Friend my be communicating with scammer

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Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Hello everyone. Have been reading here for a very long time....wonderful site and you are all wonderful for donating your time to do this.

OK...my friend joined a penpal site rather than a dating site. She sent this guy a smile and he responded and quickly went to e-mail. He has a g-mail account so it impossible to get his location.

He is very intelligent and writes very well with only a few lapses that would be typical of someone who's first language is not English. He has not sent a photo of himself nor asked for one from her, though he has hinted of doing this in the future. She'd told him she loves flowers and he said he did too and does all sorts of gardening and sent her over 30 photos of flowers (none of which she could find on the internet) and also a few of his dwelling.

OK...here are the possible red flags:
1. the g-mail account.
2. Both parents deceased
3. Quickly started referring to her as "Sweet (name)" and also always sends her kisses.....although the romance words have gone no further than that (and btw, this has only been going on for a few weeks)
4.He claims to have 3 homes, in different countries......and not out in bumf*ck either, but in expensive cities.
5. He claims he was educated as a medical doctor but after his "service" was done, he went and got a "doctorate in electronics" and does have to travel often as part of his job. He also, if I remember correctly, said he is now working in some sort of charity helping them with electronics in some capacity
6. He said lives in from Paris on his profile but when she asked him to teach her some french, he immediately said that he actually lives in the UK (his main home) and this one in Paris and also the third one in a middle eastern country are not his main dwellings.....I guess he vacations there.
7. Stories are not so much grandiose as there are many items of his story that are difficult to believe.

Now, things that point to not a scammer:

1. He is not using a script. Googling every line (including the ones on his profile) bring up no hits (other than the penpal site for those specific lines.
2 He IS actually speaking TO her...in other words....he's discussing the same topics she brings up....not just rambling on and on about nothing like many of them do. He also addresses her with her name, not this "babe', etc.
3. No children

Unfortunately, I am in my 50's so my memory is not what it used to be and I know that I've left some things out in the above lists. And when I remember them I will add them/post them.
It's funny because from reading here for so long, I had been so perplexed how anyone could have fallen for these scammers, particularly the lads.....but now my friend suddenly has a possibility and I am at a loss to figure out if he is or not.

So....the reason for posting this is, of course, what do you all think?

Also, I'm hesitant to post the actual e-mails out on the open board in case he were to read them and get my friend upset. She was totally okay with me coming over here and asking your opinion and also she is at NO risk for sending him any money. She's also read here a bit so she knows to be wary.

Thank you in advance. Smile

419Eater is my life Joined: 17 Apr 2010 Posts: 279

well she is wary and when this rich guy starts asking her for money her fears will be confirmed.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Thank you so much for your reply.

I just wish the guy would ask for money quickly or else give some sort of major clue quickly......because she really, really wants to travel and would especially like to see Paris and I don't want to see her becoming convinced he's for real before it's too late. Problem is.....I'm not all that sure that he isn't.......and neither is she right now.

BTW....how common is it for scammers to use g-mail, hushmail, hotmail, etc. in order to hide their location? From reading here, I get the impression that most don't....though you would think they would. How much of a red flag is it that this guy has a g-mail account?

Thanks

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Oct 2005 Posts: 266

He lives in the UK now? Im assuming she has a telephone number for him?
Just wondering if it starts "+4470"

People are not scammed because they are stupid... they are scaed because they are naive.

Love scammers can "groom" a victim for 6 months before they ask for money.

Better safe than sorry Wink

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 5:31 pm

Hi Dina and welcome to Eater, though I'm sorry that it is concern for your friend that has brought you here. It sounds like she is being cautious, and that is good.

Some scammers do use Gmail accounts, and every other sort of webmail account too. Of course, non-scammers also use all types of webmail account.

Many scammers are university educated, and capable of talking about many subjects. Some use very good English. I am baiting a scammer who enjoys discussing philosophy, politics and literature, and who uses vocabulary that I don't know the meaning of until I look it up in the dictionary. He doesn't claim to have any children, and he never uses 'dear' or 'sweet' or 'baby' or any other endearments. But he is definitely a scammer!

Another scammer I am baiting waited for six months before requesting money, just as create said above.

I think that the best thing I can advise is for you or your friend to register at our sister site ScamWarners. There is a forum there called 'Help! Is this a scam?' and you or your friend will be able to receive help and further advice from the Support Team there, including privately, if you would prefer. This link will take you there:

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Thanks create....no, no mention of talking by phone OR any mention of any sort of chatting. Just e-mail.

Thanks Branwen.....the one you are speaking with sounds very much like the one she is....intelligent, seems to be able to speak on a variety of topics, English quite good (not perfect, but with the typical errors that would be made by one whose native language is not English).

How are you able to know that the one you're speaking with is, indeed, a scammer?

See, I thought I would be pretty good at being able to pick one out after reading here for so long but now I can see I'm not all that good at it.

And the thing is that she is using all her own stuff...own e-mail address, actually talking about her real self (though not given her address or phone # or anything like that) and her e-mail address is one where you CAN track the headers and IP address.
But, though we're both suspicious somewhat.....he's not really done anything significant so far, in terms of the classic scammer MO....except for the "sweet" before her name and always sending kisses when signing off. And he did start doing these by about the 2nd e-mail. But I don't know if that might be normal in parts of Europe.

So he's not done anything egregious enough for me to convince her to drop him.....at least to drop him using her own e-mail and identity.

And to be honest, *I* am not really sure if he is or not. On the penpal site he did indicate only women and he did put the range of 18-60 (which is one of the classic signs, right?) and I just can't figure out why a supposedly 50 year old guy (who describes himself as halfway decent looking) would be looking for a woman on the internet if he owns homes in 3 major cities, has a medical degree and a doctoral degree in "electronics" (though I've never heard of such a thing in those words).

He also has a very bizarre story of being married to a politician for half an hour that really defies credulity. I just don't want to put the details here but would be glad to PM them to you experts here or at scamwarners. (someone will just have to explain to me how to send PM's here...or there)

But other than it just seeming fishy to me...I have nothing significant to use to get her to drop him.....as he does not seem to be following the classic patterns I've read here. I will talk to her about going over to scamwarners tomorrow. She had to go out of town today.
Thanks so much. Figures my first experience (though 2nd hand) with a possible romance scammer would be a tricky one. I do get some of those refugee camp ones, etc.in my spam....but know immediately what they are thanks to this site.

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 1:45 am

Dina wrote:

How are you able to know that the one you're speaking with is, indeed, a scammer?

He's on lots of dating sites, with differing personal details, and naming different countries he is pretending to live in. I've baited him with more than one character, and he invents different personal difficulties when writing to different baiting characters - and they all result in a request for money to be sent to him.

Dina wrote:

someone will just have to explain to me how to send PM's here...or there

To PM somebody here, look for the 'pm' button at the bottom of their post, and click that.

At ScamWarners there is a PM button to the right of a post; or you can click on their names, and then click on 'PM: Send private message' on the middle-left of the screen.

This link will help you find the right person to contact there:

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1899

or you could initially post here:

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

Somebody will be able to help!

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 12:31 pm

none of my scammers had children -- one had a "brother" who was in a bus accident (and later died cause I didn't send money, but he didn't want to talk about that)...

Very few of the scammers I've dealt with touched the subject of money for a long time - they were more concerned with making themselves look like an ideal candidate for marriage...

I had one who said he was an electrical engineer in california (quick ip addy showed nigeria) who was almost believable -- until he started talking about an import/export company that dealt with computers...I asked some technical questions that he had no clue of ...down the road he asked for passport money (lmmfao)....

do a little research on wikipedia or elsewhere about paris - things tourists would know -- ask him specific questions and see how quickly he won't know the answers....(things like a major train station or airport)...

act like you want to come visit him but YOU'RE short of money -- of course, he'll offer to buy the tickets, with some surcharges you need to pay...

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 4:42 pm

you got a PM

hope it helps

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Thanks so much for the replies everyone.

Ivana...yes, there is a definite pattern that whenever she asks him anything technical about something like equipment used for a hobby, there is a lapse of time before he replies....which could be him googling for a reasonable answer. It's become almost totally predictable now. What could one ask someone that could not be googled? I can't think of anything.

He's also getting the time of day/night and the weather accurate for where he says he is.

If I were to send one of you the headers...even though he uses gmail...would there be anything useful there? Are there other clues to be found even if the IP address can't be?

Like I said before...it really looks so much easier when you guys do it here. I didn't realize how slick they could be. I even kinda arrogantly wondered how women fell for this stuff....but now I can see why. It's a LOT harder than I thought.

Subway...thank you for the PM. I forgot how to PM back and just realized now that Branwen had told me I had to do it from your post and not from the PM area or I'd have replied right back to you.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Subway 1.......when I checked your PM on Saturday I did not see the body of it and only saw the HI Dina. I'm just getting used to your system. I just now saw the actual body of what you sent....and I sent you 2 replies. Thank you SO much. I can't wait to tell her when she gets home from work.

Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 12:47 pm

Hi Dina

you need to register in scamwarners, the site has wonderful people who are professional in dealing with this kind of scams, registration won't take a minute

my help here is merely technical, your friend needs to tell him a very convincing story when she send him the link

something like (have you been to this place, what does it look like?) or anything similar

if he clicks, I will post his ip in this thread

sadly, it's not possible to know where he is from Gmail headers.

this is the first phase

if he doesn't click, we need to persuade him to change his email to hotmail because your friend is facing some problems readings emails from Gmail

but let's wait for now Twisted Evil

Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 4:43 pm

Do we have any baiters in Paris that could tell you what local construction is going on that google would not show? maybe one of our Paris baiters can provide that unique info to you and you could then ask him subtle questions about that. If he’s really there, he would know. Twisted Evil

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Josey Wales, thank you for your reply. At this time, he says he is living in the UK and that is his main residence.

My friend is reluctant for me to post any more details out on the board here but I'm talking to a few people behind the scenes. And thanks so much for everyone who has contacted/PM'd me. I really appreciate it.

Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 10:00 am

He clicked Very Happy

a PM sent

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

I want to thank you all, especially Subway and Branwen for all t he help I received. You are all wonderful and it's nice to see people who really care compared to these scammers who have no sympathy or empathy.

And the situation? We still don't know for sure but I feel very sure that at least no money will be sent.

Also...where do you check to see if similar scam e-mails are already posted? I get lots of the dead father with millions in the bank....but the last 2 I've gotten...and this is very recently (past week) are pretending to be Chinese...the one today was Hong Wu and I forget the name of the other one from a couple of days ago but it was also a Chinese name. I'm guessing they are starting to want to change up African sounding names as more and more people are wising up. So in case they don't already know at Scamwarners about this sudden change to Chinese names...I want to know where over there I can check out if they already know this and if not, let them know.

Thanks so much...a million times, Dina

Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:08 pm

Hi Dina

In order to see if scam emails are already posted on the internet there are a range of searches you can do.

I always use google to search, if you pick out some unusual lines from the emails you can often find other examples.

I must say that there is a knack to knowing which lines to pick but it is something that is not hard to learn with practice.

To give you an example, I have had this line in a few emails I have received from scammers

"I like going to beaches in my bikinin"

or

"taste a little coffe from a small window"

Have a go at seacrhing on those lines and see what comes up, by using quotation marks " " you will search on the exact phrase.

Try it yourself and see what comes up Wink

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 2:20 am

Dina wrote:

Thanks so much for the replies everyone.

...which could be him googling for a reasonable answer. It's become almost totally predictable now. What could one ask someone that could not be googled? I can't think of anything.

.

Hi Dina,
I have an electronics background, PM me and I will give you some questions with answers. Any technician should know, let alone an engineer.

Cheers

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 10:51 am

^^ when you do give the answers, be sure to make sure you tell him things that are not right, for example, technicians normally call them selves "Sparkies", and they always use a left handed screw driver when working on computers, of course he will know already that CPU fans always work better when they are siliconed up and by doing so you can speed up the computer considerably.

You dont necessarily have to give those answers or questions relating to them but if he actually is what he says he will immedaitely know and tell you, if he is a scammer, he may learn by what you have told him, its always good to teach scammers new things Wink

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 83

Thanks guys.

OK...so you are saying that I should google names, phrases, etc. from them and see if they show up on Scamwarners already? And let's say one of them does not...do I send it to a moderator over there or do I simply post it on one of the forums there?

Thanks again

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 1:14 pm

If you are wanting to know whether something is already posted at ScamWarners, there is a 'Search' box at the top right of the forum index page:

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/index.php

If you get too many results, you can then 'Search these results' on the results page.

You are most welcome to post scam mails there yourself - that would be very helpful. Include the headers of the scam mails - but be sure to take out all your own details (name, email address) first. If you need any help with anything there, any Support Team member (coloured names) will be happy to assist.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 16 May 2010 Posts: 8

Hi All!

I'm Dina's friend. First & foremost, I'd like to thank Everyone, for their help/advice.

Being an atypical scammer, made it a challenge to figure him out.
I found, I Really enjoyed that challenge. I'm not sure a typical lad, would have held my interest for long. I, Now, know for sure, he is a lad

I enjoyed it so much so, I didn't want anything posted, that may alert him.
I still feel that way. So, I will prolly be communicating via private messages. I will read all the tips, posted here, but, I Would like a mentor.

I have made some necessary changes in the relationship/communication, so that I may bait safely.

What a great bunch your are. I look forward to being part of your community.

TheVortex

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