Think i was going to be a victim of love/dating scam

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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:05 pm

think i was going to be a victim of love/dating scam.i met him on friends reunited website in england (i have reported him to the site)we were talking for ages and we were getting on really well .apparantley he works in construction in london,told me his name was james williams.(american?)i heard his voice once and to me he didnt sound american.he eventually was saying that he wanted to get back home as he was working in south africa.he was saying the usual i miss u/love u etc.wanna be with u.he said he wants to get some time off and he was going to ask his boss for money.obviously no joy so he started asking me for money.but i resisted and he was being persistant and he got quite nasty.haven't heard anything as yet but i wanted to report it to the proper people.i have got all the conversations we had,emails from a supposed boss and a picture(if it is him)so if u want more info then just ask and i will be happy to supply it so i don't want someone like me to actually fall victim to this guy.he could be genuine but alarms were ringing.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Hi Lesley, welcome to the eater, what you wrote is pretty standard romance scammer format, they say they are working overseas, they more often than not say they are from the US or the UK and are working in Africa, or in your case, need to get back to Africa, can you send money for me to get home blah blah blah.

Please post some of the emails, email addresses and photos that he sent to you, chances are, his photos were stolen from the Focus Hawaii modelling website:

http://www.focusagencyhawaii.com/index-main.htm

Scammers regularly take photos from there, not always, but often.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

In all honesty, it's 99.9% likely that it's a scam.

Well done for spotting that it wasn't kosher and not getting scammed.

A few emails (with full headers) can be posted. Should try to post all email addys he uses as it increases the chance of getting a live one.

If you feel inclined to bait him. Read the stickies, get a mentor, read the stickies again, and then pick someone else to bait. Until you can detach yourself completely, it's not a great idea to try with the same guy.

There are plenty of people on here that can make his life hell for you.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:26 pm

Hi Lesley and welcome,

Glad you realised before sending any money.

The picture of him is not likely to be him, it is most likely a stolen picture off another website

The proper people to report this to, well unfortunately there is no hope of actually catching him if thats what you mean, he will be using all false information about himself and working from an internet cafe in Africa.

If you could post the emails and in particular the earlier emails and his email address it would be a big help.

Many potential victims do searches on their internet lovers details when they start asking for money, by having those details posted on a public website then those potential victims may see it.

If you know how to do it the pictures used and the email headers are also usefull.

Please make sure you remove your own details before posting.

In my signature line is a link with loads of romance scam information, it is aimed more at baiting the love scammers but even if you dont intend on baiting there is some good information in there to help you tell straight away if you new internet relationship is a scam

SP was busy moving the post while I was typing this

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:55 pm

read what u have said,will try to sent the email addresses that he has given me plus 2 photos,the only problem is the coversations were on my ive messenger so i would be unable to send a copy of the conversation but i have it stored.sorry it isnt much use to u.lesley.x

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:03 pm

That's fine Leslie,

The email address and first couple of emails will be great, anything else would be a bonus.

The chats you have had can be usefull to help others understand more about romance chats but it will do little to expose the scammer further.

For the header if you tell us which email you are using, for example yahoo or hotmail, then we can tell you how to find the headers.

Please dont give us your full email address, only the email service you are using

Elite Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2007 Posts: 1979

Hey Lesley! Good job not losing money, but I know it really sucks to feel cheated and used emotionally. We can do mean and nasty things to him if you'd like. If chat is your comfort zone, PM me with your chat name and one of my many personalities will chat with you. Very Happy

I can help you get your chat conversations out of archives and tell you how to clean them up so you don't have to post any personal information, but it's probably not necessary that you post them anyway. Seen one romance scammer chat, you seen them all.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 3:38 pm

lesley wrote:

i heard his voice once and to me he didnt sound american.

LoL - sorry, i couldn't help but not to laugh at that quote Wink

Now you know what to look for and how to handle the situation. Go seek and destroy the scammers on that site!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

Hi there,

I got chatted up by this guy who says that he is from W. Yorkshire but currently working on a project in Nigeria (supposedly a civil engineer) building a road or something.

unfortunately thinking he was a nice guy and chatting for a while, I have him my mobile number. I receive a text message from him telling me that he has been in a car accident and the doctor has stopped treatment because they need more money (�1200 to be precise) and he says can you send it to me and I will pay you back when I get back into the UK next week.

Well as you could imagine the alarm bells started rings because to be completely honest why on earth would send that amount of money to someone i don't know?? Has to be a scam, right? Confused

Elite Baiter Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 1731

@Raven37

It's a scam. Just do not respond to him any longer. Good that your alarm bells went off. This is a very common scenario.

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:05 pm

^^^

I wonder at what point doctors stop working on people after a car accident.
Sorry Mr Smith I would put your hip back in place but since your badly broken arms are incapable of extracting you wallet from your back pocket. We have decided to dump you at this really nice internet cafe around the corner until you come to some payment arrangement.

Great to hear you twigged Smile

lots don't Sad

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

The most incredible thing was then I had received a call from the doctor to tell that his condition was very bad and that i really needed to send the money so that they could bring in a specialist and I was like well what a shame maybe he should call his mother because its just not going to happen.

I have not received a phone call or a text since...

I find the whole thing incredible really. My friends encourage me to start the whole internet dating thing. Most of my friends met their partners through the internet. I just can't get my head around the whole scamming thing but I will be very leary of anyone i talk to going forward.

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:50 pm

Raven - Please realize that some scammers from dating sites will spend months buttering you up (so I hear) before going for the kill (money). I don't want to discourage, but simply warn you that you might want to get indisputable proof that they are genuine early-on.

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