A few days ago I got a message through my website expressing interest in my research and asking for advice on relevant papers / publications. This in itself was not unusual, and I replied helpfully even though the enquirer’s affiliation seemed a bit unlikely - ’ Edinburgh University, Hospitality’ (the rest was cut off by the window) rather than ‘the University of Edinburgh’ (OTOH I’ve known plenty of students, as well as one or two academics who didn’t know the correct name of their institution).
The following day I received a very courteous, albeit slightly mechanical reply, expressing interest in all three of my tourism related fields - rewilding and game reserves, colonial and post-colonial zoos and the history of landscape tourism in the Lake District.
I thought ‘Hmm flattering but unlikely,’ and checked out my correspondent. There were four other 'Iona Gordon’s on the Academia.edu website, but only one with any info against their name. ‘Edinburgh University’ no longer appeared and instead there was a medical tech company of which she was the executive sales director. Meanwhile the photo in this person’s Academia profile was of a (young, slightly sexily posed) casting director with a Californian production company.
So, my correspondent seems to be some sort of composite entity, skimmed off the Net. ‘She’ finally suggested we could discuss some of my research with a chat app that she could download.
I replied that I didn’t like chat apps and would prefer to answer any further questions through our existing channel. Nothing since!
Was it about scamming me, or my computer…?
Sounds like a scam to me, especially if their online profile doesn’t 100% check out.
I get something similar on Facebook from time to time when attractive women a fair bit younger than myself, with interesting sounding jobs, send me a friend request and express interest in my photography 
Their aim is to engage you in conversation, and then get you off FB or wherever into a chat app where they can manage multiple conversations with prospective marks at the same time.
Usually I spot them on FB and block/delete as their profiles are often full of generic posts with pretty photos of food or holiday locations and platitudes about “enjoying life to the full” or “celebrating friends and family”.
One time I was almost taken in as the scammer was already “FB friends” with a female French photographer from Caen who I know; the scammer claimed to be from Falaise so it was at least plausible.
I was slightly suspicious but let it run for a while - eventually “she” wanted to switch to a chat app - and inevitably there came the request for me to send “her” money, at which point I terminated the whole farrago.
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I’m sure it was a scam, but not sure what sort of scam - downloading supposed chatware certainly set alarm bells ringing.
However, the second message read like something from a bot because it was mechanically, or rather digitally, recycling info from my previous reply.
Possibly, but I think they want to engage you in conversation, gain your trust and then ask for money.
The scammer I engaged with for a time was willing to spin it out over a period of weeks before springing the actual shakedown.
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The principal question to ask yourself if in the slightest doubt is, “Do I really need this?”
The next question to ask is, “Show me the money.”
Absolutely! That is the scam - to install spyware.
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