Serious concerns regarding a scam email I received. (details inside)

Several months ago, and I was very disgruntled because of it, I received an email from an "old lady." who was dying and simply wanted to talk about Jesus. Up front, it's a typical misrepresentation style scam, where the person involved misrepresents who they are, such as being an important person from a far off country. I did not fall for it. Anyway, this person pretending to be an old lady provided hospital photographs, likely taken from someone on social media, telling me about missing her late husband etc. I responded a few times, and then it turned into a monetary thing where the scammer was trying to find a way to extract money from me on the basis of tied up funds or something. As a result, I deleted virtually all information about me. Previously, put some info on my profile for the purpose of upfront breaking ice to anyone i talk to on Faithlife's various platforms.
What i think most likely happened is that either someone took the effort to go thru profiles, or use some kind of webcrawler, or a combination of the two. Namely, using a webcrawler to find any key words, terms, or indications, and then going onto the website, perhaps making an account, to examine people's profiles to look for anything that could be detectable as a victim, any data that can be used for a private email conversation which the scammer(s)' believe is leverageable in conversation, toying with emotions, or otherwise. That's what this person did, toy with my emotions, on the basis of an a lonely, sick old lady, who just wants to have some nice conversations with someone. I'm making best guesses on what the scammer(s) involved did. I can't add much more since I know little about how bots, crawlers, coding, or other stuff works.
If it would help, I will share privately with FL staff the emails. I have no idea if there's anything in them which could provide helpful information regarding security.
John 3:17 (ESV)
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Comments
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Why do you think this has anything to do with Logos / Faithlife?
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JT (alabama24) said:
Why do you think this has anything to do with Logos / Faithlife?
It sounds to me that this happened on Faithlife groups or they believe the information was harvested from there.
Previously, put some info on my profile for the purpose of upfront breaking ice to anyone i talk to on Faithlife's various platforms.
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For the same reason Rick mentioned.JT (alabama24) said:Why do you think this has anything to do with Logos / Faithlife?
I'm fairly certain that it happened as a result of Faithlife group, forums, or both.
John 3:17 (ESV)
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.0 -
Did you post your email address publicly?
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JT (alabama24) said:
Did you post your email address publicly?
I don't remember. I believe it was available to anyone on faithlife groups but it wasn't available to people not logged in.
John 3:17 (ESV)
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.0 -
I believe it was available to anyone on faithlife groups but it wasn't available to people not logged in.
Someone more familiar with FL social media would need to assist. You mentioned above that it might have been through the forums, but that isn't possible unless you added your email address to a post.
I utilize FL Social website as infrequently as possible, and have everything as locked down as I can. I can see good and proper uses for the site under certain circumstances... but I am not in those circumstances at present.
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it must have been FL social websites then.
John 3:17 (ESV)
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.0 -
it must have been FL social websites then.
Its a possibility. I do not know what is available to anyone on the internet, and what is available only to those who are on the platform. FL or someone more familiar will have to chime in.
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