Wow, yesterday I got an anonymous love note ecard from lovebug1136. I should be so thrilled that someone is “really attracted” to me and has a “huge crush” on me even though I am so far over the hill that the world is starting to look flat.
screen capture of the ecard that I got from lovebug1136
Who could it be from? I wondered. The young lady I see each day at the McDonalds drive thru? A long lost school mate that has discovered me on the internet? A fan of my blog that needs new glasses and mistakenly thinks I look like Cary Grant? The cute neighbor that lives in the house behind mine? The wife of one of my best friends? No, it can’t be that. I don’t have any friends. Still, it could be anybody that I know. It could even be my wife, but that is unlikely since she isn’t very computer savvy and knows me well enough to not have a huge crush on me.
The writer sounds shy, so we would have a lot in common, I think. However, color me skeptical, but I immediately suspected that some misbegotten spam had somehow slipped by my dedicated spam filter. Sure enough, a quick google search confirms that others have received identical emails from my faithless, anonymous would-be lover who presumably wants me to join some adult friend finder site. It is a sad state of affairs when the most exciting event in my love life today is a spam email from some heartless and souless scammer. Sigh.
Can you hear me Natasha? Natasha, from Saratov Russia, who is young, lonely and attractive and also sends me out of the blue emails looking for love in all the wrong places? I’ve already been bitten, chewed and spit out again by the love bug. But, you can keep sending me the pictures, though. I like the pretty pictures.
Update Note! Just to be clear, the lovebug1136 ecard is a scam. If, like me and all those commenting on this post, you also got an ecard from the love bug, then I recommend that you ignore it and delete it. Sorry, but it is not real.
It's Just Words 
#1 by RKHouse on January 28, 2012 - 2:46 pm
Call me a lovelorn fool, but part of me still wishes I was somehow wrong and lovebug1136 was for real. It was thrilling for a few moments trying to think of someone out there in the whole wide world that might actually secretly like me a whole lot. On the other hand, Natasha sent a picture and she was very pretty. Well, the girl in the picture was pretty. “Natasha” could be a burly, six foot tall male scammer, for all I know. Yuck.
So far, this is my most read post. Apparently the little love bug critter has been very busy.
My wife had problems reading this post although I asked her if she had read it several times. She isn’t very computer savvy and when I start saying things like “open up firefox or internet explorer” she just says “what is that?”. Finally, with help of my son, she was able to read the post. She just laughed it off, then later she called me up on the cellphone and said “She must really know you. It sounds like she really knows you!”. I said, “did you read the whole post? The love note was a scam. Lot’s of people have gotten the very same email. It isn’t even clear if it is written by a girl or a guy. You might get it tomorrow!”. Then she finally seemed to understand and laughed, but then went on “but what about this Natasha? Has she really sent you emails?”. LOL
#2 by Teresa Del Puerto on March 1, 2012 - 10:51 am
i also receive the same love note ecard today and i just ignore it and delete it coz i know it was some kind of internet scam. by the way, i just want to say that i like your Site RKHOUSE,it was nice and beautiful,full of thoughts. kept up your good work. God bless. 🙂
#3 by RKHouse on March 2, 2012 - 4:46 am
Thank you for the kind words, Teresa. I’m glad you liked my site.
You did better than me in detecting the scam and ignoring it. I admit I was nearly fooled by the lovebug, until I started to google and check it out. Scammers and con artists know how to take advantage of our very human weaknesses. Our natural desire to be loved, or to be noticed and respected, or to help out others in need, for example. I like to post about these events to reveal the truth to anyone who may not be aware that scammers do this kind of thing. And, because it is fun to poke fun at myself and laugh at being fooled so easily, if only for a few minutes.
#4 by Carolyn Garner on March 18, 2012 - 9:36 pm
Do not respond to the love bug1136 he’s a liar and a thief!
#5 by RKHouse on April 28, 2012 - 8:23 am
The love bug is certainly very prolific and continues to send out a lot of ecards, I guess. Does anybody actually fall for this? I would think sending out all those ecards would be a waste of time.
#6 by Diane Svoboda Johnson Freidt on April 16, 2012 - 4:33 pm
I just received a “Secret Admirer e-card from lovebug1136. This is a hoax. It sent me to the Christian Mingle dating site. At which I searched this lovebuy guy. I had read that this is a virus. Well if so..I just got a virus. STAY away from him or whoever it is.
Diane
#7 by RKHouse on April 28, 2012 - 8:24 am
Interesting. That is a different site than I was sent to. Of course, they could be run by the same company for all I know.
I went to an online dating site once and filled out a profile. The computer match analysis results came back as “you’ve got to be kidding. You’re a hopeless case.” It probably didn’t help that I entered my race as half Vulcan and half human. Or that I described myself as a biological computer. Later their computer sent me a note and wanted to interface with my modem. Shocking behaviour from a mainframe.
#8 by Darth Kater on April 27, 2012 - 10:36 pm
Oh, you too? It’s such a LOVELY feeling to know that someone in Nigeria or the Ivory Coast of Africa “has a crush” on and “loves me”. But … shh! He’s shy. But likely not too shy to ask me to wire him money. (How THOUGHTFUL of him to send me an ecard!)
#9 by RKHouse on April 28, 2012 - 8:46 am
[waving my right hand while stroking my beard] You don’t need to see his identification. The love bug isn’t the love that you are looking for. You can go about your business. Move along now. I sense that Boney Kenobi is out there waiting for you. Move along… move along. He may be waiting at a cantina, or coffee shop, not so very far away from you.
BTW, Darth, I’m not a Jedi or a Sith. I’m from that little known Star Wars sect called the Stooge. We get our power from the funny side of the force. We don’t carry light sabers, instead we fall on our face and hope our enemies die of laughter. It doesn’t work very well which could explain why our sect is now extinct.
#10 by Wayne Thompson on April 28, 2012 - 4:48 am
My lovebug1136 sent me to Adult Friend Finder to sign up…but since I wouldn’t sign up, sigh, I guess I’ll never find her…..I’m sure she was also half my age, incredibly beautiful and madly in love with me too………..
And this was on the heels of a beautiful Russian 26 yr old who was my soulmate last week, that is until I told her I wasn’t rich….. then she dumped me so fast I bruised my butt when I landed…… she never even got to ask me for money or even got to know my name because she fell in love with my Nome de Plume on yahoo…. sent me all kinds of pictures of herself that she had promised me in a previous exchange of emails (which my alzheimer’s is preventing me from remembering) …. poor girl, I feel so sorry for her…. now she’ll never get to America on the ‘Work and Travel’ program so we can be together forever….
Oh woe is me……
#11 by RKHouse on April 28, 2012 - 9:05 am
I like your sense of humor. My beautiful young Russian only sent me one picture. I feel so deprived. Perhaps, I should have written and told her I was rich? At least, I would have gotten some more pictures and some humorous email correspondence to lighten up my dark and quiet evenings alone.
You here me, Natasha? You know that I lost your email address by accident in my trash can. Please give me a second chance to be your rich soulmate and travel agent. LOL
#12 by Wayne Thompson on April 28, 2012 - 12:04 pm
Well, I have about 30 pictures of my “soulmate” from only 3 emails so I’d be happy to share with you. Mind you, 2 of them are her mother, 1 is her little brother, 1 shows her with her sister and 1 shows her as a child with her deceased father but all the rest are of her alone. Furnishing that many pictures so early and so easily is not the norm from what I’ve read and seen.
She told me her name was Lidiya but she likes to be called Lida because it’s easier for me.
She gives the impression of being an amateur trying her hand at this lucrative “game” or maybe the gang is trying to change their approach since they’ve been busted?
I haven’t been able to find her picture on any of the sites I’ve found, so far, that expose known Russian scammers, so that lends credence to being either an amateur or a new approach or even, gasp, the “real deal”.
Maybe I should have told her about my future inheritance?
#13 by RKHouse on April 28, 2012 - 3:52 pm
Wow, 30 pictures, that’s more pictures than i have of my wife. I appreciate the offer to share pictures, but I was only joking around. I have read that some amateurs are getting into the action because it is so lucrative. It’s hard to believe, but I guess it is a lonely world out there, my friend. Woe is us all, because there is no real deal.
Definitely mention the inheritance next time.
#14 by Dylan Brune on April 28, 2012 - 8:15 pm
yep just got it….
#15 by RKHouse on April 29, 2012 - 11:10 pm
Don’t worry. I think the love bug is like the common cold. There is no cure, but you’ll get over it quickly.
#16 by Wayne Thompson on April 28, 2012 - 11:40 pm
Obviously I spoke out too quickly, I just received another letter today with 11 more pictures. She really does sound sincere so I’m going to go with the flow and see where it ends up. I am kind of leery but just maybe this one really will have a fairy tale ending. I do always have the option of saying no at any point.
#17 by RKHouse on April 29, 2012 - 6:48 pm
I hope it works out for you.
I’m not really looking for love anymore. If I want my heart to beat faster, I just have to walk up and down the stairs.
#18 by Stephany Allen on April 29, 2012 - 5:51 pm
oh i think i beat all of you 🙂 i got sent to a live feed from Adriana!! who was all dressed up and in a robe!! its nice to know the ‘love of my life’ is super Hot! too bad im not a lesbian haha
#19 by RKHouse on April 29, 2012 - 6:58 pm
Wow. OK, that sort of takes it to a whole other level, doesn’t it? Of course, you are super hot, too. So you deserve the attention of a live feed. It’s all relative. I’m down in the bulk email class, myself.
It’s so hard to be Human, forever searching for “happily ever after”. Constantly yearning for love and understanding. It’s all so urgent and chemical. And then love and sex get all mixed together and it gets all sweaty and embarrassing. Oh, bother.
PS. Give Adriana my love and this number, 867-5309. Tell her to ask for “Jenny” if that is what she is into.
#20 by Terry Ann Stowell on April 29, 2012 - 11:16 pm
So happy to find this site, I got the lovebug1136 yesterday and it’s been driving me crazy thinking someone I know is doing this to me…I will spam it today, and rest at ease…
#21 by RKHouse on April 29, 2012 - 11:41 pm
Rest, at ease, my friend. I, too, was thinking really hard about “who could it be?” for a few minutes before I googled about it. I kinda enjoyed the attention in a bizarre way. I haven’t had someone really attracted to me like that since my sister’s Cocker Spaniel fell in love with my leg.
#22 by Janet Green (@demontweeks) on May 3, 2012 - 10:05 am
I received the ‘lovebug’ yesterday claiming their undying love, no pics or anything, I found it very unnerving as they closed the ecard with a very similar phrase to one of my ex boyfriends which made me think it was from him! I registered with the AF site (with false details) and searched for the username but surprise surprise no such user! I find this so offensive and cruel and was considering reporting it to Trading Standards but after finding this site I realise it would be rather pointless!!! I am sure there would be a number of vulnerable people who would actually sign up and pay the subscription to the various sites in an effort to contact this bogus admirer!!!
PS – I even thought it might be the supermarket trolley man who keeps following me round the car park and winking at me, how the hell would he know my email address??? ha ha ha haha ha DUH!
#23 by RKHouse on May 3, 2012 - 10:24 am
Thanks for sharing. It is very cruel. By their nature scammers seem to take advantage of our very human and natural weaknesses. There is probably no bigger weakness than love and no bigger strength than love.
Ha, ha, watch out for the supermarket trolley man, Janet. He probably sees a lot of women everyday and knows someone special when he sees her. Watch out if you get an ecard next from the ‘lovetrolley’. He could be on a roll.
#24 by Corry Neil Knight on May 4, 2012 - 1:26 am
I took an online IQ test once and got a 125. Maybe I got lucky. But I like to think I’m not a total idiot. Well, maybe its my intuition that’s bright cuz I did do a lot of guessing on that test. And it was my intuition that told me that e-mail was spam. Besides, anyone who knows the least bit about me knows I don’t have a career, a credit rating, or a wallet thickness that would qualify me to be the subject of an infatuation. Who in the world would be in love with me? But I took a peep. Uhg! So disappointed in me. Love your blog post, btw. 🙂
#25 by RKHouse on May 4, 2012 - 5:13 pm
Ha, ha. What is it that women are really looking for? It must be something else, something unfathomable to us mere men. Is it confidence? Is it chemical?
#26 by yael496 on May 11, 2012 - 10:48 am
I see, everyone that gets ecard from lovebug1136 sooner or later arrives here, I received it yesterday, immediately I felt this is a spam but I so wished that it was someone I knew so I chose to think that this special one sent me the card. If my decision does not disturb anyone i will go on with this, does anybody have any objection?
#27 by RKHouse on May 11, 2012 - 11:30 am
Well, yael496, if your special one didn’t send the lovebug e-card, maybe they wanted to. So, I have no objection. I certainly think that everyone that ends up here deserves to get a real ecard of love from somebody special, someday. At least, I really wish things would end up that way.
#28 by yael496 on May 11, 2012 - 11:56 am
O thank you! I think almost everyone that leaved here a comment have a feeling of missing about the True Love. I can only quiet myself and maybe someone else with the fact that this Love is everywhere. Thanks, cool discussion , and appropriate .
#29 by saintjohnofearth on May 12, 2012 - 10:12 am
I *HAD* my soulmate, my dream woman, my love-of-my-life, the lovely and wonderful wife who gave me the great gift of three decades of marriage. She died of brain cancer just recently. I am ever so slightly sad about that, of course. And these evil, stinking, verminous, scunnersome scammers have just sent me one of these “lovenotes”. That is just *EVIL*. Visions of hanging them by sensitive parts, dousing them in flammables and wandering around them with a lighter immediately come to mind.
Except that such torture is both against my gentle nature and far too quick for sub-simian sewage like these.
#30 by RKHouse on May 12, 2012 - 4:41 pm
I am so sorry to hear of your loss, my friend. My wife and I just had our 23 anniversary this week, although in some ways I lost her after our second child was born when she began suffering from bipolar/schizophrenia mental illness.
#31 by saintjohnofearth on May 13, 2012 - 7:32 pm
Sir, that is so very sad. In a way, you are far worse off than I am. In another sense you are far luckier. Given the choice I truly would not know whether to swap your situation for mine or not. You have my sympathy and I wish your lady all the best. I wish there was help I could give her. I wish I could help *everyone*.
I wish I could have helped *her*.
#32 by MusicBox - Tom (@MusicBoxTom) on May 19, 2012 - 10:55 am
Me too! But I know a housewife in HK that uses that handle when webcams,
#33 by RKHouse on May 22, 2012 - 4:30 am
I gotta admit the lovebug handle is kinda cute. I always loved Herbie. But I wonder what does the 1136 mean? And why continue to use the name after it has been long since been exposed as a scam? I guess it’s just one of those unsolvable mysteries. That, or scammers are just lazy.
#34 by saintjohnofearth on May 23, 2012 - 2:58 pm
When I tried to create “john@hotmail.com” as a free eddy, I was told it had been taken. I was offered, instead, something like “john6754345543@hotmail.com”. Lots of other “john’s” had obviously had the same notion before me.
I suspect the scamming vermin who thought “lovebug” was a cute handle got caught in the same machinery.
Too many people, not enough names.
Or it is always possible the gangsters thought “1136” was also cute, or authentic-sounding or just plain cool.
Or perhaps they are as stupid as they are evil?
#35 by Charismatichic (@Charismatichic) on May 21, 2012 - 3:58 pm
I keep reading all the responses regarding this lovebug1136 ecard, which I received one as well, but the only differnce is mine was sent to my dell phone number as a text not an email like everybody else has received. I don’t have my number listed on anything on-line. Not sure how i was able to receive this.
#36 by RKHouse on May 22, 2012 - 4:35 am
Well, of course, SMS texts can be sent by email through a gateway. I guess scammers will find every possible path to their potential victims.
#37 by saintjohnofearth on May 23, 2012 - 3:07 pm
As to how they picked Charismatic’s number, they probablyjust ran through a list in numerical order.
I’ve had calls from Indian (real Indian not American variety) salesmen trying to sell me insurance on kit I do not have; those guys probably found me by incrementally dialing. Once they knew the number connected to a real phone, once I answered one of their calls, they decided I was a viable target for other calls. I eventually changed my landline number to avoid the scunners.
http://www.whocallsme.com might help if you can get the caller’s number.
#38 by JessieX on May 21, 2012 - 11:43 pm
You mean, he/she is not faithful just to me? And I thought it was real. ;-p Man, this has spam written all over it.
#39 by RKHouse on May 22, 2012 - 4:46 am
I re-read my ecard, I guess the lovebug1136 doesn’t swear to be faithful and monogamous. Love bug love must be more along the lines of a polyamorous bunny, I gather. Or maybe like a blood-sucking vampire or life draining succubus. You know, that kind of thing.
#40 by RKHouse on May 27, 2012 - 12:00 am
Akismet just caught and filtered a spam comment to this post about “internet love online…” . Now that’s funny. Nicely done Akismet!
Note the ping-back from “Older Eyes” perhaps linking the lovebug1136 ecard to a DNSChanger Malware attack. I cannot confirm this connection. My linux box was not infected. However if you use Windows or a Mac and are concerned because you clicked on the lovebug ecard link or went to the “social” site that it linked to, you should check at the FBI URL https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS or DNS Changer Working Group URL: http://www.dns-ok.us/
#41 by Hector A Cruz on May 27, 2012 - 1:04 pm
I got that message as well, should have seen the look at my wife’s eyes, LOL, I figure it was a scam once it took me to the dating website
#42 by RKHouse on June 7, 2012 - 3:35 am
Every few weeks I get a lot of hits when a new batch of ecards from lovebug goes out. It never seems to stop.
#43 by Sheila Hebert on June 5, 2012 - 7:30 pm
who started this childish bullshit…..like i have time for the love bug…..
#44 by Corry Neil Knight on June 6, 2012 - 12:24 am
A dating site that wants your money.
#45 by Deborah Maradei Ugel on June 6, 2012 - 4:53 am
ROFLOL… I got 2 of them today from lovebug, that’s hysterical to me!! I knew immediately most likely it was a spam to get women to join a new dating site, on the ones I got the date site was local to my area but I replied back, “Im guessing this is spam to get women to join new dating websites, because you can’t love someone you’ve never met…the second I hear that nonsense I know it’s either a predator or it’s most likely spam…. I have no need for either. afterward I came to google and sure enough as soon as I clicked on your webpage I saw that you received in January the same thing I got today yet for a different dating site. That’s just precious isn’t it. LOL …why do these fools assume desperation, on both counts they are predatory, but what we’re seeing is predatory marketing for new and various dating websites…I’m guessing, they are either mass marketing to various websites, without each of the websites knowing, which would be a fraudulent conflict of interest; or he’s mass marketing and trying to develop multiple websites for himself, yet again it’s fraudulent misrepresentation, or so I should think it would be. In addition, if he’s also spreading a virus with intent to damage property of others, that may be of even more interest to the States Attorney General’s office. You’ve pulled enough pieces together for the States Attorney to prosecute possibly. It would be good to see them shut this bug down…most especially if they are purposely transmitting virus to recipients (as in no joke, it really is a bug) and causing damage to the public, if it’s true may be of sincere interest for the State to want to prosecute as they did in the case Ben Elgin wrote about in Businessweek. Ben Elgin at Businessweek did a piece on a spyware scam that was going on, that ended up being prosecuted in the States Attorney General’s office in the July 17, 2006 issue. I would think this would fall under similar ground’s in terms of prosecution.
#46 by RKHouse on June 7, 2012 - 3:28 am
Two love bugs? That sounds like an infestation. I would call a pest service.
#47 by Tamasha Zhauteyeva on July 1, 2012 - 9:33 pm
I just got this message from lovebug1136 too. It gave me a nice feeling of something exciting and mysterious though :-). After reading your blog, I have a fantasy, that maybe, only maybe, there a perfect soulmate spirit living inside of each of us, who always loves and cares about us, but cannot contact us, because he/she belongs to the spirit world. So, when he/she feels that we need some loving nudge, because we are tired or lost interest in life, he/she uses the means of spam to remind us that we are never alone. Your soulmate is here and he/she loves you. Always. Ahhh :-).
#48 by RKHouse on July 2, 2012 - 1:26 am
That’s a very sweet fantasy, Tamasha.
#49 by Michel Poirier on July 10, 2012 - 3:25 am
I’ve got the same here i am near of montreal qc frenchmen and she whright me and english so bad
#50 by RKHouse on July 11, 2012 - 7:12 am
I guess it is a dead giveaway that they don’t really know you well if they don’t even know your first language.
#51 by butimbeautiful on July 30, 2012 - 7:36 am
Yes but don’t you wish you’d been called Natasha? Or, since you’re male, something like Nikolai or Sasha…ok I’m getting all those names from War and Peace but the very name Natasha conjures up Black Widow-like sex appeal!
#52 by RKHouse on July 30, 2012 - 8:03 am
Natasha was pretty and had sex appeal. She probably deserves her own post, instead of being tacked onto end of the love bug post like that. However, I deleted her picture and the email. So I don’t know what more I could add about her. Maybe she will email me again someday. 🙂
#53 by 35andupcynicismonhold on January 3, 2013 - 11:48 pm
hello, sir RK… thanks for the visit. have a happy and prosperous New Year! 🙂
#54 by Ronald Kirk House on January 4, 2013 - 2:02 am
Hi, San! Happy New Year to you, too.
#55 by 35andupcynicismonhold on January 4, 2013 - 8:16 am
😉 🙂
#56 by blueangelwolf on January 17, 2013 - 4:11 am
I am so so sad I never ever received an email from the LoveBug,,,,,,LOL,,,,but maybe it is because I live in the frozen north…….may he/she never seek to come this way to disturb my peace,,,,LOL
A very good post! Certainly got a lot of attention…..be happy to know your post probably got more serious response than the LoveBug ever did. Blessings!
#57 by Ronald Kirk House on January 18, 2013 - 11:35 am
Give it time, you still might get bitten. I think hundreds of the ecards go out every couple of weeks based on the hits to this post that periodically surge from google. I sometimes am envious that this post gets so much more attention than my poetry posts. On peak days, this post will get a hundred hits, while the rest of my blog only gets a handful of hits of people wanting to read my poetry. It sort of distorts my blog stats, too. LOL. 🙂
#58 by blueangelwolf on January 19, 2013 - 6:20 am
That is the way of the world for sure!
#59 by Eros Khan on February 9, 2013 - 5:23 pm
Hi I’ve just received my email from LoveBug
Hey,
This is hard for me because I have never done anything like this.. but I have a huge crush on you. I have never been able to tell you for reasons which you would quickly identify as obvious if you knew who this was.
I’m really attracted to you and I think you would be wanting to get with me immediately and I want to make sure it would be the best for us. Please write me an eCard back through here so I know it is you and we can explore more: (Click here to reply MY PROFILE and PICTURES). My username is lovebug1136 so put that in when you contact me.
Kisses,
haha. Bye
You’ve received an e-card from someone who has chose
#60 by Ronald Kirk House on February 9, 2013 - 5:57 pm
The bug bites again. Delete and move on my friend.
#61 by coastalmom on May 26, 2013 - 7:17 pm
So sad that there is so much spam out there!
#62 by Ronald Kirk House on June 8, 2013 - 2:41 am
So true. This kind of spam is particularly sad I think.