Lonely Hearts Club, FB.

There are some obvious catfish/honey traps with random FB accounts with pictures of half-naked women that either send me friend requests from time to time, or are suggested as friends by the Facebook algorithm to me. Remember, these are not celebrities or media personalities that are known to put up thirst traps or dress (or undress) fancilyor provocatively as a stunt or as part of their carefully cultivated image. These are stupid mistakes waiting to happen. These are actual fraudsters. And not very subtle about it too.

That there exist such pages that are trying to bait you into connecting and then run their swindle, hoping you get caught in it, is not at all unusual or unexpected. I usually ignore them or hit ‘Remove’ so they don’t show up again. Of course, as I said, it isn’t a surprise that these are around.

But what is a surprise is the number of mutuals I have with some of them! And some of these mutuals are artists and writers, poets and thinkers, scientists and technology professionals, ex-military men and budding politicians, actors and social media celebrities, activists and journalists, accountants and lawyers, bankers and bureaucrats, with many Masters and several PhDs amongst them, most married or in relationships (at least as declared by them on their ‘About’), many of whom are such rational thinkers and clear articulators of their thoughts on social media that it is shocking to see them having fallen for one of these obvious scams.

I see these names (some of who are my closest contacts here and with whom I interact regularly), and my mind boggles. Then I realise how lonely we humans are for company, for intimacy, for validation, for being told that we are loved and wanted. And I do not judge them.

Happy Valentine’s day to all you lonely folks out there. You deserve to be loved. All of you.