a friend of my friends wife's is being scammed

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 18 May 2009 Posts: 1

HI there, this is my first post on here and its not about me lol

I will re post all the info he gave me

Quote:

she met a guy on the internet. he was supposedly from England but had business in Guinea. they corresponded for a long time. she fell in love and the got engaged. she was supposed to go to England for the wedding in September. then he suddenly died, and she is told he left her tons of money. she just needs to send 22 grand to cover mystery expenses until the will is out of probate.

i know this is a long con variant of the typical Nigerian mail scam, but i want to have proof for her, because she is very emotionally invested in the situation. could someone help me find a link to an other story about this exact type of scam... the fake marriage, the sudden death, the will, the need for money first ect... i've seen a lot that have the same end game and maybe that will be enough to convince her, but a story with the fake marriage and death would really help.

these bastards spent months stringing her along before they got to the part where they asked for money, and she apparently has tried to get it, luckily no one will lend it to her, but i suspect she has probably already sent them small amounts of cash.

i have already sent him links to here but is there any more that can be done?

Thanks for your help

Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 9:34 pm

Problem is some times folk don't want to hear they've been scammed, or more like they just don't want to believe it.

These lads try anything to get cash, they have no morals or conscience what so ever.
All I can suggest is sending as much info as you can, how ever painful it maybe to her now, it is vital no more money is lost to these vermin.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Hi John Jones and welcome here. We can certainly do some research on this for you and help you come up with more specific evidence. A more suitable place for this would be our sister site, www.ScamWarners.com. Please do post on the forum there and give us as much information as you can about the scammer: names/email addresses he is using, phone numbers, IP addresses, any beginning emails or "love letters" (usually plagiarized) if possible.

Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 10:49 pm

You could also ask over at the excellent romancescam.com - they have a tool where you can see if any of the photos she had been received by any other victims - it would be a quick if harsh convincer. Simply upload the photos and it searchess over 100,000 scammer-used photos, it may find the guy for you. Also try tineye.com, which is broader, but will show if a photo of "him" was just found online.

Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 11:00 pm

Sorry she fell for this scammer. So am I reading right that your friend's wife told him that she fell for a guy online? How is your friend taking it?
Hope you guys are able to get through to her!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 1

Amused wrote:

Sorry she fell for this scammer. So am I reading right that your friend's wife told him that she fell for a guy online? How is your friend taking it?
Hope you guys are able to get through to her!

i'm the person who wrote the original post that John Jones was quoting. it was my wife's friend who fell for the scam. we had heard about her online boyfriend and engagement for the last few months. it was just yesterday i heard he had "died" and left her money and property, but they just needed 22,000 to tie up loose ends and pay his employees until the will was settled. i haven't talked to her myself, i told my wife as soon as i heard it was a scam, but i wanted to see if i could find another account of the exact same scam to show her when i talk to her.

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 3:52 am

Hi Bane
I'm so sorry that your wife is caught in this scam. All standard 419 scams involve huge amounts of money that require a "fee" to get your hands on.
Do you have any emails from the scammer because chances are that characters emailing her on the same person.

If you have the name the scammer used on the site she found him at and email /phone numbers used, I may be able to find more info on him that you can show to her.

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 8:19 am

If you have access to some of the emails from the scammer, try Googling random passages of text. Lads are great ones for recycling, and finding an identical letter out there sent to someone else can be enough to convince a victim in denial.

419Eater is my life Joined: 10 Jul 2008 Posts: 366

Roycropper is one approach to demonstrate that it is a scam.

Another thing that can be done is normal fact check. Ask for documents that are a matter of public record, death certificate, copy of the will.

Use Google maps to check out addresses.

All this adds up to scam eventually.

Have someone check out the UK address.

p.

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:33 pm

The best thing to do is to find out from your wife's friend where this person is meant to have died. If the scammers say the UK, then ask for a copy of the death certificate as proof. When you get hold of a copy of the death certificate post it up here (mark it as fake first) and we will be able to tell you whether it is a legitimate death certificate or not (unlikely) and provide you with proof that it is a fake.

If they say that they haven't got the death certificate then tell them to get one from the Register Office.

Master Baiter Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 128

If she is actually considering paying the $22.000?? to whomever it is that tells her that this will "free up" the "will" would she consider getting an Attorney, a real Attorney from her state, someone who will represent her legal interests. It would be interesting to see/hear the reaction of the scammers, if it is a real scam, (and it does sound pretty scammy to me!! ) If this person really did have a will and she was named in the will then his estate and the Attorney representing it/him would take care of all of those expenses. My guess would be that the scammers would NOT welcome a real Attorney to represent the Legal interests of your wife's friend.

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 6:02 pm

As far as I know, there is no such thing as an "inheritance fee", nor would you need an attorney to receive an inheritance. Regardless, this falls under the "if it sounds too good to be true, it is" category. 100% scam.

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 7:38 pm

bane i am wondering is thier another way to get her to take legal advice . the more people mention to your wifes friend she is being scammed the less she may want to belive it . ( i went though something similar with a friend in real life ) to her this is the love of her life and he has just died . she is going to be incredibly vunerable right now . my thoughts go out to her .

lets say for example tell her to go to a solicitor or a laywer ( depending on what part of the world you are in !) to get advice about the legal aspects of getting moeny from another contry . therre should be taxes to pay etc . get her to print out the e-mail saying she was left money and show it what ever solicotor she goes to . hopefully that person will say that she has been taken in by a load of scammer b.s before she spends any serious money .

Master Baiter Joined: 07 Oct 2008 Posts: 200 Location: UK

If he was domiciled in the UK there will need to be a Grant of Probate. The only thing that will be required in terms of fees before the Grant are inheritance tax and probate court fees. Probate fees are £50. IHT can be anything depending on the size of the estate. However, most banks will agree to release the IHT direct to the CTO and it is never necessary for the beneficiary to introduce funds.

I'm a probate lawyer so if you need anymore info, please PM me.

I'd say 100% scam.

Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 12:00 pm

Quote:

he was supposedly from England but had business in Guinea

did they speak on the phone? what number did he give her? did it start +44?
it would have to start +44 to be an english number.

did it start +4470? those english numbers are only used by people who want to redirect their calls to their overseas number.
scammers use +4470 numbers a lot, so they can pretend to be in the uk, but really they are somewhere else.
if he gave her a +4470 number, it is a good indicator he had something to hide.

i hope you can convince her not to go through with this.
if she is really really obstinate, she should engage a lawyer in ghana that she chooses (or you choose).
she should not use a 'lawyer' who is proposed to her by the scammers, for obvious reasons.
a lawyer near you would also be a good idea, but the scammers will probably just say they don't understand the ghana legal code, or they have no standing in a ghana court.
so i think a ghana lawyer would be more able to convince her that she is being scammed.

i used google and found a few ghana lawyers who are recommended by the uk foreign and commonwealth office,
so they can probably be trusted - <here is a link>
a lawyer from that list would know the legal system in ghana.

you said she is 'she is very emotionally invested in the situation' - i hope she is not also financially invested

good luck!

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