Scammer sends $7000 to mark!! Help me understand!

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 06 Aug 2016 Posts: 2

Hi all, this is what is going on with my neighbor. He contacted a lady (totally beautiful) on an internet dating site. She is over 20 years younger. I won't bore you with all the details but the whole thing sounds mostly like an everyday Nigerian dating scam...but with multiple variations. I need someone to help me understand what you think is happening.

1. He became engaged with her very quickly, I think about a month. She did meet with him once in person at a restaurant near the airport here in Charlotte, NC. She was dealing with some family issues, had a connecting flight and had to fly right out immediately to see her mom so he has spent only 2 hours with her. He has talked to her on the phone using various apps like whatsapp. I am not sure if he has ever talked to her on a regular phone line. She supposedly lives in Florida and I am sure he never saw any identification but that could be faked anyway.

2. Suddenly, her dad in Texas passes away. She was about to come for a longer visit when she has to go deal with her dad's estate and you guessed it! He is leaving a giant inheritance. He has property all over the place...including Nigeria so now she is going to be gone awhile dealing with taking care of that in Nigeria. Her "uncle" even called him along with a lawyer to talk to him about the property transaction. They needed money to close out a property payoff so they could sell it so he sent some over. He is being told she cares nothing about the money. He no longer has the uncle or lawyer's phone numbers. Never thought to save them.

3. She was about to leave the airport when her bag got mixed up with another and drugs were found in her "wrong" bag. She is being detained in the country (not tossed in jail) until she comes up with $4500 to give them. He said he could not afford it and so she asked for $3500 and they would take that.

Yes, I know. This screams "scam" but here is where the story gets crazy. He tells me that she initially sent him $7000 without him even asking. He has sent her more than that overall, I am almost positive. He says they have sent money back and forth to each other. He rattled off at least $7300 that he has sent her and maybe more but I know I heard several payments that totaled that much. I truly do not know how she sent him the money - check, wire or what. I do not know if she asked for some of it back (due to over payment as in a craigslist scam). I was uncomfortable prying too much since I don't even know this neighbor that well.

One question is why would the scammer send $7000 first other than to gain confidence? Stolen credit card numbers sent to his good account so he could send some cash back by western union? Can stolen credit numbers make a cash transfer? I have no idea. Could they be using him for money laundering? What are your theories on that?

Oddly enough, when I mentioned Nigerian dating scams, he said he was aware of them and that other people told him he was being scammed and yet he does not believe he is.

I already gave him some subtle but not too intrusive questions to ask her but I don't know if he will or not. He seemed undisturbed by our entire conversation. I don't want to badger him but I think the $7000 initial transfer has him hooked. It would be hard not to trust the devil if he gave you $7000 up front. What do you all think? Thanks.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 3:16 am

First off, you would be much better posting this at our sister site scamwarners.com as they are better set up to handle these types of questions, we just bait scammers to waste their time and money.

But, the whole thing screams of a scam and it sounds like your neighbour is being used as a money mule. The money that is being sent to him is very likely being sent to him by victims of other scams (or possibly transferred from phished accounts) and he is then forwarding it to the scammer. Eventually, someone is going to realise that they are being scammed and will go to the authorities and it will be his details that they report.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 06 Aug 2016 Posts: 2

Thanks for your reply. I am thinking it is a stolen check or bank account number and a check was sent that has just not yet bounced. I will bring this up on the other site. Thanks again.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 4:54 pm

boomdazzler is right. scamwarners is your best resource on this. My 2 cents is that the 7k was stolen from either an innocent victim's bank account or it was money taken from one or more scam victims. This is 1000% a scam and your friend is most likely being worked by a gang of scammers. Tell him to stop all contact with this person and anyone claiming any connection to her. I hope that helps and good luck.

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