Man gave $200K to fake online girlfriend

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: Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:47 pm

and another, with similar comments;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1361176/Would-YOU-fall-war-hero-dating-website-Elana-did-iit-cost-10-000.html

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:06 pm

Quote:

Investigators said the ID card the woman showed the man was a sample driver's license from Florida.

Which is why we dont want ID's recirculating through Eater.

BTW: I read the comments on the Daily Mail website regularly, just for amusement. They all have perfect bodies and perfect sense, given the time they spend judging everyone else's. I'm surprised they didn't blame the European Union as well, they usually do!

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:38 pm

I'm struggling to understand how the lad got away with this.

Quote:

He said that one of his soldiers had been shot, and he and his friends were trying to raise money so he could be sent to Russia for treatment. He asked me for £300 towards it.

Especially when her son was trying to convince her it was a scam.

Master Baiter Joined: 14 Feb 2011 Posts: 164

Maybe this will help people understand what it's like to get caught up in a romance scam.

These are comments from a girl from work who was "involved" with a guy online - but she wasn't too sure about him.

This is what goes through a victim's mind:

"I feel like im about to give in.

he is always saying he is leaving to go back to US and then something has gone wrong and he is still there... now he is talking about running low on money while he is there etc etc... im getting suspicious.

He has promised me this is not a scam.... im just not sure yet...

I suppose I wont really believe him until he is standing here... as much as I want to ...if and when he emails, if he sends all the info I have asked as well as photos... and more than a couple .. I don’t know that I can believe him.

Im blonde not stupid and im not about to be sucked in by some con artist as much as it will break my heart...please don’t tell anyone about my doubts.... I just need to vent.

Another thought... you might want to try Jeffrey and Daniel Smith....

Mind you I wonder if the name Smith in itself should have been a dead give away in the first place...... argh......

I so want to believe that this man is not lying...

Is there anyway of checking if a cargo ship left ACCRA bound for USA on Saturday or Sunday..... also.. is there even a port at ACCRA.

Im sad..... I really wanted this,,, he seemed so genuine.... maybe that’s it ... he was too genuine and I was too ready to believe there are nice people out there.

mmmm..... maybe not...starting to wonder...

some things he is saying doesn’t add up....

sent him and email last night telling him to answer questions I had and that I wanted photos... past and present and to see his eyes...

even said... "that’s if the photos you have sent are really you...."
Terrible I know but im wondering... needless to say im not happy and ive been smoking.

Just email me anything you find...... I might leave my Hotmail open for a week or so and then close the whole thing down.....
She says,,,, sadly disillusioned.

(And once I confirmed her worst fears)

Thank you..... i am going to have a glass of wine and then go to bed...

i have uninstalled Yahoo .... deleted my hotmail address off of favourites.
i have deleted my deleteds from the recycle bin...

what have i missed...

You have no idea how greatful i am that i can trust you... thank you ... this really is quite theraputic... quite cleansing to know its over and gone.

funny... me who cries for everything isnt crying.. even though i feel so stomped on.
thank you so much...

ok... please remove my Hotmail account.
i dont want to be able to go in there at all,,,,,,, as though i never existed

Thanks so much for all you have done… im over all of this.

Thanks for that.... yes I slept... after talking to you I shut down, tore up the photos, got into bed, read my bible and went to sleep, woke up around 6.30 refreshed and well.

The wall paper etc disappeared yesterday so that’s okay... I deleted all texts and phone numbers on my cell phone and will soon remove the email accounts etc.... need to know about any cookies it may have picked up too... might just unplug the laptop and come and visit if you don’t mind.

I did go headlong.. I fell in love with the thought of being loved.... I opened up in a lot of areas in my life.... I read the letters the others received and im very grateful that in mine he actually sounded educated and genuine which makes it not soooo bad really.

Not beating myself up.. not worth it.. I got to be happy for a while.. that was good...

Onwards and upwards...

And thanks again for your nice words...

I trust you however,,,,, If I delete them I know they are gone.... and yes I want to kill yahoo messenger and profile... I didn’t use them until he came along anyway......

Hotmail the same thing... I will email you the info when I get home and have deleted everything.... not that I don’t trust you.. just me being me... paranoidly cautious...

Then yes.. remove everything... I didn’t set up the yahoo one... he opened the account for me... I was doing the dumb blonde thing ha ha.... ahhahahaha.... I couldn’t even find the plus button on my cell phone.

Will check when I get home one last time... just curious for a laugh really to see if he emails to answer my questions... got to admit.. once you get over the shock of someone breaking your heart.. you need to laugh at their stupidy and get the most out of it.

Have a good night... from tonight when I shut down the Yahoo etc... that's it... all over... I have deleted cell phone messages, emails here and screensaver....

Heck no...... blonde... not stupid..

I am soooo glad I had the savvy to open up a fake email address for this man.......

If you had been off the mark I would have told you to mind your own business, but you were thinking and saying what I knew to be right.

Thanks once again for everything... I truly am greatful, especially with the cleaning up of the PC etc..... I found most of the stuff but without you I wouldn't have cleaned up as well as I have... THANK YOU

Thank you for being so nice and not thinking me a fool. Also thank you for letting others know that MARK ROY SMITH isn't who he says he is.

Thank you thank you thank you..

Do they really think we are allll that dumb... I have to say I did question the validity of him from the start and yet people said.... oh it sounds so genuine.... you know .. woman should always listen to their gut instincts... I actually let myself be talked into thinking this was all kosher

Lol.... just missed a call from Anonymous.... about 6 mins ago... wonder who that was... never left a message.

gosh... i must say... this does make me feel so much better...

just knowing that my suspicions were justified and this little bit of extra knowledge just makes it a bit easier to handle.... instead of thinking im getting it wrong...

I really do PRAY that God heaps burning coals on this mans head for playing with the hearts of lovely woman....

Yes its Venice... he even has a greek sort of look about him...
i mentioned to him... Oh you have been to Venice.. how lovely.. you wil have to tell me all about it... sights sounds smells etc... he didnt respond... changed subject.

BASTARD"

Not quite a Newb Joined: 24 Feb 2011 Posts: 72

Those comments help in one way, but make it more confusing in another. Some of those doubts can easily be checked. Yes there is a port at Accra. Why not look it up, or ask others if they know?

I get letters from "women" that tell me "I am from mixed race. Dad from the states.Mom is from Ghana" accompanied with pictures of Allison Angel.
Even if you do not know who Allison Angel is, you are looking at a blond girl with blue eyes. Mixed race??????

insults and more · Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:16 pm

^^^ Linoge, that is why we view love lads as being especially scummy. They prey on people who are, because of love, incapable of noticing these things. Love blinds people, makes them incapable of logically assessing the objects of their love. Love lads are those so soulless that they take advantage of this.

Think about one of your ex's. Now, you can identify faults, reasons why the relationship could not have worked, etc. At the time, anyone pointing them out would have received a quick kick to the nuts for saying that. A love lad counts on this exact reaction when his victims express doubts. He knows that if his victim seeks advice, they will react with anger at others' doubts, etc. He knows that everyone they know could tell the victim to be wary, check headers, "make sure", but that the victim will ignore all of these things.

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:08 pm

Ok, what's all this piling on a relatively new baiter?

We all know these guys are getting over on people. A lot actually to keep so many in business. Regardless of the circumstances around the crime, the crime was still committed. We are not here to analyse, we are he to deflect, keep busy, and waste lad resources and time (and occaisionally far worse). I we sit down and try to figure why J0hn Q. Public (you can use that as a bait name Wink

) does what he does we will never sit down and bait the lads.

We all hate hearing of these news stories. It should only fuel the fire not make you question the vics.

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:20 pm

Badgerbait wrote:

Ok, what's all this piling on a relatively new baiter

Who is being piled on? Confused

Master Baiter Joined: 14 Feb 2011 Posts: 164

*Edit

Piled on? Not me. I love this place & the information/ideas given.

I actually got involved in baiting because of my experience with this girl.

I was "the guy to go to in IT" at work, so she initially emailed me 3 small photos of the new love of her life & asked me to enlarge them or make them clearer.
They were really just thumbnails & there wasn't much I could do with them - but I did my best.
She had to settle for tiled wallpaper of those photos & I even made her a 3D cube screensaver out of them for her.

Then came the questions.... she's lucky she started to have doubts.
No money changed hands - he didn't get to the begging stage, but was starting to talk about difficulties travelling.

It's disturbing that her friends & family were so supportive, which indicates that they would probably fall for the same thing if it was them.

As for the Accra port etc.... she left all that to me. I was the IT guy & did everything.

Once I found his exact photos on Tineye - and then romancescam.com - I phoned her, emailed the details & probably saved her a few thousand dollars.

Now I have 9 lads to slap.... which reminds me.... one of them still hasn't sent back the application forms to join my church.
Time for a reminder.

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:30 pm

Linouge seems to be getting it a little, Dora. I just noted his questions and the responses. Perhaps I am taking them out of context? Not sure. Just trying to rally the troops, ma'am.

This is getting to be like ethics threads.

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:32 pm

Badger, I believe Linoge has indicated several times he is not new to baiting, just new to Eater. And it seems that it as been a civil discussion, no? Wink

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:48 pm

I thought I read yelling. Sorry I blew up. Get back to work... Wink

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:16 pm

I do believe that we are one baiting site that considers what the victims have gone through. Others seem to see victims as collateral damage to their goal of trying to humiliate the scammers.

Most of us bait to keep scammers from getting to victims. Maybe that is part of the confusion.

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:29 pm

I see what your saying 'Noid.

It is good to see these threads but they should be reasons to get after lads, not to debate about if a vic is dumb (at least that is the way I have understood). I would be terrified to think any young baiter crossing this thread were to think that the only reason to bait is to gain trophies and would begin to see vics as dim-witted, this is just not so. Everytime I read these, I send out more "I am interested, tell me more." messages in hopes that each one I send is one less payday.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 24 Feb 2011 Posts: 72

leonsumbitches wrote:

^^^ Linoge, that is why we view love lads as being especially scummy. They prey on people who are, because of love, incapable of noticing these things. Love blinds people, makes them incapable of logically assessing the objects of their love. Love lads are those so soulless that they take advantage of this.

Think about one of your ex's. Now, you can identify faults, reasons why the relationship could not have worked, etc. At the time, anyone pointing them out would have received a quick kick to the nuts for saying that. A love lad counts on this exact reaction when his victims express doubts. He knows that if his victim seeks advice, they will react with anger at others' doubts, etc. He knows that everyone they know could tell the victim to be wary, check headers, "make sure", but that the victim will ignore all of these things.

All true, but nobody is in love yet when receiving the first letter and probably not even at the second. So how can they be blind at that point?

My ex had no faults. According to her I had.

ParaNoid wrote:

Most of us bait to keep scammers from getting to victims

That's why I do it. Just to keep them busy as long as possible. I do not care about throphies or humilliation.

Are you really humilliating them if they do not know it is happening?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Some victims are smart and savvy, some are not. The basic point, however, is that they are all victims of a crime. No one deserves to be scammed, regardless of how naive.
Generally, we don't judge victims of other crimes but I regularly hear scam victims judged. This puzzles me sometimes. If we hear of a mugging or rape, we don't immediately start questioning whether or not the victim is in any way responsible for this happening to them.
One night someone got in my car and stole all of my CDs. I don't think I'm stupid and my car has been unlocked every night for over 10 years. You could argue that I should have locked up my car but the bottom line is that I'm not to blame for someone else choosing to break a law.

We start down a slipperly slope if we start judging victims and it's wholly unnecessary to do so. No one deserves to be scammed.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 24 Feb 2011 Posts: 72

Ima Baeder wrote:

You could argue that I should have locked up my car but the bottom line is that I'm not to blame for someone else choosing to break a law.

If I play Devil's advocate I would say aren't there locks on a car for a reason? If the car companies deliver them without locks shouldn't we blame them for someone else choosing to break a law?
The slope is slippery, but also full of bumps.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

The point is that I've not done anything wrong, the person who stole my CD's has. I don't deserve to be judged for being the victim. The person who stole my CD's deserves to be judged for being a low life.

If we start judging victims, would we judge some as unworthy to having been helped? Where do we stand then? It's not useful to us as fighters of internet crime to judge victims.

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:36 am

There is no Devil's Advocate in this subject. No grey area. Only a right or a wrong.
The wrong can't be justified with semantics or misinformed pedantry.

insults and more · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:37 am

Linoge: If you wish to debate ethics with the old hands, you may want to create a thread for that. Debates on ethics tend to hijack threads.

No telling whether Slightly will lock the thread, but it would be a better venue.

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:18 am

I have been scammed by a interwebs fraud star. Of all things it was by the officiant I hired for my wedding 8 years ago. My wife to be and I were members of two differant religions so we did not want to use a clergy person for the ceremony.

I posted an ad asking for referrals on a local wedding forum. I got an email from someone telling me he was a retired justice of the peace and was for hire for wedding ceremonies. He sent me a legitmate looking website. I spoke to him on the phone every thing seemed on the up and up so I sent him the deposit of $200.

The day before our wedding the JP was a no show. I called and called nothing. Lucky for us the hotel we were getting married at found someone two hours before the ceremony.

After I got back from the honeymoon still pissed about the JP not showing I did some searching. Found several others who had been scammed by the same person.

At the time I had no reason to be suspicious. It wasn't until the damage was done that I even thought to check him out. This is by no means a long term scam like the romance scam in the story but the principles are the same.

Most people want to trust other people. We cant compare victims to how we think. It's easy for us to see things are a scam but it's what we deal with on a daily basis. Almost to the point of uber paranoia IMO. I've seen baiters post up emails from eBay and American Airlines thinking it's a scam. Most people take things for face value and do not think to google everything they see like we do. Hopefuly with enough education people will learn to be more cautious with their hearts and money. I know it only took once for me to start being skeptical about anything on the interwebs. I was lucky though and did not have an emotional attachment like the romance scam victims do. Except the stress of having your wife yell at you for screwing up the one thing you were in charge of Laughing

Now go cause some lad pain people! I know Blessing is waiting to start a new relationship with you Twisted Evil

insults and more · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:23 am

Quote:

Except the stress of having your wife yell at you for screwing up the one thing you were in charge of

So that's why you're baiting: atonement.

I wouldn't be surprised if she's the one giving you quotas on lads safari'd per month. "Remember that time you screwed up the one thing you were responsible for? Get that lad to Camaroon."

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:44 am

Ima Baeder wrote:

It's not useful to us as fighters of internet crime to judge victims.

No wonder my lad sent me a form today with the Superman logo on it! Laughing

/humor

Not quite a Newb Joined: 24 Feb 2011 Posts: 72

leonsumbitches wrote:

Linoge: If you wish to debate ethics with the old hands, you may want to create a thread for that. Debates on ethics tend to hijack threads.

If there is no grey there is no debate.

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:49 am

I don´t like to read newspapers reader comments to such articles any more. The continous ignorance of too many of those people always makes me mad.
I have also never understood how anyone can put the blame on a crime´s victims away from the criminals who did it or even laugh about them... but a mindframe like this seems to appear as frequent as simple compassion, some weird statements like: "Haha, that will never happen to me anyway, I´m glad it won´t, I simply look out, how could anyone have fallen for that?" . Maybe this is more than ignorance, maybe this is some sort of psychological mechanism of self-defense but it just sounds heartless and silly and helps noone.
And 200k is a terrible amount of money and may keep whole scam goings going for years Sad

Man gave $200K to fake online girlfriend	View next topic View previous topic