Romance Scams Peer Counselor since December 2005

bunnyc@romancescams.org

From: Arkansas

About Me:
I am a 71 year old widow fogey. I have 10 children from various and sundry places. They have provided me with 26 grand kids and 5 great grand kids. I live with 6 critters, Lucky, A Boston Terrier, Wendy, A Boston Terrier, Kiley, A Rat Terrier, Lucy, A Rat terrier, Butchy Boy, a golden tabby cat and Gizmo, a Black and White Kitty.

What you do at Romance Scams:
I counsel new scam victims to help them develop the tools to cut off contact with Scammer safely and to lead in the right direction for healing. I talked them through the bad stuff and lead them to the places where they can learn what they need to move on. I also coordinate volunteers for upcoming media events to help spread the word about these scam.

Romance Scams Vision:
Eliminate scammers is a good goal!!!

Scam Story:
Not much of a story to tell. I was giving my Scammer a hard time without realizing I was. He was working hard to find a way to help me and I wasn’t going to be helped. LOL I sent his picture to my girlfriend and she shot back to stay away from him, he was a Scammer and she sent me to Romancescams to prove she was right.

Favorite Quote:
“Are you Feeding a Scammer Today”

Romance Scams Peer Counselor since November 2005

carolc@romancescams.org

From: Boston Ma. (Beantown)

About Me:
I work in an Aircraft Industry Business. I create, by computer, all the documentation necessary to ship our customer orders. I create all the documentation for shipping our product outside of the country. I interface with numerous trucking/airline businesses to enable our product to go out safely and on time.

I, when able, enjoy going to my local gun club. I have been an avid shooter for 15 years now. I proudly can say I have medals and trophy's won during competition matches. I enjoy reading, sewing, and doing graphic work with my PhotoShop programs. I take night courses in computer programs at my local college.

What you do at Romance Scams: 
I collect and process the pictures scammers use in their scam. My time is spent helping new members, answering technical questions and chatting with those members who contact me for help. Conduct media interviews when opportunity arises.

Romance Scams Vision: 
Eliminate scammers is a good goal!!!.

Scam Story: 
It first started a few weeks after I had joined the Yahoo Personals website. I was getting e-mails and meeting people as every one else does, then one day I got an Instant Message from a man who sent along his photo. He was very impressive looking in his professional suit and all. He informed me that he was from England and now living in NY, divorced and self employed in the computer industry. He started off by really trying to woe me, asked if he could send flowers, he sent along poems, words to love songs and such. Then he said I was the women he was going to married, he then told me he would be marrying me and take care of me.

His courtship went on for a few weeks. I was NOT falling for this but was enjoying the attempts he was making. Then the scamming started, he told me his company was going to Nigeria on business. I asked the name of the company (V-Mobile) I immediately jumped on Google and found it was a valid company. He told me he had a laptop and he would be in touch.....the following day I got his IM from Nigeria. Well we conversed for a bit, he sent long song lines and then asked me to do him a favor. That favor was to open up a bank account for him at Bank of America. I asked why he needed that, he was from NY and was in Nigeria one day he should have his own bank account. He didn't respond for quite awhile then said I, "made him cry". He said I would not do him a little favor. At the same time I had a friend who is a cop on the phone and described this situation. He immediately told me to dump the jerk it was a bank scam...well I let him keep asking me to set up the account (I copied all the IM's so I have the material). Then I blocked his access.

I have called Bank of American and spoke with a Lucy in the Security Fraud division and reported him...she wasn't too overly concerned. I reminded her that this man was going after older women (I am 56) that are on the internet and that I may have lost $$$$$.

The catch, I had been IM'ing another gentleman from GlenFalls, NY who sent 3 pictures and said he was originally from England but all his family died and he moved to the US. He ironically owned his own computer business....we IM'd for about 4 weeks. I hadn't heard from him for a while and then he got back on saying that he was in Nigeria with a friend that needed a kidney transplant. He finally asked for money to pay his hotel bills while waiting for his friend to get out of the hospital. (I have saved all the correspondence since the Nigeria approach).

In between this, a 3rd man was IM'g me and this went on for about 2 day's when he typed in the exact poem/love song as the first man...I had immediately blocked him...wish I had waited to see what was up.

I am fearful that some women is going to get taken for their property $$$$ and not be able to recover because these people are hiding behind the computer.

I will be getting in touch with Yahoo over the weekend and reporting this....another tidbit....when I ask them for a profile they never have one yet they are able to IM me though the Yahoo Personals......you can view the Yahoo profiles but must join to IM someone you are interested in.....so Yahoo must have a charge card number for them.....

I think this is news worthy story in light of all the women/men that are involved with trying to meet someone on the internet...myself included.

I don't want anyone to get hurt by these jerks. I wrote this for our local TV station and they did nothing about it. I have since had nasty IM's left on my site by the first stammer he disappeared for months and he IM'd me again....The second Scammer has IM'd me again and we have talked ,he admitted that he was a Scammer and has send me a picture of the real him. An attractive Nigerian age 33. He claims he has been telling me the truth now and says he is doing the scams for money in order to eat...But if you look at his picture he looks as though he comes from a family that does not need to do this sort of thing.

Favorite Quote: 
“Life is so uncertain, eat your dessert first”
“You never lose the one you love, as long as you love the one you lost"

Romance Scams Peer Counselor since December 2005

juliaa@romancescams.org (Our Spanish Interpreter)

From: New York

About Me:
I am a bi-lingual legal secretary. Single with no children.

What you do at Romance Scams: 
Spend most of my time helping new victims learn how to navigate our group page. Chatting with them off-group to help them better understand the various links that we have available to help them. Listening.  I have done several media interviews to help get the news out about these scams. I also do the interview list of victims who are interested in speaking with the Media. 

Romance Scams Vision: 
My vision for Romance Scams is that one day soon there will be no use for this group. Until then, I will continue to help and support members who need us and to share what I know so that less and less will become victims of this terrible crime.

Scam Story: 
I joined the personals because I had my heart broken by my childhood sweetheart in December of last year. After a few months of not finding Mr. Right, but rather, Mr. Right Now, I decided to start off the summer on a different foot. I did the "three month plan" just to give it a try.

Well, my Scammer contacted me within three weeks of me being "live" on the personals.
Though he "lived" cross-country (in Oakland, CA) I was taken in by one of the most beautiful letters I have ever received in my life. His English is perfect -- punctuation and all. He was also a hunk! This was the before the fourth of July. Summer was off to a beautiful start. Well ... not for long. About a week after I met him and we started to communicate, I was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma (skin cancer). Thank God I have wonderful doctors who caught it early and after two surgeries I am now cancer free!

His story was compelling, and drew me close to him almost immediately. You see he was an orphan, who was adopted at 3 years old. His adoptive father was an Irish American and his adoptive mother was English. They were an older couple in their 40s when they got him. They lived in many parts of the US, but his parents retired to San Diego, which is where he lived his late teen years and early 20s. He married and his wife was killed in a car crash about 8 years ago. He realized rather quickly, that he could not be in a relationship, because he needed time to heal. So he took a "volunteer" type position working with an orphanage organization, which desperately needed help in Africa. So he went there and worked his way up in the organization to the point where he was running it. His job was his life, and his personal (amorous) life suffered for it. Though he took it as a sign from God that he needed to heal from the heartbreak of losing the only woman he ever loved (until me, that is). He realized it was now time to take care of himself and had just placed his ad as well on the personals. He used the personality and romance tests to find someone suited for him -- and that was me.

This guy was right there at all hours of the day -- calling me, sending me beautiful letters and poems. I even would switch messenger onto my telephone and get messages from him during the day that just lifted my spirits. In the darkest moments during my illness, he would send me the most beautiful letters and say just the right words. After about three weeks, he proposed and said he wanted to come home from his job at the orphanage that he worked at directly to me. I should start looking for a larger apartment for us -- or better yet a home to purchase. He had money, after all, because his parents were dead and left him some property in California that he would sell before arriving home to me so that we could get a beautiful starter home near my family -- because family is important to him.

For the first time in my life, I tried on about 20 different wedding gowns, before finding THE ONE. It was so beautiful. I even made sure that it could be delivered quickly because he wanted us to elope immediately upon his arrival. Somehow I was able to talk him out of that -- and was going to make him wait at least a month -- because I wanted my father to be there. He said I had to find the most beautiful dress no matter what the cost. He was going to send me the money. Money was no object. Well, something happened to the first "package" he was to have sent me and it never arrived. When I would ask about it, he said something about UPS taking extreme precaution when delivering to the US and there was some delay or another. I didn't worry about it, really, because until I got the funds, I wasn't going to start paying for the dress and accessories. [Thank goodness I didn't ... otherwise I would have been out $3,000 by the time I was done.]

While he was packing his stuff to bring home, he was even having some dresses custom made for me from some regional fabrics. He also had a suit made for our wedding with a shirt custom made in the color of my gown (antique gold) -- because there was a tailor that he used there that he really liked. He talked more about the wedding than I did. Even saying that we would honeymoon in Venice, Italy.

He was originally supposed to leave Lagos to come back in early August, but he needed first to go to London, in order to settle the estate of his parents with his father's lawyers and to have the property sold so that we could buy our house. Just before leaving Lagos to go to London, he got me for $500 wire transfer. (To finish paying the expenses for the Orphanage for the next month before he turned it over to the church.) (I should have seen the sign right there, because Western Union called me immediately and asked me if I knew the person personally that I was sending the money to, due to the enormous amount of fraud in Nigeria. Of course, I lied and said yes, the person was my fiance's personal assistant.) In any case, it took him about two weeks in London to complete the transaction of his parents estate. While there, he was anxious about coming back to the U.S. and he tried to get a flight out from London here. Allegedly, there was a problem with his passport, and he had to return to Lagos to have it corrected. Because it had to be done at the Consulate that issued it. (His passport was issued three years ago.) He goes back there and again, more delays and now funds are getting tight -- because he wired all his money here to the U.S. in anticipation of returning immediately. Finally, a date is set for him to come home to me. It's a Saturday evening and he wants me to be sure to be at the airport for his arrival. He's taking a "charter flight" from Lagos -- because of his wealth, it's the safer route than the commercial flights. It's a plane for very discrete travelers and won't be listed on the flight arrival screen at the airport. But that I should be waiting for him, no later that 5:45, because his flight arrives at 5:30 and they would get through customs quickly. I get to the airport at 5:15 -- giddy and excited. My apartment sparkling like a magazine. New sheets on the bed, new towels in the bathroom, fresh petite roses in every room, and a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge. I waited at the airport for over 5 hours ... till 10:45. I call the airline and they have no record of any flight. I'm hysterical.

Sunday arrives and I'm a wreck. I didn't sleep all night, crying and thinking that something terrible happened. Sunday afternoon -- my brother in law says the word to me -- scam artist. I don't believe him and get even more hysterical. Monday, I got myself together and looked up personals scams and found my way to this group. After reading through a few of the posts, I thought -- NO ... NOT ME!!! I even went to the Focus Hawaii website and looked through 2 categories and didn't see him. Then, on the third category THERE HE WAS!!! My fiancée, my boyfriend, father to be of my children. How could he?!!! Well, I posted his pictures immediately on the Romance Scams group site. [Scott] Tuesday morning I called the American Embassy in Lagos (using the calling card that most of us have to call our loves over there). The gentleman was very nice to me, not looking down at me. He answered every possible question that I had and then apologized that I had been taken. I was now armed with a defense shield against whatever my Scammer would throw at me next. I know now for sure that he's a Scammer and am ready to hunt!!!

After six days of no communication, I finally get a message from him. He was in a horrific car crash on the way to the airport to come home to me. The driver was killed and he was in a "comma" until that morning. Somehow he managed to get a wireless computer in the hospital and chat with me for hours on end ... day after day ... while he was treated for a fractured knee. The wireless computer was not interfering with any of the equipment at the hospital (yeah right!). He has a fractured knee, but should be out in a couple of days. Said knee having recovered sufficiently that he was able to leave the hospital in a week without a cast. I tell him over and over to contact the consulate and they will take care of getting him out of there and back here. I'm playing the worried fiancée every chance I get. He calls the people in the consulate bureaucrats and refuses any assistance. [Note: The EXACT same day that he finally contacted me, six days after I waited for no one at the airport, I received an Express Mail envelope from Canada with a cashiers check drawn on COMERICA Bank for $5,800.]

Fast forward to present day ... My beloved "fiancée" is stuck in a hotel near the airport in Lagos. His passport and money have been stolen by the hotel manager and he's being held hostage there until he pays money owed for his stay there. He decided it best to stay at an airport hotel rather than with his friends and personal assistant that helped him for the past 8 years because he was tired of being a burden on them. Unfortunately for him, the check he sent me was not worth the paper it was printed on. I told him the check was a fake, forgery, not worth the paper it was printed on. I tell him that someone in his circle of trust stole his money. He found that hard to believe. [Thanks to this group I never cashed the check or even took it to the bank.] So I have no recourse to help him. Because of my surgery, having been on disability, and a huge electric bill, I didn't have any extra money. To make matters worse, he said was now going to send me money orders to deposit in my account. I told him that my account had been put on a 90 day watch because of attempting to cash a fraudulent check. Luckily it's only a watch because of my longstanding relationship with the bank manager. But that I basically was limited to only depositing my payroll checks and nothing else. [The hold on my account is not true, I never cashed the check. I put the check, together with the envelope, and a copy of my filing, and emails with full headers to the FBI together and sent it to them.] When I asked him about his money that he has here, he says that he has to go to the bank in person to collect it. [Allegedly some $500,000.]

I anticipate that I'll hear from him in the next day or so with some new twist. He's not getting anything else from me. Now, I have it all in my hands and am just keeping him occupied so that he does not scam anyone else. I find such relief in this group. Through the serious posts, and the jokes, it makes it all the easier to get through the day. At some point, my family will understand this was out my hands. I was only telling them what I thought to be true.
~~~~~~~~~~~
In conclusion....
Joining the Yahoo Personals ......$44
Calling Cards ....................$60
Cab fare to/from airport .........$70
New sheets .......................$80
Personalized Towel ...............$25
Dinner / Champagne ...............$90
Roses ............................$40
Text Messenger Package ...........$10
Western Union Gram ...............$538

Finding this group and all the love and support here ... priceless. I too, can now, exhale ......... He did continue to contact me ... online only. I removed the messenger from my telephone. He called me two days after my birthday and again asked why the check had not cleared. Still trying to convince me that the check he sent me was not a fake. I finally got back at him. I had downloaded the other pictures of him from the Focus Hawaii International website. One day when he was talking to me, I said to him ... wait, I have a new picture for you ... and I switched to one of him that he had not sent me ... a picture of Scott with another girl and his hands in the air. He freaked out. Wondering why I would do something like that to him. Did I realize that I fell in love with the words from the man, not the man in the pictures?? While I told him that yes, I did fall in love with Scott Grant for the words he told me, I thought that all he told me and said to me were true. Not the lies upon lies that he told me about himself. He did tell me that his real name was Peter (no last name). And that he did not FORCE me to send the money to Festus (his assistant). He only asked it of me. I also told him that I checked him out with the US Embassy in Lagos and they had no record of issuing a passport to anyone named Scott Grant at any time in the past 5 years (he told me his was reissued 3 years earlier). He was very angry at me for not still loving him despite his lies. I told him that I could not form a relationship with someone that was based on sand ...
nothing solid. And it ended from there.

Post #7114 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romancescams/

Favorite Quote: 
"Be careful what you wish for as it may come true"

Romance Scams Peer Counselor since January 2008

patrishg@romancescams.org

From: Virginia

About Me:
I am employed by Capital One as a Telecom Vendor Specialist in the Finance Section.  I am divorced and owned by several wonderful cats.  When I am not deluged at work, I spend my time helping in any way I can with our group, Romance Scams.  In my spare time, I write screenplays and short stories.  I am also an artist and work with various mediums.  Counted cross stitch, and maintaining a house and garden round out my interests.  All of these activities allow me to clear my head and re-energize…which is extremely important to me.  I spend time with friends at every opportunity.

What you do at Romance Scams: 
My time is spent helping new members.  I have had an opportunity to work with Fraud Aid which I find very interesting, and it gives me an opportunity to help those members who are in more dire need of assistance.

Romance Scams Vision: 
I would like RomanceScams.org to become so well-known that we only need to assist people in logging scammers who have 'attempted' a scam...to completely shut down the ability for scammers to glean money by breaking a victim's heart.  And we will do this.  It will be through our hard work and education of people all around the world, but we will succeed! 

Scam Story: 
In 2006, I thought I would see what the dating sites were like and joined Yahoo Personals.  Within the first month, a man who said he lived in Sacramento, CA contacted me.  He was attractive but not the handsome kind you find in a GQ magazine.  He told me he built roads and had a contract in Ghana in the next couple weeks, but that he would only be gone for about a month and then would return to the USA.  He said he was born in Germany where his family lived and taught me some German via email and IM.  He had a German accent when we spoke on the phone.  Very soon, he was professing his love for me and said he would come to Virginia as soon as his contract was over. 

He was gone about a week, when all kinds of ‘accidents’ began to happen.  He broke his laptop, lost his cell phone, a caterpillar machine ran over one of his workers and on and on and on.  I found myself running from pillar to post trying to keep up with his demands and trying my best to help him.  My job allowed enough money for me to assist him, but after a while, I began to get weary of spending all my time doing things, so that he would be able to leave Ghana.  Needless to say, I began to get that ‘gut feeling’ that he was never going to leave Ghana.  Little did I realize that he had never been in the USA!

We had been chatting for 5 months, when I decided to start looking for information about dating sites.  That is when I stumbled upon Romance Scams.  As I began to read and learn about these scams, I followed all the advice that I was given, and began the long road to recover mentally and financially.  In the five months, I had ‘donated’ an obscene amount of money to the Scammer.  It was so wonderful to find a group who knew exactly what I was experiencing and had all the information that I needed to begin to ‘heal’.

I began to help the new members that arrived in the RS Group, and found myself learning more and more every day.  It was my way to give back to the group for the help they had given me.  Nine months later, I was asked to be a Moderator/Peer Counselor, and I try to help in any way I can.

Favorite Quote: 
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer

Romance Scams Peer Counselor since [date]

teresay@romancescams.org

From:

About Me:
I own and operate a dog kennel with my husband since 2002. We board dogs for people that go on vacations and enjoy seeing all the different breeds of dogs that come to stay with us.

We have 3 grown daughters (2 of which are married) and also have 2 beautiful grand kids and one on the way.

Being on a hobby farm of course comes with having animals ourselves which include 2 horses, Midnight & Dancer, our watch dog Reily (German shepherd), the boss of them all a Westhighland white Terrier named Sparky, and 4 cats which have found us (Tiger, Sandy, Patch & Kitty).

What you do at Romance Scams:
I welcome new members and help them through the healing process and educate them on how to become more aware on how to spot the scammers.

Romance Scams Vision:
To see our memberships going down in that the scammers are finding less victims because of all the people getting educated. To put these scammers out of commission.

Scam Story:
In May 2008 I joined a travel site that was recommended by a friend as my husband and I just got back from the Dominican Republic and  thought it would be nice to meet people from all over the world before planning the next vacation. Now, before I start I would like to say that my husband and I were having difficulties in our marriage at this time.

It was on Mother’s Day when I checked my email and noticed someone wrote from the travel site saying he visited my profile and was interested in learning about Canada (which is where I live). He did mention he was a US citizen but was currently in Nigeria working as an engineer and would be there for 2 months and gave me his yahoo IM address.

I wrote back saying that I would love to know more about Nigeria and so the chats began.
In the mean-time, I was contacted by a fellow named Jerry who says his homeland is in Nigeria but was currently in  London for his schooling. So, again I added him on my IM list and started chatting.

I had been chatting with them both around the same time and it took about 2 months before the first one (Alex) started experiencing problems. At first I was reluctant to offer but he gave me contacts (that were supposedly his clients in the US) to show that everything was legit what he was telling me. I even talked to the so-called hotel manager where Alex was staying and I thought, well he only needs $1,000.00 for the balance of his airfare and what he owed at the hotel. He promised he would pay me back when he got back to the states. So, off I go to wire him the money to my local WU office and thought that would be it. Then I get an email from Alex saying he needs $750.00 for the BTA and apologized that he didn’t find that out before. So I send that amount. At this time he even sent me the itinerary for his plane ticket and I called KLM airlines and approved it. Well, then things started to snowball from then on. He had an accident on the way to the airport, recovered from a coma , needed medical care, came down with malaria....the whole nine yards.

Now that I look back, I still wonder why I let this continue? That was all before I found this site and had no idea about these types of scams. I’ve heard of the 419 ones but this was not the same at all. In the midst of  it , all I kept thinking is that I need him back to the US so I could get my money back. In all, this cost me around $20.000.00.

When this scam ended, my so-called other friend Jerry had never asked for money. Since we were “friends” for 8 months I thought I could trust him enough and since he was going back to Nigeria soon, I asked him to do some investigation for me.

He got me in contact with who I thought was the EFCC (Economical Financial Crimes Commission). There were so many twists and turns with this story I could write a book.
Well, to make another long story short, I was scammed again. Losing another $10,000.00.  Only this time my husband and I were working together.

There is a good ending to all of this. Not only did I make a lot of good friends here on RS, but my husband and I are closer than ever before.

Favorite Quote:
Don’t let the past dictate who you are. Let it be a part of who you will become.

Romance Scams Peer Counselor since July 2006

Vel is currently unavailable. Please contact another Peer Counselor for assistance.

From: Buffalo

About Me:
I am a divorced 59 year old with a grown son and three beautiful grandchildren. I work as a Regional Finance Manager for an Investment Company. My hobbies include scrap booking, reading, painting and writing. I am also an avid doll collector with over 200 in my collection.

What you do at Romance Scams: 
My time is spent helping new members, answering technical questions and chatting with those members who contact me for help. I am also a co-owner of the sister site Romance Scams Members Only for people who want get to know one another on a higher level.

Romance Scams Vision: 
To educate the public regarding these horrible scams that inflicts such pain and destruction in their victims lives. To one day find the freedom to eliminate this site because we will no longer be needed.

Scam Story: 
I joined Match.com and around February of this 2006 I received an email from “David” a 45 year old widow from Maryland with a 12 year old son. We started corresponding and he sent me “normal” pics of he and his son.  He said he had to travel to Nigeria as he was building bridges over there but would be home in a few weeks. Eventually we started IM’ing each other and started to get to know one another. After a while he started to profess his love for me which I replied, I need to know you better.

We were chatting one day and he said oh my goodness I just got a call from my sister in Germany. She is in the hospital as her husband beat her up pretty badly. He said I need to get her money so she can get her own apartment away from him. He then asked me if I could send his sister some money but I told him that I had no extra to send as I had just started a new job. He said that’s ok baby, I will borrow the money from my friend and send it to her. A few days later he said I borrowed the money from my friend in Ghana but he wants his money back and I only have some money orders that I can not cash here. He said can you please cash them for me and western union the money to his friend. I said I wasn’t sure if I could do that but he insisted. He gave me the name of his friend “Silas Uwen” and an address to send the money to.I waited for the money orders to arrive and in the meantime “we” had fallen in love and he was to come to see me the end of March after he stopped to pick up his son.

The money orders never arrived and he gave me the tracking number and I saw that they were mailed from Paris, France and were being held up at the Fed Ex in New Jersey. I then became suspicious and did some research and found this site. Much to my amazement, there was my “David’s” pic in one of the albums.  My heart stopped beating for a few minutes and I could not believe what was happening. I confronted him and of course he denied it.  He still was going to come visit me and there must have been a mistake. He kept asking me where the money orders were. I told him I didn’t know and to check for himself. The money orders never arrived here but I did get a letter a few months later from the US Customs and Border Protection telling me that the money orders were counterfeit and this was a money laundering scam and did I have any interest in them. Needless to say everything worked out and the Mods here helped me through a very difficult time.      

Favorite Quote: 
"Be careful what you wish for as it may come true"