A friend of mine is heavily sucked into a 419 scam

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 4:40 am

I hope I'm posting this in the right forum, if not, tell me where I should.

I have a friend who lives in Melbourne Australia who was contacted by someone in England saying a old Christian lady had died and that there was no next of kin to inherit her deceased estate. My friend is a cleaner and didn't have alot of money. He flew to England and spent 7 months there trying to negotiate the payout. He was shown a bank vault with the 23 million pounds he was told he could have. I think he must have met some scammers in person. He obtained money from alot of contacts in Australia including his sister who mortgaged her house. He was asked to purchase anti-terrorism certificates and anti-money laundering ones too I think to prove he was not going to bring the money into Australia to use it for terrorism purposes. He has given the scammers I would say somewhere between AUD $100,000 and AUD $200,000. Some mutual friends of ours told him it was a scam and warned him as he asked nearly everyone for money but still to this day he believes its not. The latest is that he is being told that as he is an individual and not a PTY LTD he can't claim the money - yet. He also claims to have been dealing with a British MP who was trying to help him and a lawyer from Goldfields? He is so sucked in and the scammers must have gotten someone to imitate the Queen as he also claims to have spoken to Queen Elizabeth the II. Yes the Queen! She said she was going to sign a anti-terroism document for him. He has invested so much money all its been going on and on for atleast 2 years. I am no longer in touch with him as I got fed up when he contacted a friend of mine who had never met him asking her repeatedly for $10,000 AUD. He even asked me earlier this year for $2500 which I didn't give of course. He keeps gettinng promised the money any day now if he just transfers across a few more thousand for some other silly reason. It goes on and on and on. I don't know all the details, any of his contacts as he won't reveal that. The situation is so out of hand that another personal friend of mine I've known 17 years gave him $120,000 and the bank has foreclosed on her house and she's about to become homeless. This all may sound like a soap opera but its as true as true can be. I've never seen anything like it in my life and am overwhelmed at how stupid people can be. Does anyone have any information I can pass onto my friend showing him its a really fake scam?

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:00 am

First, welcome. That is a terrible, sad story. I don't know if I am equipped to answer your question, but the mods and admins are very active and helpful here, I am sure they will be with you shortly.

By the way, when you check back, they will have probably moved this thread to the "Main" forum.

Once again, I am so sorry, and sit tight. Crying or Very sad

Elite Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2007 Posts: 1979

I'm not sure this belongs here but a mod will move it and let you know for sure, if they do move it.

Meanwhile, it certainly sounds like a scam. I've seen several worked this same way. Your friend's money is gone, I'm afraid. The only hope he might have is that his scammer was at least in the UK once. If the scammer is still there, I believe the UK authorities might be able to nab him.

Here, no one can do much without more details. Would your friend be willing to provide email addresses, phone numbers, copies of the emails he's exchanged and work with someone here to get the IP addresses of the scammers? I stick to the romancers myself, so I'd not be of much help, but there are experts here who will know what to do.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:31 am

whilst i'm shocked and was initially upset with all this, at the same time, i think peoples greed lets this happen and its a lesson for both of them to not think they can earn money for nothing. a bit learning lesson for them.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:44 am

Perhaps you could show him all the surplus letters here? And I think there may be one or two similar in the letters archive, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure if your friend will believe even that, but it may be the best/only thing you can do at this point.

After 2 years it seems he, like the lads that go on safari, is so emotionally invested in this whole thing that it absolutely, positively MUST be true no matter how absurd it is.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:16 am

Hi and so sorry to hear about your friend.

His money is gone, and so has all the money from friends and relations he has borrowed from.

This isn't really the forum, could you please visit www.scamwarners.com, post your above post there, and the people there will try to advise you.

We will need a lot more details, email addresses etc, and anything you can give us there to help track the scammers.

There are similar scams posted in Scamwarners, your friend has been royally sucked in, and you do need the advice we can give you from Scamwarners, rather than here.

Baiting Guru Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 5905

catjan wrote:

Perhaps you could show him all the surplus letters here?

Whilst that could work I have a feeling this vic is too far in to this scam to listen to that kind of reason. His response would probably be "they are all scams but mine is real."

hayley wrote:

i think peoples greed lets this happen and its a lesson for both of them to not think they can earn money for nothing.

To an extent but if your friend thinks this is a legitimate international business deal they may just see it as their big chance to get some financial security. This could be important to them if, as you said, the victim does not earn a lot of money. This deal could be seen as a desperate attempt by the victim to get out of a rut and engage in something exciting involving travel to a foriegn country. By having your friend talking to an 'MP' and "HRH Lizzy II" they are massaging the victims ego very well. The problem is the victim has become comfortable in the make belief world created by the scam. Whilst your friend believes in the scam they can live in the warmth of believing that they are about to become rich and have the scammers massaging their ego on a daily basis. Your friend has probably expressed his doubts to the scammers at some point and maybe even said some of their friends have said "it is a scam." Their response will give the victim a warm feeling inside, something along the lines of "it isn't a scam and you will be able to prove it when you are rich and powerful all those doubters will come scurrying back to you."

All the real friends of a victim can offer them in contrast is the cold hard truth which is a very bitter pill to swallow. Especially if the victim has lost a lot of cash to the point where there is, in their mind, no other possible way of re-couping this amount to pay everyone back and even break even unless they continue to believe the money offered to them by the scammer is one day going to arrive.

However you have come to the right place, here and over at our sister site scamwarners we have people with a lot of experience dealing with victims.

All I would add is this, as frustrating as it is try and stick by your friend, see this scam as a drug they are hooked on. Like a drug addict they need support getting off this drug and it really does help if they have friends and family that will stick it through with them. Yes they will probably have relapses and beg for money and even be tempted to steal to get their fix. Just try your best to see them through to the other side, some victims who have not been so lucky to have that support have committed suicide after falling for these scams, seeing it as their only way out.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

Harsh reality.

You're friend is hooked and it may take something really severe to get him to come off the drug of "money".

Someone needs to go to the authorites and make a formal complaint about the money they've lost to this guy, especially if they've lost their home because of it.

The result might be bad, very bad with this victim geting arrested for fraud, but at least it might save other victims from being suckered in by him and snap him out of it.

The chances of him getting the money back or repaying the people he's "borrowed" from are very remote.

Sorry I know that's really cruel but it has to be stopped. Curing a drug addict is not nice, but it's for their own good.

<i>EDIT - took some time writing my little bit due to interuptions, the above post was not there when I started.</i>

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

You, and your friend, may find this article of interest:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/15/060515fa_fact

There is not much we can do here, other than tell you that this is a classic story of advance fee fraud. We can tell you how it works in detail, but we can't prove it to your friend other than by comparison with other similar stories. As others have said, if we had contact details for the scammers, then we might be able to get more proof. For example we might arrange to get scammed ourselves, and then your friend might see that they were offering others the same money. Rest assured that there are many people here who would like to help your friend and to teach this scammer a lesson. However I imagine that it is unlikely that you can get contact details. If you do, please PM them to a moderator - putting them out in public may cause lots of people to jump in all at once and put the scammer on his guard.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:39 am

Your friend has long since passed the point where they could be helped or warned. They need a visit from Law enforcement to stop this in it's tracks. I know that there is a gentleman at www.scamwarners.com who is in touch with the Australian authorities, and I suggest you make a visit there. Moderators and Admins here may be able to help also, I believe that they have some contacts in Law Enforcement who are understanding of 419 Fraud.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:49 am

Your friend is lucky to have you and frankly is going to need you when this bubble bursts - you will need to watch for signs of extreme depression, suicide etc as sadly these cases, especially the more extreme ones, end this way. Sorry to be blunt but your friend is going to feel terrible once they realise for sure.

If he/she is still in the UK I'm happy to meet with them if they want, we can look through the real MP's and find it's none of them, and maybe just maybe lure his scammers into a meet with the police in London (very long shot).

I'm sorry for your friend, sorry they're alienating everyone, but you really are going to need to be about (and make sure everyone else is about) for them on the other side

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:00 am

If you could pm a mod with his email address we could have a go, but there is an element of denial at this stage. deep down your friend may really be having his doubts, but he has invested so much money and effort now he won't want to hear it.

I have warned 'victims for life' who then accuse me of trying to scupper their deal of a lifetime so I can have the money for myself. Rolling Eyes

Really all he has to do is Google 'Next of kin scam' if he wants his bubble bursting, or visit scamwarners.com and find a load of near identical scams.

If and when he does rea;ise its a scam he will then get emails puporting to be from law enforcement or the UK government or whatever, offering to get his money back for him. Same scum, different scam. They have a good idea by now that your friend will beleive anything they tell him.

Would a letter from the Queen saying 'it's a scam, honest' convince him?

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:09 am

Regrettably there is a point at which an unwitting victim becomes sucked in so deep that they become a menace to their friends and associates, and this appears to be such a case.

Having literally invested 'his life' in this scam, it's unlikely that anything but a major reality check will shake him loose, and that would undoubtedly involve the law. If our member with contacts in that area could use them, then it may be possible to stop this progressing any further, and ruining any more people's lives.

I recall a case not so long back in New Zealand where a little old lady in her eighties had obtained money from her friends for a similar scam and ending up in jail over it. It's a tragedy when one person's life is destroyed over a scam, but when they involve other people and their money too, the matter becomes very serious.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 10:27 am

Hi hayley

As already stated by a couple of other people, the best place to deal with this is at www.scamwarners.com

Eater is primarily a baiter forum whereas our sister site deals exclusively with the victims of internet fraud. Although you may get advice here, Scamwarners is better equipped to deal with your problem. Wink

Just sign up and copy and paste your post to the forum there and the Scamwarners and Advisors will help you out.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 10:33 am

Its an awful situation, but as Roy Cropper suggests, your friend only needs to do a google search for "Queen, scam, kin" and he will get plenty of hits.

He is even likely to find the original scam script that he recieved, because these scammers repeatedly send out many thousands.

It seems as though this man has lost all sense of reality and refuses to listen to friends and family, maybe a chat with a LEO is teh only way for him to see sense. But it will hit him very hard.

I will emphasize the advise given by Mugatu..

Quote:

I know that there is a gentleman at www.scamwarners.com who is in touch with the Australian authorities, and I suggest you make a visit there

A friend of mine is heavily sucked into a 419 scam	View next topic View previous topic