My friend is beeing scammed, please advise

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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:16 am

Please try what I suggested a few posts up. Make it easy by opening a yahoo account for her and sending her the login details so she can email her.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:17 am

I'll take a stab at answering your questions...not that I have any real enlightenment to offer, but at least I can let you know how some of us see it.

mrJazz wrote:

It appears, however, that if she is in fact a "real" person, she has not yet been caught, and she is basically untraceable.

If she's a scammer, she/he makes it her/his business to be untraceable. If she's a real person, would she be so difficult to trace? And why won't she do something as simple as send you an email? Just food for thought.

Quote:

Anyway, I have a question. If she's really thinking about dumping 30.000 that probably come from illegal activities, how would she benefit from that afterwards? Without having my home adress, and such, I mean. I'm asking out of curiosity, because I know now that I'll never find out for sure. I know that I would get in trouble by accepting the money, but I just don't know what kind of trouble it could be. Any ideas?

I personally don't think there IS any $30,000. I believe it was just something she was telling you, to entice you to meet up with her, leaving you open for whatever scam she has planned. But, as many have mentioned in this thread, her scam (if, of course, that's what it is) is definitely unusual enough that we haven't yet been able to identify the scammy catch.

As for what kind of trouble you'll get in if you go to meet up with her to accept the cash...that's the thing. We don't know. Scams can be very convoluted and, sometimes, even brilliant in their execution. While we are very knowledgeable about scams in general, and have encountered more permutations of scams than we care to think about, we certainly haven't encountered them all.

What we DO know is that meeting up with scammers is always dangerous. If this was a scam we recognized, we could give you better ideas on what the danger is. Since it's not, we can't.

I agree that Lotta has given you an EXCELLENT suggestion! This gal is clearly on the internet, and is able to chat with you on an online site. Sending emails is SO much easier than chatting on a site. Plus, it's more secure. Dating sites have owners and moderators, who usually have the ability to see what's going on on their sites.

That's another reason you have to motivate her to move your conversation to email. Not only are you having problems with the site, but you don't want the site moderators reading your private messages.

Good luck with that, and let us know what happens.

Editing to add:

mrJazz wrote:

She seems to be sending messages, and not mails because, I dunno, maybe she doesn't WANT to be located?

BING BING BING BING! Clue #5974! (I lost track of my numbers...) Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

I can't seem to put this clear enough. We are communicating WITH our email adresses THROUGH a chat client (not the dating site). I have her email adress, hand she has mine, and I've told her to send me emails to update me, because I "can't receive the messages".

Now, did I get it right this time? Razz

Hellish Taskmaster Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Posts: 537

Has she responded?

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:26 am

^^^Thanks for the clarification. Sorry, I misunderstood. The posts are coming so fast and furious in here that I sometimes miss things.

I'm no expert in online chats. Are you saying you know her email address? If so, have you sent her an email, and yet she just keeps responding via the chat client? What email domain is she using? Is it one of the free ones e.g. Yahoo? I apologize that I'm just not that technically savvy about chats.

In any case, now that you've told her you want to take your conversation to email...if she continues to NOT send you an email, that would be clue #5975. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:27 am

Sign up for a trial account at readnotify.com. It is free for thirty days.

Send her an email, following the instructions on that site. You will get probably get an IP if she reads it, whether or not she answers it.

Send her anything, a map of the area you're planning to meet, a recipe for pulled pork, whatever you think will catch her eye without raising suspicions. It will work best if there is an attachment.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

F a n t a s t i c, Luckey! Just did that. Now let's hope she opens it, and soon. Should be interesting, hopefully Smile

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:41 am

Good luck! Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:50 am

I hope you'll excuse me for not rereading the posts, but what evidence do you have for her travels other than her word?

That is why I suggested meeting her off the plane, either overtly or covertly.

As for not finding her on the net, well that might be genuine - not everyone is findable, especially outside the US (where Big Brother makes avaiable an insane amount of info!) so while it may be an indicator it is not proof either way.

And while it is unusual to have someone give out money, there are philanthropists out there and it has happened to me albeit in slightly less adventurous circumstances.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:58 am

Mr. Jazz, that's great news! Luckey's suggestion was the best one that's been in this thread for ages. Good luck, and please do keep us informed!

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:13 am

I still think it is a baiter. Smile

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

WOW, this is interesting!

She just opened the mail. Sit tight, this is what I found out.

First of all, she is I was suspecting her to still be in Brazil, because I ended up thinking she wasn't really studying in Porto at all. Well anyway, here's what I found out.

She is still in Brazil. She is however, located to the city she stated to be from. So she lied about making the trip to Porto. And probably about how dificult it was for her saying goodbye to all her friends, family etc. Because why would she lie about making the trip, if something just came up and she couldn't make it, for extraordinary reasons?

That's not the most interesting part, though. We've spoken about suspecting the money to be from illegal activities, more accurately drug traffic. So here goes...

The language of the computer having opened the email, is not Portuguese. Any one guessing what's to follow?

The language is Quechua! More precisely Quechua of Bolivia! For those of you who are not aware of this, that's an indigenous language, spoken in several South American countries, amongst others Bolivia.

So there you have it. Feel free to express your entusiasm. I felt like something didn't add up here, and I was actually pretty sure that she had never left the country. I had NO clue, however, that the findings would be THAT interesting. It's truly amazing that the attachment i used could detect the language, by not revealing her ip adress by sending mail, she actually made it possible to find out much more.

So yeah, okay, maybe I'm a BIT more skeptical now. Oh my god. This is just crazy. I've changed my mind. I'm not willing to meet this woman at all.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:51 am

And to all a good night.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:58 am

great job Mr Jazz! - so now you know.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

You bet. This is without a doubt a money laundering deal. I have no idea how it would turn out in the end, but now I'm glad I'll never find out. The whole Quechua thing, really gave me the chills.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:08 am

Fantastic!

Thanks for hanging in there with us, skepticism and ethics-questioning and all. This is definitely one of the more unusual situations we've heard of. But the most important thing is that you are now safe. To most of us, that's really all that matters,

Yeah, sure, I'm curious what the deal was. But I for one wasn't happy with the idea of letting you put yourself out there and in danger, just to satisfy my curiosity. So I'm VERY relieved that you will not be meeting up with her.

Based on what you're telling us now, it sounds like it might very well be a laundering-of-drug-money thing. Which, by the way, is pretty much outside of our area of expertise - we deal primarily in what's known as 419 scams, mostly out of West Africa. Most of us are not very accustomed to getting involved in other types of criminal activity...which would explain why we just don't understand where the scam/crime is in your scenario. But at least we know now that there IS some kind of dishonesty, and likely criminal activity, involved in her interactions with you. And, even more importantly...YOU know.

Definitely interesting reading, though! I'm very glad that someone here was able to offer you a tool to determine that this was not on the up-and-up. Good job!

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:12 am

mr Jazz wrote:

The language of the computer having opened the email, is not Portuguese ... The language is Quechua! More precisely Quechua of Bolivia! ... It's truly amazing that the attachment i used could detect the language ...

Truly amazing indeed. What attachment is the one you used that could detect the language of the computer, and even narrow it down to Quechua of Bolivia? - This is very interesting to know, so we do not confuse ourselves with Quechua of Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador or Peru, where the same language is also spoken ...

BTW, do you mind sharing the girl's IP?

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

I'll have to give Luckey credit of course. Never would have figured out, or had any reason for believing that she was actually speaking another language, if it weren't for his tip.

Although I was really suprised about how well she understood my Spanish, even though she didn't write it, I NEVER would've guessed Bolivia to be involved here. What a surprise!

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

@Joaquin: Readnotify gives results including the language of the computer used to read the message, etc.

@Mr.Jazz: I'm glad you have this sorted. Very Happy

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

I used the page Luckey directed me to: www.readnotify.com

Yeah, the language bit was quite amazing. We do not know for sure that she is from Bolivia, although the Windows language use is that one. There are only three Quechua variations available, for Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The Bolivia one, I imagine would be used in Argentina as well.

I was careful about handing out information about her earlier, because I felt like I had to protect her privacy, since I didn't KNOW that she was a scammer or a criminal. But I have no reason to think otherwise now.

But sure, her IP adress turned out to be 187.4.26.101

Trophy Videos · Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:31 am

Mr. Jazz - Thanks for your patience and understanding. Listening to the Mods here does do some good! Who knew? Wink

Now, I'm headed back to The Bullshit Area, to prowl some more. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:36 am

@jazzy: I was wrong about you, and I apologize.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 62

She showed up and contacted me again, telling me that she's going to Stockholm this evening and that she will contact me when she gets there. Think I might just stay home.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:01 am

So... you're NOT going to the airport to meet her?

She may be a lying, money-laundering narco-trafficker, but manners is manners. Smile

419Eater is my life Joined: 31 Mar 2009 Posts: 327

Mr. Jazz,

I've been following this thread, mostly sitting on the edge of my seat! I'm glad you were able to find the help you were looking for here. This is really a great community, with great people. I'll be interested in hearing how things continue to progress, too. Like when she contacts you asking you why you never showed up. Shocked

Of course, you DID show up, where was she at? What was she wearing? Maybe somehow she misunderstood you, and you should meet in another place. On the other side of town. There is a great restaurant there.

I think it would be great for you to turn the tables on her and make it into a bait for her, and whoever she's working with. Twisted Evil

All while you're home, safe and sound.

I also hope that after this is over, you decide to stick around. We do have a lot of fun here, and you learn a lot of stuff too! Very Happy

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