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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:42 am

Hi all, I haven't been around for a while due to real life stuff, but I picked up a love lad recently who needs a bit of a slap.
I say he's a lad but one or two things aren't right.
Its a Yahoo account and I can't get beyond the IP showing Microsoft servers in California, the time sent is PDT -7.00 so it could be UK?
Also I live in the same city and suggested we meet up for coffee - to flush him out etc and he said yes, plus he wants to Skype.....
Is it at all possible that this Petroleum engineer who is a Conservative, Christian, of German origin, who just wants to find his angel is for real?
I hope not as I don't want to hurt an innocent man. Shocked

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:46 am

^^ Yahoo servers are now hiding the IP, so you won't get his real location out of that. Wink

Also, when baiting love lads, sometimes it's really hard to get a proof of the scams, so if you are in doubt it's best to head down the Love lad forums and they can point you out, what you should foucs on.

Welcome back! Smile

ETA: Try this - https://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1026900#1026900

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:09 am

This is a sample of one of his mails:
It is Nice to hear from you. Thank you so much for the lovely email. I really do appreciate the honesty and the openness as well. I believe getting to know someone honesty and trust is needed to build a strong and solid foundation for the future. I must say I was apprehensive about joining any site as to be honest it would not normally be my kind of thing, but I decided that despite some reservations there must still be decent normal people who also feel the same difficulty to meet like minded people and thank God I found you. I enjoyed reading your profile and your email as well. You've really got all of my attention and left me with no option but an anxiety to get to know more about you. I just want you to know, i got this feeling that we have the same reason why we are on that dating site and after knowing more about each other i know you will get that feeling too. Well I have been a widow and very lonely. I'm now ready to settle down with that wonderful woman. It has been the most difficult period of my life and i have decided to love again. I can say that what I have been through has already healed my broken heart. It's been difficult to live without loving and cherishing a woman, and i am looking for my special princess to spend the rest of my life with.

Anyhow I have a very full life here in --------- and my job is busy and sometimes very demanding but I enjoy every bit of it, I love to be home and enjoy my quiet time. I have been on my own for 4 years now. I work as a petroleum engineer.

Well i just wanted to share this photo with you and i hope you are going to like it,would love to see some photos of you too ..

I love to travel and get away as much as I can. I take care of myself very well and enjoy walking and working out.

I like the Finer things in life but certainly not in a pretentious way & I enjoy simple things just as much. Like reading the Sunday papers in the winter with a nice cup of Coffee or red wine or Cooking & listening to Music, sitting at the beach with a glass of wine watching the sun set, sitting in front of the fire place, listening to the birds sing in the morning etc.

My weekends are mostly indoors catching up on work, cooking, watching movies or listening to music. I go out once a while for dinner or playing golf when the weather is right. I love dogs and and golden fishes as pet but don't have any yet.

I will take leave of you now... these are a couple of questions I will love you to respond to. Where do you see yourself in the next 5yrs, what makes you sad and what makes you happy?Will end here for now and will be looking forward in hearing from you soon.Have a good evening]

As first emails go this is a doozy and looks like script to me but I have some doubts.
I think I'll bait him anyway see what happens Twisted Evil

[/quote]

Quote:

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:25 am

Welcome back justwhistle.

There's a few pointers in the mail that the writer is of African and not German origin, so I'd say it's very likely a scam.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:30 am

I agree with B8er, there's just one thing I just must comment.

Quote:

Where do you see yourself in the next 5yrs

Is he trying to romance you or is he conducting a job interview? Shocked

Perhaps he should know that you are a goal-oriented reliable person, that's a great team-player! Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:50 am

I agree it's African; there are not the usual misspellings, but the irregular capitalization (a few adjectives and not all nouns, thus not German) and punctuation show that it is African. Also a word is in the wrong gender.

You could ask him what he does as a petroleum engineer. He probably has no idea what a petroleum engineer does.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:53 am

^ At least this love lad isn't a marine bridge engineer who can't even name any notable bridges for once.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:55 am

^ But he can build those bridges over land like nobody else Laughing

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 10:20 am

Looks like script to me "golden fishes"? You can try googling pieces of it and see what comes up.

You can always tell him that you want to get to know him better via email before giving out your skype details.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:18 pm

This lad's English is better than average and he has patched several scripts together, from the looks of it. But, in the immortal words of Oingo Boingo, he's "only a lad." Have fun and show him the meaning of "love". Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:24 pm

Welcome back! Great to see you again.

The text is the sort of florid, sentimental crap I'd expect from a love lad, and the English he uses is not typical of a German at all. It's West African english for sure, so he's lying already. I think you can bait this one with a clear conscience.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:57 pm

Toss out the names of some famous Nigerian singers, people everyone would know in West Africa but very obscure elsewhere, and tell him they're you favourites. See if he's heard of them.

Then say you've always kind of questioned the truth of the holocaust and you wanted to know what he thinks about the odds of a fourth reich rising in the near future are due to the widespread popularity of the ideas of the philosophers Himler and Goebells among the German youth these days are. It's unlikely any German would let a statement like that slide...

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:01 pm

^ Apart from being pretty distasteful, you don't want to catch him out at this stage.

Let him keep the illusion of control. Let him think he is leading the dance. The stronger this belief is, the further it is from the truth, the more completely you can control him.

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 6:42 am

Welcome back! I always google (parts of) the script that my romance baiting character gets. If i can't find it posted elsewhere, i don't bait. There are lots of lads to play with.

When you are 100% secure this is a lad, post his scripts on scamwarners as i have not found any of it with google.

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 6:52 am

Nailgunner wrote:

^ Apart from being pretty distasteful, you don't want to catch him out at this stage.

But I totally see what is he going for though.

To get rid of the distasteful remarks, or anything provoking him, should he really be German - you can ask how is Germany doing now that Greece has been lending Germany a lot of money so it can prosper economically - did their quality of life really improve?

Also, I really liked the simple question "What does petroleum engineer do?"

Like I said, I agree it definitely sounds West african to me, that still doesn't make it a proof of a scam. Baiting romance lads is always tricky like that - I remember being introduced to it, and mentored how to gather the evidence and mostly it's just gathering fragments - stolen pictures, fake names, odd (at best) phone numbers, misspellings, not understanding their relevant references (don't know what their job does or who is in charge of their country), and being really neutral waiting for the payment question to be brought up. Then, and only then, the real bait starts.

Of course, I don't have to explain it to you, just throwing it out there in general. I'd rather drop a lad rather than risk and ITP being baited by me especially in romance bait where the ITP can get the hopes up. And that's exactly what Doctor Seviche was going for.

ETA: And there's no saying it really can't be a west african who just moved recently to Germany to start a new life. Especially with all those waves of people fleeing Africa and middle-east and coming to Europe recently. Wink

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:21 am

While I agree with the need for treading carefully with potential romance scammers in general:

That is definitely a west African scammer's script. Besides the English and the pieced together content, and the quick move off the site to email, you have things like this:

Quote:

we have the same reason why we are on that dating site

He's thanking God he found you but he can't even remember the name of the dating site he was on in the past few days or weeks? Exactly how many women is he thanking God for anyway?

Quote:

Also I live in the same city and suggested we meet up for coffee he said yes,

That's not all that uncommon. He might even go so far as to set a date and time. But before the actual meeting, he will have an emergency or be called away to bid on a contract or interview for a job. His hope is that later, when you begin to doubt him, you will remember (or he will remind you) that he was willing to meet you and you will therefore be convinced he must be real.

Quote:

plus he wants to Skype....

So either he has video of the man in the photos that he can use to fake webcam, or his emergency/travel will make skype unavailable. Basically same tactic as above.

@Mortal:
He's not claiming he recently moved to Germany. He is claiming he is of German origin, which is very different.

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:39 am

^^ That's very true. Totally missed that.
Thanks for pitching in. Smile