This appears to be a scam attempt rather than a legitimate interaction. Here’s why:

Red Flags Indicating a Scam:

Unsolicited Contact & Generic Conversation Starter

• The conversation starts with a casual greeting and a reference to NewsMax, likely to establish credibility or common ground.
• The message does not contain any specific personal references that would indicate a real prior relationship.

Vague & Poorly Written Message About an "Assistance Fund"

• The scammer quickly shifts the conversation to a financial assistance fund, a common tactic in online scams.
• The message is poorly structured, with awkward phrasing like "helping the, helping people", which suggests machine translation or copy-pasting from a script.
• It references widows, students, disabled people, and workers, covering multiple demographics to increase the chances of engagement.

Lack of Personal Details & Evasion

• The recipient challenges the sender by asking where they met and what city it was in—a great way to test if it’s really someone they know.
• Instead of answering, the sender leaves the conversation, which suggests they were caught in their deception.

Group Admin Change & Exit

• "You and one other are now admins" indicates that the sender likely removed themselves from the group after realizing they were suspected.
• This is a common tactic scammers use when they fail to manipulate the target—they leave before they can be reported.

This message has multiple characteristics of a scam, including generic greetings, a vague financial offer, poor grammar, and avoidance of personal details. The recipient wisely responded by questioning their identity, causing the scammer to leave the conversation.

Recommended Actions:

✅ Do NOT engage further. Block and report the sender.
✅ Warn others. If this happened in a group chat, let others know about the scam.
✅ Avoid sharing personal information. Scammers may try different angles to obtain personal or financial details.
✅ Report to the platform. If using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or another chat app, report the sender for fraud.