Facebook would allow people to message to you, but wouldn't tell you that you had a new message unless you were following that person. Does it still do that? No idea, I barely use it these days. Imagine my surprise when I found this message probably a year later. I'll remove the person's name but leave everything else there for you to read:
I am XXXXXX mother. She is not a journalist. Her job is to make people laugh. She is also 25 years old and just getting her foot in the door. Maybe you should think about that before you encourage people to leave comments (and I'm sure you wanted those comments to be mean) on her website. For someone so busy patting himself on the back for doing good in the world, you sure have a mean streak.
See, the person had a choice when they made that original story. They could have pointed out how terrible it was that the person had been scammed, they could have sympathised with them, they could have used it as a way to warn others about scams. They could have used their words for good, instead they decided to ridicule someone who had not only lost a lot of money, but their heart to a scammer. They had the opportunity to do a good thing, but instead decided to punch down on someone already at rock bottom. I even offered to teach her about baiting in our exchanges, showing how comedy can be gleaned from the scammers, but she refused. It's such a shame. And yes, I do have a mean streak. There's a good reason I'm listed as the "cruel and sarcastic admin" here. I do happen to know a lot about comedy though, and know that the best comedy I've seen always uplifts the downtrodden and pricks the overinflated egos. We're all over a decade older now. Hopefully she learned a lesson from that interaction. I have no idea. I do know however that if I saw something similar today I'd slap back just as hard, if not harder. We can all be more sympathetic to those who have been scammed. It's not difficult, and there can still be an element of comedy there if you know where to look.
