Those poor lonely women.  All young, all single, all good-looking in a cookie cutter kind of way.  And with the most exotic names!  My goodness, the double vowels alone simmer with the mystery of foreign shores just waiting to be discovered and explored.

And yet they have no friends on Facebook.  This is why they’ve come to my attention.  They searched the site, were captured by my winning smile, sensed my natural empathy and online bedside manner, and understood that I’m older but saw me as a potential mentor.  I’m sure that’s why they reached out to friend me.

This has happened quite a bit lately.  So much so that I decided to ask my actual Facebook friends what they thought was up.  I got a lot of answers.  People have been having the same problem, and not just men of a certain age being trolled by bots pretending to be  beautiful young women.  

One woman friend wrote that she got friend requests from guys claiming to be widowed.  Another said she gets a lot from older single guys, of whom her favorite was named “Ari Zona.”  She went on to describe a pattern of men wearing military or medical uniforms, with usually a close-up of a flower thrown in.  A third said she also was hearing from foreign men in uniform.

And of course I got some snarky — and funny — answers like: “I thought Natasha was interested only in me.”

But the most succinct — and I’m sure accurate — response was: “They’re all crooks, from around the world, just trying to get access to your friends list and otherwise get access to and abuse your personal information.”

Another to-the-point remark was “Don’t download anything from them. Nothing. Delete and run for cover!”

Of course, as November 3 nears with the news that Russia continues to tamper with voters using Facebook and other social media to turn the election in Trump’s favor, it’s more important than ever to protect yourself online.   

Fortunately, Facebook recognizes this problem and has a setting that lets you decide from whom you want to see friend requests.  The link will let you choose to see requests only from people with whom you have mutual friends.  

Sorry, Bikilaa and Margaa.  It was fun while it lasted.