Please help.. please.

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Dec 2010 Posts: 1

Hi, I have a friend who started talking to a guy through the dating site eharmony. She has had a really rough time lately with some bad things that have happened in her life.

A guy contacted her through eharmony and they started emailing back and forth, and they have been talking for a few good weeks now and suddenly he has brought up the issue of money with her. She says its just a few hundred but she wants to make sure this guy is legit. She has given me his email address and the details that he gave her to send the money through.. I get the feeling that this is a scam but I really wish that its not.. for her sake. She has been hurt a lot in the past 6 months and I dont want to tell her that yet again another person has lied to her and is letting her down.

Can anyone here please help? I have his email, and other things.. should I just post them here or do I have to private message them to someone? Pretty please, anyone.. please?

Thanks
Christine

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:42 pm

Hi Christine and welcome. I'm sorry that your friend is having problems. Without knowing more it's hard to say if your friend is being scammed. Although generally we do believe that when an online lover asks for money, no matter how long it takes, it's most often a scam. Have you tried googling his email address or name? Sometimes that can identify a scammer. You might find all of the info that you need at our sister site, www.scamwarners.com. That's a site intended specifically for victims as here we bait the scammers. Good luck with your friend. I hope for her sake she doesn't send any money!

ETA: You can PM me what you have if you would like and I can take a look for you.

419Eater is my life Joined: 23 Jan 2014 Posts: 295

Hi Christine: Welcome to Eater! As GTmama said above, when an online lover asks for money, chances are good it's a scam.

Now, this is my opinion only, but if someone were to ask me for money through an online dating site (no matter how long I'd been communicating) I'd drop them almost instantly. Red flags and bells should be going off. What kind of person who is trying to establish a real relationship asks for money? (Low life and leech are a few words that come to mind. Again, only my opinion) Unless of course this person is only out to scam. While some scammers are obvious (to some), others are more sophisticated and convincing.

The more information you can provide, the better someone here can help determine if indeed this is a scammer. If you can forward an email to someone here (privately if you like) then a lot of information can be extracted from that. For example, if this person claims to be from New York, but his/her email comes from Malaysia, then that's a pretty good indicator somethings up.

I think I can speak for everyone here at Eater that we would be willing and happy to help you and your friend. Best of luck!

Master Baiter Joined: 26 Jan 2014 Posts: 144

Christine, I may be able to assist your friend , I can confirm if he lives in the place he says he does. Definitely do not let her Western union or any instant money type transfer to him!! Scam alert !! E mail me at here and I can speak to you about this.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:18 pm

Hi Christine and welcome. You've gotten some good ideas from the others, especially about googling his email address. You can also use google and a site called tineye.com to check out any photos that he's sent her to see if they're being used by scammers.

Like Gtmama mentioned, definitely check out scamwarners.com. It's a great site with a lot of good information.

As far as the money, it usually starts with asking for a few hundred, then the requests keep coming in for more and more money.

I'm sorry to hear that your friend has been going through some hard times. But I think she's very lucky to have a friend like you who is looking out for her.

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:30 pm

Hi Christine,
Welcome to Eater. Our sister site, ScamWarners specializes in helping people who suspect they may be victims of a scam or contacted by a scammer.

It is never ok to send money to a person you have met over the internet, even if you've been mailing for weeks. Your friend should listen to the voice in her head saying somethings wrong.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:32 pm

Hi Christine, welcome!!

Is the guy military? My shamefully unsuccessful recent bait shows some tips for get rid of military scammer. Mine is fictional friend suggested something to the fake victim, then scammer gone.
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=245613

Will you PM me, so I can take a look?