Watch for Internet Dating Site Scams

[Unregistered]

I was a member of the Dating Sites, American Singles and Elitedate. I was contacted by David Anderson thru the email of American Singles. He stated that he was from my town, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I wrote him back and gave him my IM id. This was on 1/3/06. We have chatted through emails, IM and phones call until today 2/27/06. About a week ago he told he his wallet was stolen, and he needed some money. He said he was working on a job in Nigeria that he was a building contractor. In the process he told me he was in love, that we would get married, etc. Well I am recently divorced and not interested in that, but led him to think so. Today 2/27/06 I received a package from UPS. The package contained $3800.OO in $100 dollar bills. He said that he was going to have money sent to me from his bank to send to him Western Union. I did not beleive him. Upon looking at the money you can tell it is counterfit bills. Since I told him the money was not real, he will not answer my IM or emails. I did not send anything to him. I just received the package. I do not know what he really looks like but he potrayed himself as a very handsome man. Said he came back to Tuscaloosa after his father died. He was schooled and lived in London after his parents divorce. He also claimed to have an ex finance that died in a car accident while they were on vacation. We had very lenghtly and detailed conversations and could never get him to mess up on any of his stories. I tried to see if I could catch him in a lie, since this was the product of an internet dating site. I will be turning the money over to the FBI. I was also emailed on the site Elitemate.com, with an email that I received from David Anderson. When I asked him how the person got his email, he said that the person was a friend of his and he asked him to email me to see if I would respond.

[Arrowhead]

Welcome to Fraudwatchers and thanks for posting!

Dating and romance scams are a growing problem on the internet, with many variations on these scams being discovered every day. I'm happy you didn't fall for this scam, many do.

Due to this growing problem, we have recently started a companion website dedicated to just romance scams. We invite you to visit there after looking around here, and to register at both sites.

The URL for the new site is www.internet-love-scams.org.
Hope to see you there!

[ncnude2000]

Another dating site to watch out for is ShotByCupid.com There are hundreds of Russian 'women' there who will fall in love after 2 emails and then begin asking for money for Visas etc. They are always very beautiful young ladies who are more than willing to send photos. I enjoy playing with them since I believe that the time they waste trying to scam me is time that they can't use trying to do this to someone else.

[Arrowhead]

Hi NC!

Welcome to Fraudwatchers. If you're interested in fighting romance scammers, you might also enjoy visiting our companion site, www.internet-love-scams.org.

Sounds like you've been doing a bit of what we call scam-baiting. To learn to do it safely and also have a bit of fun, a great new site is www.scambaits.com, where you can get great advice and meet a lot of people into this activity.

Stay safe out there!

[Unregistered]

Hi. About a yr ago I was approached by a very handsome man on the site countrysinglesconnection.com . Jeff- was absolutely handsome and very debonair, form the UK, a British Air Commodor he says , retiring at 44. We chat and become friends and so on. After a couple months he asks me to marry him, and then tells me he is in Nigeria and has been mugged of all his ids and money etc. so I send him a little money to get by and go to the consulate etc. Then things get worse and worse .. I am a wreck -I love this guy I think? Finally my family sends him 1500 dollars to get a ticket and get out of there. the nite he is to get on the plane he is " arrested" and goes to jail where they supposedly beat him and starve him for 41 days.I contact all the places I can for help including forgien prisioners abroad etc.. they have the jail checked out and he is not there they say.. he tells me he is..the story goes on.. the he gets out and canI send him money for fines etc.? Then his supposed Boss from the RAF calls me and tells me he is sending me money to get him free- $5000 to me from the UK government. Right!! I get a check from a car dealer in Missouri, and luckily have the sense to call and verify it before depositing it- its forged. I set it on my desk to take to the fbi and my ex husband comes in .. sees it and takes it to the bank - for me? holy cow.. it costus over 3000 to get out of that mess they closed our accounts everything all becasue he was doing me a favor he thought. After some time I confrontJeff and finally get him on a web cam. he is a 20 something yr old black man- who still poses as a very handsome white guy from UK. He swears to pay me back etc, I have never seen a dime. he still emails and what not but my fiance has told him we are married and he is inlaw enforcement and he kinda leaves me alone. The sad part is.. Jeff works in a house where they have like 12 computers and many people working to do this daily.. then they split the money and they all live well on us who have been victimized and they coudl care less if our kids are sent to foster homes or our lives or credit ruined.
There has to be a way to get these people prosecuted?
This gets even deeper.. before I would admit I was scammed I paid to join a internet begging website ..to get donations for help-donations4me.com- hey it was on Oprah so it must be legit right? WRONG... I got hundreds of hits all from Nigeria and eveyr person who sent me something sent a counterfeit or forged check from like /Florida and mailed from Texas or something..I called on every one all fake! Most of the time tehy purchase a small money order from Walmart or the post office and copy it hundreds of times then cash it, and if you call on it for verification it was cashed motnhs before you even got it , or the finger spot doesnt turn color there is always a way to tell it is fake.I was lucky to be smart enough to check or I am sure I would be in jail.
I hope others read this and learn from my $10000 love afaair with a fraudster! The lucky thing is- I met my future husband through all this.. eventually I hope he catches the man who did this and he gets prosecuted!

[warriorgirl]

One of the hardest scams to be involved in is a Romance one! Our emotions are played upon and we fall in love before we realize they are just after money. Eash of us are needy at some time in our life, and it seems like that is when these people come in and take over our emotions. We don't want to believe he is a scammer, even when we know the Checks or Money Orders are phoney. He will keep saying, honey, I was robbed and my client sent the bad check to you not me.

So we go on for awhile and finally we realize that it is not love he wants but any money we can send him. Women and men have been taken for every penny they could possible scrape together, just to help this person they love. Some have even spent time in jail for cashing the counterfeit checks and money orders.

Please, don't feel ashamed for being in the situation of falling in love with a scammer. at various points in our lives, people can use us and for some reason our needs are so great at that moment, we allow it. That does not make us bad people, just human. You have come to the right place to get help.

Read our forums and learn all you can and then tell your friends and relations all about these scammers. They are the criminals not you. Never be ashamed that you were involved in a romance scam.

I am listing some very informative sites for you to go to. Being informed is the best defense in these emotional scams! Yes, you are one of the lucky ones to have met a wonderful man to marry, some of the victims suffer from guilt and shame for years after being involved in a romance scam.

www.internet-love-scams.org.
www.scambaits.com
http://fraudwatchers.org

[howardwilson]

Sir: I have been scamed by this beautiful young and attractive girl. I know it now. I was about to send her more money. And I had this little hesitation on the back of my neck. She had asked for a cash amount of 3000.00 for a BTA money in nigeria. Lagos. She was supposed to come here (fly) and live with me and we would have gotten married soon. She has gotten from me about 6000 so far. I am hesitant on anymore. For I am beginning to see the light. I have never heard of a BTA for nigerians to have while they travel to USA. Basic travel allowance. Is what BTA stands for. I guess?? She was so responsive and easy to talk to. And also professed to be a christain girl of high moral character. Said her prayers all the time and every night. But on the phone, her voice did not quite match up with her youth and pictures of her.I really wonder now if this hasn't been a scam all along. and I am once again a victim??

[Frazzle]

Howard,
I'm sorry, but it sounds like a scam to me.

Any time someone wants money sent to Nigeria, I'd say it is more than 99% likely that it is a scam.

These people are professional con-men... they make their living by conning people, so they know exactly what to say, have all the right photos, etc, to convince a victim to send money.

[warriorgirl]

This is a known scammer as I found her listed on a scam site.
http://www.romancescam.com/album/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=0

Other names she has used:
Nicks: Kelly, kellyone_love, heart_pa0, Lizzy, Kanoe White, Becky, kellybrown, Bola Williams, Nike Williams, linda4wolfi, sandrababe399, Marisa, Cindy, cindscaliforne, yetrash007, Jessey

Her picture is posted also, uses pictures of "Kanoe" from FocusHawaii.com, and even uses the model's name: Kanoe!

[Unregistered]

Just want to add another name that she has been using.
She was trying to scam me. but she jsut asked far to many questions, and gave it away. She has a great soob storey to tell.

nick name: veraluv "uses this name on a number of dating sites"
Yahoo Messenger: vera_verycute232

becareful she is very good..

[Unregistered]

well mine lived in washington and had a daughter whos mother died at birth he went to the uk to work. had a website about his job, his daughters school etc.....then he fell ill and had a associate notify me he was in the hospital and to care for his daughter as she was my owne and if he lived throught this illness we would get married.....then his daughter was in lagos nigeria starting school when he fell ill getting her masters for denistry, she was to call him for the money to file her application and to find housing, he was ill and she was unable to talk to him, so....now i never could get either of them or all of them or the only one who knows to make a mistake but anyone who wants to fall in love will not do it online from thousands of miles away they still send me e mails etc but i know they are not for real. i may be lonley but not stupid! best of luck!