One of the most memorable movies I have seen is called DERAILED. I saw this movie in 2007.
I remember many scenes of that movie and recommend that you watch it, if you haven’t as yet.
In a nutshell, the movie is about this man who is a regular office goer and gets attracted to this woman (Jennifer Aniston) he meets in the local train he regularly travels in.
One thing leads to another, they go to a hotel to have an affair and THEN the real movie kicks in.
For some reason that movie stayed on my mind for a long while. It was the story of the perfect charade, the perfect trap and the perfect blackmail. My wife and I actually borrowed a copy to watch it again.
Circa 2012 – let me share with you MY STORY OF a potential DERAILMENT!
This happened on facebook (THE Local train) that I ride almost all day long!!
About 3 months ago, an attractive girl called Saandra Singh (NAME CHANGED obviously) showed up on my wall.
I assume she posted a couple of comments on my posts, but I didn’t notice her.
I “think” I friended her (I friended everyone who requested me till i reached 4999 ‘coz I treat Facebook like the biggest, free-to-exploit media property that’s ever been built).
A few days later, she POSTED on my wall saying, “Don’t you check your messages?”
I went and checked.
Sure enough, there was message from her that read, “Hi, Handsome.”
We began exchanging random messages.
She said she was a Single Mom, with a young kid. She won my sympathy!
And then one day, she sent me a sexually loaded message.
I was amused and also intrigued.
Was I that attractive for an Indian Girl to make such a blatant remark OR was there SOMETHING ELSE THAT I WAS MISSING? WAS THIS DERAILMENT in the making?
This is the diligence I did on her FB account to check my hypothesis that this was a CRIME in the making:
– Common Friends between us – NIL
– Posts on her wall – barely 3-5 over the year. Very disparate, very vague.
– Friends in all – less than 20
– PHOTOGRAPHS (and this is always the KILLER GIVE AWAY) – JUST 2
I kind of figured what was going on and SET THE BALL ROLLING FOR figuring out how DERAILMENT VIA FACEBOOK would be played!
Now, please appreciate 2 things:
– I am an Entrepreneur. I TAKE RISKS. This is not something decent, nice people do.
– I am a PASSIONATE SOCIAL OBSERVER. I like to get a hang of people and how they behave in the world. For that I do really weird, objectionable stuff.
– In my mind, I knew that if I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING SILLY, I would be able to explain my actions to my loved ones if the moment arose.
So, we began chatting.
And the chats were completely sexed out. Lurid, putrid, stuff that would make Penthouse look like a kindergarten nursery.
All this while, my heart would beat thinking, “HOLY HELL, what happens if these chat transcripts get copied and pasted on some blog/wall – what will happen?” – but I guess my “let’s see what happens” attitude kicked in.
And then, as expected, the excitement died a few days later. There was nothing NEW to say. I mean how often can you say the same shitty stuff to strangers and hear the same shitty replies back?
THAT’S WHEN THE FIRST BOMB DROPPED.
She said, “Why not meet and do what we imagined in PERSON?”
WOWOWOW!!!
THIS WAS IT. I ASSUMED she was a real high class hooker.
I declined, stating some really vague reason.
And then, in keeping with my experimental frame of mind, this is what I did:
– I asked her for her telephone number
She never replied.
– I threw some conversations that were a little evolved and a bit philosophical – she just got disinterested.
And then one fine day, LIKE A ROCK, she fell of the cliff.
I sent a couple of messages to her the next couple of days and I received no reply.
That’s when I put on my thinking cap – I assumed she was a hooker and since I was not “converting, I wasn’t worth it”.
I kept a tab on her page.
Funny things began to happen. Her ‘friends addition’ was ALL MEN – all the types that fell under the “Working, High Salaries” bracket. She was cloning, I guess, her approach with me!
NO PHOTOS were added. In fact the of the 3 photos, only 1 remained.
I messaged her a couple of times.
No reply.
My intrigue grew. I mean, if she is a hooker, then she should be responding to me right?
THE ATOMIC BOMB CAME THIS MORNING.
She said, “I am a part of a conspiracy to make you meet girls. All our chats are saved. Some of the messages will be tampered with. Other girls will also contact you – to lure you into meeting and doing some misconduct – ALL OF WHICH WILL BE photographed. The conspirators are people you know and trust. In your case, they don’t want money – they wanna RUIN you personally”.
I asked her for help with people’s names – she turned quiet!!
Honestly, I don’t know why she informed me. Probably because the last few messages I sent to her were genuine, “hey hope life is good with you etc. etc.” types. Maybe my Rodinhood Monastery posts got to her :-))
All this while, I am ASSUMING it’s a her – it could easily be a man.
PHEW – PHEW – PHEW – PHEW!!!!
Man!
My hunch was right. My risk was worth it (‘coz I am posting this as the first story).
My experiment points to proving that THIS is the FUTURE of Blackmail.
Modus Operandi:
– Find noticeably visible, vocal and probably successful people on facebook
– Start with messages that can be stored and presented as proof.
– LURE into meeting physically
– BLACKMAIL AND/OR RUIN.
Lesson? when you get a message from a decent looking person from the opposite sex (or same sex like I received the day before), just be warned…. All that glitters is actually POISON.
But I guess, you knew that already, right?
Hmmm. I say:
*****