Is this a scam?

[Unregistered]

There is a lady I met on a dating site, she says she is in Nigeria due to her dad's funeral, says he was murdered there by colleagues. She wants to come to the USA and wants monet, but won't accept a nonrefundable ticket. Says she needs $250 for a passport as well. I got her father's name... Dahlig Adams. I searched on a Nigerian news site and found nothing. She says she has been there for 11 weeks now and is staying at an orphanage run by reverend Adeyinka Opeyemi, who was a friend of her fathers. Her name is Marissa Adams. Is there any way to validate any of these names?

[FW Admin]

Hello and welcome to FraudWatchers.

Unfortunately, it sounds very much as though you have been targeted by one of several thousand internet dating site scammers, who pretend to be female in order to attempt to obtain money from them by fraud. Many names are used, both fictional and real, in order to make their stories sound genuine and convincing, but their primary objective is to scam as much money as possible from their victims. The fact that a non-refundable ticket for "her" assistance is unacceptable, indicates that the objective of obtaining cash through deception is the key focus here.

In many cases, a Google search of any related names or organisations that the scammer uses can produce significant results; unfortunately, however given the details you have provided, such a search is inconclusive.

There is an associate website: http://www.internet-love-scams.org that focuses on online dating and internet romance scams; you will certainly be able to obtain further information if you visit there.