Facebook Messanger Scam

I was just contacted by the same scammer as a few years ago. At that time, I followed along until the con was revealed. This time, I just told them to get lost. How it starts is critical: While on Facebook, I received a message from what appeared to be a college friend I've known for years; a thumbnail of her photograph was included. It was a casual, friendly message that was brief enough that I assumed it was she. She asked how I was doing. I replied and, as a typical courtesy, I asked how she was doing. She wrote back saying that she was just trying to figure out how she's going to spend her grant money. She, like me, is a doctoral level, licensed professional, so while it would be unusual it was not impossible that she applied for a grant. By the time I was given the full info, I had become quite suspicious, and the full info confirmed my suspicion: In essence you had to "buy" the grant for, I believe, 10%. So, a $100,000 grant would require $10,000; a million dollar grant, $100,000.

What I don't have are the messages from before; if I find them, I will get them posted. I told my actual friend at the time that she'd been hacked; in the recent days, she's gone through an emotionally extremely painful time, so I will wait a bit before warning her again. I really don't know how someone would be able to use messenger this way; nor any way to track them.