mary Vigil”.
Interestingly, Mary is also from Singapore, also lives in Toronto, and has the
same job as Camilo. The difference is that Mary claims to have studied cloud
computing at the University of Toronto. Gee, do we see a pattern here?
Zhuimeng/005 is named “Amy Jiang”. She says
she’s from Wuhan, China, but lives in New York City. Although she claims to
have gone to Huazhong University of Science and Technology, her description of
her four years there is identical to Camilo’s. A coincidence? I think not.
Zhuimeng/009 is named “Merry Wood”. She
also says she is from Singapore and studied at Raffles Junior College (for 7
years), then went to NUS (a classmate of Camilo’s), then further studied at the
University of Toronto (a classmate of Mary’s). She works for Flex International
(a competitor of SafeFlex International)?
Zhuimeng/010 is named “Amy Cobos”. Her intro
is identical to Camilo’s.
Gee, five young ladies of Chinese origin,
all now living in North America, all with university educations, all either
single or divorced, all with technology positions at reputable companies. Must
be a coincidence!
If I were Zhuimeng, I’d have trouble
keeping all of these profiles straight.
Postings and Pictures
The posts and pictures on all five of the
above accounts follow the same pattern. The first post was made about six
months ago. Most of the pictures are of food – usually in exotic restaurants. There
are few if any pictures with Amy/Mary/Camilo/etc. in them. Each account has at
least one picture of a pet – usually a dog. I went through and most of the
pictures are unique to that account. However, “Mary” and “Amy Cobos” both own
the same dog! And there may be other accounts maintained by this same person
that I have not found. But let me comment on a few from just Camilo’s account.
Here are several of the food pictures
posted to this account. There is no identification of where/when they were
taken, although obviously there is a date on the posting.
[Food pictures]
I did find a few things about them. First,
the picture pair with the wine bottles was posted twice – a month apart. That
looks like a mistake on the part of Zhuimeng. The bottle of wine shown is a
fairly expensive bottle – several hundred dollars – and is meant to convey some
of the “upper class” tastes of Camilo. The one with the meat and cheese is from
someone else’s social media account (thanks, Google image search) and the title
that Camilo posted with the picture is similarly stolen from that same other
posting. Thus, these are NOT ones that “she” took.
I also searched for copies of the below
image collection meant to show how Camilo was educated as she reads a lot. All
four of the pictures can be found elsewhere on the Internet. So “she” is not
really a reader either!
[Book pictures]
Finally, I looked at the below picture of
a nicely set table taken in a restaurant high above the city. I’ve done enough
world travelling, including to both Singapore and Toronto, that I could tell
that it was not taken in either of those cities. Zooming in, I was pretty sure
that it was St. Paul’s Cathedral across the Thames River in London and a quick
use of Google Maps confirmed that it was. When I then used Google’s image
search it immediately noted that the picture was taken from the hotel called
the Shard, which I had already identified on the map. There were other pictures
posted just a few days later that I identified as being in New York City. I
guess Camilo’s job as “Executive President” must pay pretty well as she gets
around a lot and can stay in pricy hotels!
Friends
It should be pretty obvious that all of
these accounts are meant to attract individuals to become friends of these “girls”.
Zhuimeng has been at this for about six months (based on the earliest
postings). And the comment on my posting indicate that this “fishing” is still
going on. So, is it yielding any benefits?
Neither “Amy Cobos” nor “Amy Jiang” have
any friends/followers. No one has made any comments on any of their postings,
nor has anyone “liked” any of their pictures. However, the other three accounts
are beginning to get some interest. “Mary Vigil” has attracted four people, “Merry
Wood” has attracted three, and “Camilo Perez” has attracted four. That’s nearly
a dozen people (nearly all men) who have fallen for these fake accounts and
have liked the postings or even commented on them.
Summary
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Fake
accounts like these may outnumber the real ones. I was only able to identify
these because I know enough about how account names work and took the time to
track down all the zhuimeng accounts.
The moral of the story – be vigilant! Don’t
believe the things that you find. Don’t make “friends” with people you don’t
know. And don’t give away personal information. Thus far it appears that these
five accounts detailed here are only at the friend gathering stage. But who
knows what the ultimate intention of zhuimeng is. Or what private messages he
may have already sent to those dozen or so friends he has already gathered.
