Conversation with a Spam Bot¶

Today, while I was working on the inventory system for the Dallas Makerspace I received a message from an unknown person via AIM. This is not an unusual event for me since I have had the same AIM screen name for over a decade, so I tend to get messages out of the blue from people I used to know or who I gave my info to and promptly forgot (sorry).  While this wasn't the first spam bot to contact me, it was the first to fool me into thinking it was a real human, at least for a bit. Here's the chat log, with my comments:

bluesoftball27: heya!
me: Hello, do I know you?
bluesoftball27: hey whatss up? 24/f here u?
me: Who are you?
bluesoftball27: Im natali. Dont you remember?
me: I'm sorry, I don't. Did we meet somewhere?
bluesoftball27: oh cool.. have we talked b4?
me: Not that I recall
bluesoftball27: ah ok sorry. wasnt sure. but anywho whats up?
me: I'm writing an inventory management program at the moment
bluesoftball27: yeah? im so bored over here i dunno what to do with myself.
bluesoftball27: you wanna watch me on cam? i feel like having some fun :-X

Here is where I started suspecting that bluesoftball27 might be up to something.

me: I'll pass, I'm kind of busy
bluesoftball27: k u gotta make a free login for this site that its linked to so i cant be recorded. k?

Yup, this is definately someone trying to trick me into downloading a virus or giving out my credit card info. However, at this point I had not yet realized the responses were automated.

me: No thanks, I don't need a virus right now.
bluesoftball27: k cool. http://[redacted]/7/natali go there and when it loads click JOlN FREE at the top ok?
me: Ahhh, I see. These are all preprogrammed responses.

Finally I realized the horrible, awful, truth. Natali was a program, sent back in time to steal my credit card, or something.

bluesoftball27: it does ask for a credit card i think but i know for sure it dosent cost anything
bluesoftball27: its just to make sure that you are over 18.
me: Empty response
bluesoftball27: when u get signed up then u can come watch me on cam and we can have some fun.
me: What other responses do you have?
me: Are they static, or based on my input?
bluesoftball27: if u join me in private or tip me some gold i will do anything u ask me babe
bluesoftball27: i really mean ANYTHlNG. :-X
me: Anything? But you're not even real
bluesoftball27: lets talk on the site when u get in babe. my aim is messing up
me: Your aim is messing up? What is this, 1998?
me: Hello?