Did my son get scammed

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.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 1

I found western union reciepts, where my son has sent money to nigeria, I also found some saved IM chats with a person who claims to be stuck in nigeria because the hotel has confiscated her passport and plane ticket home, until she can pay her hotel bill, $300. She has had him supposedly call the hotel manager to try and get him to release her passport and plane ticket promissing to pay the hotel bill when she gets back home here. I have copies of these conversations between my son and this person going by the name of Barbra Jacobs. Another name used on one of the W.U. reciepts was Jouita Smith. The city the money was sent to a total of $275. dollars, was Lagos, country nigeria. If this is a scam please, someone post a confirmation so I can show him, he wont listen to me and he thinks he is helping some poor beautiful young lady get back home. HELP!!!

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:41 am

Yes , this is most likely a scam.
try to show your son scamwarners.com (the sister site of this site). this site is filled with storys and warnings about how scammers work.
The site can be found over at http://www.scamwarners.com/ . also take a look at http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5 and
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=202

I think they fall under the category of "love scams". Most of the times a friends email account gets hacked and that person then sends a mail to his whole adressbook. The mail tells a sob story about how he went on a small vacation without telling anybody and is now stuck in that country. He can't get home without help. He doesn't want to contact (insert anybody, parents , family , friends) because he is too embarrased.
Most comming misfortunes that will occur before needing money :
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13647#p13647

I attempted to google both names you provided , but they turned up a blank both.

Try and ask your son where he met this person. If it is an old friend , can he contact that friend by any other means to check the story.
If it is a totally unknown person , how did that person come to him? why can't this person contact their parents / family? Doesn't it seem the least bit odd that you would contact a totally unknown person on the other side of the world to help you out of trouble ? Does the hotel have an website ? Does it have contact information different from the one the mails provided ? Does the website seem extremly shoddy made (if so ,please let us know.)

Scamwarners also has a guide or a discussion somewhere about how to convince or explain to people that they are being scammed (it is coincidentally totally the opposite of what i am asking). It involves genuinly helping the person in trying to prove that this is real. Instead of wanting to make it false , you want to make it true. Base yourself only on facts and information that has been proven true. This because scam victims want to believe and will have an averse reaction to people trying to disprove the story.
I wasn't able to find back the link , but this topic comes close to it
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5507&p=19503&hilit=convince#p19503

Lastly : if you or your son is able to provide us with the first mail that was sent from the person (preferable with headers) it would be easier for us to identify this scam. I understand this might be hard as he will disbelieve and sometimes even sabotage your steps to disprove that this is a scam.

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:01 pm

I am so sorry to hear about your son yes he was scammed if you would like to prove it to him supply the user name and maybe dating site and i will be happy to bait/him/her also a great site for support is scamwarners.com he maybe able to find his scammer on there and also they have trained people who can help him because it can be hard to accept especially when it comes to the heart. Also these people use stolen photos and are 99% male.

Master Baiter Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 159

Itoldhimso,
if your son haven't met Barbra Jacobs ( or Jouita Smith ) in person and know her for a long time, it's a scam. Especially if the e-mail requesting help came out of the blue.

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:32 pm

Hi I toldhimso

I am very sorry to hear about your son.

There is no doubt that it is a scam.

I only skimmed your post and the replies, it is way past my bedtime here.

I wll point out that if he has sent money (and he obviously has) he will continue to be scammed until he fully realises it is a scam.

Please have him read through this thread http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3607

The 2 main posters have loads of experience between them in dealing with victims of romance scams, please discuss with them how they can help you.

Ralph has his email address in his signature line, please forward anything you have to him and he can work out the best way to make sure your son gets the message

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:40 pm

Hello Itoldhimso,

I can only echo what the others have already stated above. And, I can add that I am currently baiting person that is claiming to be stranded in Lagos, in a hotel and in need of money to pay the hotel and get home, but she/him/it wants a $1,000. My lad is using a different name but that does not mean anything and I've been baiting her/him/it for about 3 weeks now.

Best of luck with helping your son understand that he was taken advantage of and the money is gone. Also, the scammer will attempt to get more money from your son but telling him that the money was stolen, lost, needs more for travel it will go on & on.

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:45 pm

Your son needs to be alert for a "recovery scam". In a recovery scam, an "official" with the Nigerian government (or Nigerian police, or whatever) will contact your son and say "You lost X dollars to scammer Y. We have now arrested scammer Y and found information on Y's computer that caused us to contact you. You can get your money back, because we have seized scammer Y's assets".

Of course, to get your money back, you have to pay legal fees to a Nigerian lawyer. Naturally, the lawyer, and the police officer, are merely new identities of the original scammer.

Bruin

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:47 pm

Itoldhimso, welcome here, albeit under sad circumstances.

Murry and the others have given excellent advice, and I highly recommend contacting Ralph on Scamwarners.com.

In addition, you might want to go to this website http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/emergencies/emergencies_1212.html . There's lots of helpful information regarding assistance available to Americans travelling abroad and getting into difficulties. I will predict that if your son tells this "girl" to follow the advice on that site, "she" will come up with all kinds of excuses why she can't do it.