Two of my friends have had their photos used by imposters to scam people on Facebook just recently. 

Friend #1 learned about her imposter when it tried to sell baby stuff on Facebook and her friend from another city saw the listing. The imposter's fake profile was reported and taken down before anyone could fall prey. 

As for Friend #2, it was already too late when she found out about it. She was getting virtually sucker-punched by angry and frustrated victims after realizing they had been duped into sending their hard-earned money for nothing. Her face was posted on different groups, labeled with the most demeaning words while the real perp got away with it.

Well, that's scary.

This is not the first time I've heard of it. It happens all the time and it could happen to anyone—especially us, ordinary people whose faces are not easily recognizable by a lot of people.

But you know what scares me more?

Ever noticed how most of the scammers' posts/comments/messages—despite the rise of AI chatbots—are riddled with typos, misused punctuation marks, and grammatical errors? That is how I usually sniff the scams out quickly. And honestly, I do get iffy making deals with people who cannot communicate properly and professionally even if it happens to be a hundred percent legitimate business. Although I am well aware that the biggest scammers/thieves are also the most eloquent. But that's beside the point. 

Since a lot of my photos are public (and I intend to keep it that way because I blog and create socmed content for different brands that require public posting) and some people are just too naive to realize that scammers will never use their own pictures, the chances of facing the same fate as Friend #2 is not impossible.

I can't help but wonder how am I supposed to save my face from the embarrassment should an idiot use my photos to scam people and write captions that are almost indecipherable because of the amount of textspeak used and the appalling lack of proper use of punctuation.

I mean, IDGAF if you use acronyms or the lazy-ass short form of words like 'comfy' for 'comfortable' or 'pro' for 'professional' because these are very much acceptable as long as you do not overdo it, and I can let grammar lapses slide.

But f u write lyk dis i want 2 slap u in d face wid an oxford dictionary bcoz reading dis s painful n can cause sudden loss of brain function..,,, Bsta wg lng po sana ung gni2 kc nkkbobo nmn tlga...!!! 

I thought I'm already too old to be bothered by these things and I know it takes a lot to irk me. But no. I DO NOT WANT MY FACE TIED WITH SOMETHING ILLITERATE AND UNCULTURED LIKE THAT. 🤮 

Image by someecards

Textspeak might have made sense back in the 2000s when typing on a numeric keypad was more difficult.

But it's not hard to believe that this is still common nowadays. You'll mostly read such atrocity from scammers, trolls, bashers, haters, body-shamers, smart-shamers, keyboard warriors. You know, the lowbrows.

I can see how this post is going to be offensive to some.

But look, it's 2023.

The tech gods have already given us full QWERTY keyboards on our mobile phones. Our messages are no longer limited to 160 characters. Unless you are 12, there is no excuse for you to go barbaric over the words by dismembering its letters. I'm glad none of my friends write like this.

So if you spend an awful lot of time on the internet but cannot spare a few seconds to spell out your words correctly whether it's English or a native tongue...

Call me snooty or arrogant but, lowbrow or not, I am automatically judging you. Kthxbye!