Faking it — scammers’ tricks to steal your heart and money

Anyone encounter a male in his mid 40’s who’s supposedly Brazilian American, but can’t even speak Portuguese. Says his wife passed away a few years ago and that he’s a private security agent living in Ridgecrest, California. He’s a handsome looking man in his photos, all of which have him swimming in a lake, pool, or ocean.

Has anyone been in contact with a Samantha Hope Smith? She says she’s born on 5/17/52. A geologist in Turkey mining gems. Says she has a daughter in Florida. She supposedly has blonde hair. If anyone recognizes this name let me know.

I think I'm in the process of being scammed..I met this really nice guy on the Facebook dating website. Right away he texted me..says he's a doctor and working in Spain..tells me he bought me this expensive gift..even sends me a picture of it..sends the package and now it's in customs awaiting some duty tax fee!

I have been scammed bye a guy named Eric Thomas but we found out it's not really him he is on the scammers list though there's pictures yeah I feel really stupid ruin a couple of my credit cards sent me a check for $4,000 lucky thing I took it to a private detective and he called the lady that wrote the check and yeah he took her for $7,000 so I feel really stupid but anyways it's over I've been doing my own little investigating but I can only do so much on this internet so that's why I got the private investigator so that's my story

Hello I have been talking to a guy in Somalia he has sent me pics and u have him to. But he is saying that he may be moved soon and that I need to register to keep talking to him is this true?

Not one to fall for online game scammers, this request seemed not just odd, but I’m thinking illegal. And when I called the guy out on it and threatened to report him to the authorities- he was gone in seconds- the games, the chats, gone. He said he wanted to send me phones to mail to his work as he is selling them, and he would include the postage when he sent them. Said he couldn’t mail them himself because he didn’t have at&t as a carrier - which made no sense either. What’s up with a request like this?

About three weeks ago, I had a "soldier" reach out to me on LinkedIn. Asking me to connect with him, I thought nothing of it. Once I added him, he reached out a few times through LinkedIn messenger and then asked for my email. I went ahead and gave him my spare email, which I barely use. He began very nicely, within me a nice day, from there he began to ask more about me and that he wanted to get to know me. I was very vague in the information I gave him, but all along, I was skeptical. He used an email esteve. intelligence@ . We kept on emailing back and forth until I started reading blogs on how to assure that you are speaking to a military man. He claimed to be in Afghanistan. He told me the saddest story on earth; he claimed both parents were killed in a car crash when he was 4. Additionally, no one wanted the family priest to raise him. Wife Lisa died had not dated anyone since his wife's death. I had picked up on a few grammatical errors but attributed them to him being in a hurry. So in these blogs, it tells you to ask for military address just as a test and also their address where they are stationed, at this point I knew it was a perpetrator impersonating someone else. The individual started to get very nervous and gave the exact answers and reaction the blog mentioned, I immediately blocked all of his emails and reported him on LinkedIn. I am trying to see if I can try to report the email to google in the efforts to try to stop them from continuing to do this. Please beware out there.

I have been talking to a guy that says he is on a Peace keeping mission in Syri. He asked for eBay cards. Gave me a bank name Horbix he claims to have. There is no such bank. It's fake. Ask for money to get him home from Syri. Says it's cost 1,200.00 for fees so he can get out. Ask me to pay it which I haven't. He goes by the name Greg Hodges but he uses a fake photo of the Real Fredrick Ben Hodges. Military scammer

I met a guy on an online dating sight. Said he lived in my area, but it from Norway. We texted back and forth, flirting back and forth. He said his wife died and it’s only his older daughter and him. Says he’s self-employed constructing cabinets. We start talking more and more, and then he calls and we talk. He has an accent of some sorts, phone, hard to understand. I suggest we meet, and he makes an excuse that he is trying to get his daughter ready for school in France, and he can’t get together until she’s gone. I abide. Then he tells me that he needs to go to Texas for a job and he will meet after that. I abide again. In the meantime, we connect on Facebook, but all his “friends” are from West Virginia. But before he goes to Texas, he tells me plans have changed and he needs to go to England for a job there. So I abide the that. Meanwhile, the pandemic starts and he’s now “stuck over there.” First, he wants to send me a check to put in my account, and then send him the money so he can “pay his hires.” I tell him that I could do this but there would be a hold on the check until it clears. He’s ok with that, but the check never comes. Next he tells me that he needs to send the check by messenger, so I give him $30 to have the check sent to me, but then he gives me some excuse that because of the pandemic, the check cannot he delivered. I’m out $30. We still talk, nothing more said. Later, he starts asking about my phone plan... first, he says that if I give him that info he can pay my bill. I told him that I did not feel comfortable with that. I told him we can talk about that when he comes home. He then tells me that he wants to send phones to his daughter’s bf parents and he wants to put them on my phone bill, and then he would pay for the whole thing. I told him no and he got very mad at me. I stopped talking, but he finally apologized and said he understood. Nothing was mentioned for a couple weeks. He got real quiet and hardly talked, until a couple days ago he says he is in debt overseas and can’t come home. He needs $4500 to pay the rest of his bills. But if I could apply for a loan to help him with $1500. Again, I tell him no, I can’t. He gets mad at me. But I’m firm. Next day he sends me a Bitcoin sign up and wants me to sign up and send him money that way. I tell him no way. It gets very mad and asks me “what’s wrong with you?” I’m offended and tell him to back off. The next day he apologizes and wants to wire me 10k to a small checking account that I have. Part of me wanted to see and wish that he was real, so I gave him that account a while back suggesting he wire the money to me. When he said the 10k and that he wanted no holds on the money, all I could see was me sending back that money and me being out of 10k, an amount that I don’t use in my every day vocabulary. See, I’m a single mom with very limited funds. I’m proud of my way of survival and savvy until I become lonely. I wrote him back and told him I didn’t feel comfortable with this, that as a business man he should have sufficient support to help him through his crisis, I wished him luck and blocked him on my phone and Facebook. Why do we do this? I sat for an hour sad and unsure if I did the right thing, when every bone in my body told me I was scammed. What legit man would ask for money from a woman who they claim they love and respect, and promise to take care of? What man would say they love you, and the make excuses not to meet you? None that I know of. And yet, a part of me wanted to believe him. Tonight I’m sad, but also relieved, I feel foolish that I even let it get this far. I read these entries and I feel sad that these scammers even exist. My scammer was named Jeff Olsen. Beware of him...

I'm currently being scammed I think by a guy who contacted me on Instagram and moved it to WhatsApp. He says he's from USA marines stationed in Cuba and can't phone or video chat . He sends pics and confessed his love very quickly . But he's never asked for anything yet . Am I being scammed or not ??

Has anyone spoken/chatted to a user on IG by the the name Josh.King20202? Claims to be 39, to have a son, all family died in an accident, has money and doesnt have access to it, wants money to buy mres, that he will be deployed next month, claims to love you instantly and wants to be with you, and gets mad when he gets called out. I know there's a few things I'm forgetting. I haven't sent him anything, it doesnt feel right and makes me feel guilty for not helping.

I have fell for several of these guys, after my marriage broke up, I changed my status on Facebook to separated, because my ex did, I was playing a game called words with friends, been playing it for a couple of years. Then when my status changed on fb all of a sudden I’m getting challenged by men, then they start chatting, then ask you over to talk on hangouts. I thought flattered after being married for 42 years, getting so much attention from men.i have so many stories, I said I should write a book on the subject, I bought steam cards, iTunes and google play . Sent money through western union, world remit. I was a fool. One day on hangouts I got a invitation, had a photo of a white guy in his 50s. With a message if you want to talk, I have some dirty secrets about what goes on , on hangouts. My curiosity got the better of me. So I accepted his invitation. I won’t mention names, but he said that all the guys I had spoken too, are Nigerian, or from Ghana.. Then he reviled himself to me, he’s a 38 year old Nigerian man, he told me how he heard then conspiring to blackmail me with some of my photos, as well hack into my google account, my bank account , even my forex trading account. So in short they are all scammers.

anyone been scammed by a David A Walker ?

Has anyone been scammed by a white man, brown hair, some pics with facial hair & some not, has a demple in his chin, claimed his name was David, has pics in his US Army uniform supposedly deployed in Afghanistan, large tattoo on right arm between elbow & wrist, has some pics of him in a car with a large brindle colored k-9 in the back seat over his shoulder & some hiking photos. Didn’t ask for money, he did pull some sympathy cards who knows real or not after reading all these stories, he did hurt my feeling, after talking not long IG page said User not found, scam or not, who knows??

Anyone being scammed by a guy named David, has pics of him in his US Army uniform, pics with a son, white guy, brown hair, dimple in his chin, has pics with hair on his face & some with a clean shave, tattoo on right arm between wrist & elbow large. Some pics of him hiking? He never asked for money, friended me on IG, we talked just a little & then his page said user not found, was just curious if it was someone trying to start a scam?

Be very aware of an alex hodson, claims to be on a rig, wants amazon card for his daughter, he got me on scrabble site,

I have a man who calls himself Larry Scott from California City, now living in Portland, Oregon. He saws he is a lumberjack working in international lumbering exports. He fits the profile of a scammer.

Yes yesterday a SCAMMER (Fake military woman photo), named SGT, Diamond Scott messaged me directly and in a blank of eye told me you are handsome and decent person I like you and if your single I will marry you (She barked I am orphan woman of USA and now working as nurse in Syria and I found money 3.5 million dollars, I want to send this money through agency and then I will come to your country so you will help me to invest this money and start new life). But I knew this is SCAMMER, I mentioned some lies like I am married already and I am in another country but then I thought lets play game with this scammer. At the end she/he told me you must pay 1100 dollars to the local customs in your country. I replied I have girl friend and also money but there is no way to send you a penny, if you can send me then ok. She fired, I told hope you have learned something from me. lol

Sounds like the guy I was talking to. He claimed he was in the marines in and elite team. Lost his wife and 2 year old son in a tragic accident and was left to raise his 4 year old daughter on his own. He was currently in Syria and his daughter was being taken care of by a military nany. Oh and he claimed he was an orphan, since he had lost his parents at an early age. Then later asked me to petition for him to get an emergency leave because he was worried he would lose his life and also leave his daughter orphaned. The petition started at $3500 and went up to $7500. Thankfully I did alot of research and realized it was a scam.

I met this young man on Fb and from his so called pictures, he's very handsome, so we started to talk, the he gave me his email address to switch to hangout. I went to that site and continue to be his friend, all of a sudden, he ask me to send him some money to help him get a better hotel, because he's in Kaubl, supposed to be in the military. Now mind you, he's saying all the sweet things to a single woman looking for true love, but this one is Junk, Gabbage. I continue to be his friend and even his lover for the moment, Giving him a dose of his medicine back. Then I told him, if you are in the military, I know the government is taking care of you and the Troops. I was in the military myself, and after all that, that clown was still asking for money and a Goggle card. I told him, send me $200 for a bill I need to pay, and I'll send it back to you on Monday. Booyah!

I was recently contacted by a scammer. It didn’t go too far but he got pictures of me. Does anyone know what they will be used for?

I recently found out my husband has been cyber cheating on me with two women to the tune of $10,000 plus it’s destroyed me. The first ones been a year, military, sob story, iTunes cards, western union to Spain, deposits of chunks of cash in a bank account in Virginia, wanting to marry him calling him her hubby, lots of pictures , intimate talk, went to my husbands head. After no more money he’s confused because she reaches out to ask about his health. Supposedly a NY native but English is poor. No verbal conversation promises to give money back. Other one - yes another one, he sent money to turns out to be a black man using an alias and is now threatening my husband and me if this person doesn’t receive $1700 in 2 days. We have now become so financially strapped I’m afraid of where we will end up. Seniors here , but my husband still works Words with friends is the devils game anyone else?

So this guy Danny Adamson was messaging my mom on facebook. Now on hangouts. He says that he needs money to get back to the state's from being a doctor in the military. He says that he wants to come back 2 years early. His wife died 2 years ago. And has an 11 year old son named blossom. He is trying to get my mom to make a pay pal or a cash app account to sent him money to get home. Is this a scam.

I was scammed after five and a half months from the most wonderful intimate texts, pictures, poems and phone calls I've ever received. He showed himself as being such a caring, committed man. He was seeming so into me 100 percent. He didn't ask me for money until we were two months into our relationship. Then it started. First a plea for 10k. Then another plea for 50k. And another plea for 10k again. He had me so conned with his promises to pay me back that I caved every single time. I took out loans for him and ultimately gave this man $70,000. One of my sons did an intensive internet search and found that this man had done this to others. I was devastated. Inconsolable. He had promised me a life filled with wonderful things. And here I am with these 70k loans I have to pay on - due to my own huge mistake in judgment. I'm doing my best not to hold myself responsible as much as my gut instinct wants me to find this international scammer and do what I can to bring him to justice. After all, we are essentially victims of these con artists. We thought we were dealing with someone *real.* We gave from the heart. We were emotionally victimized by these guys and now find ourselves dealing with financial hardship. Please contact the FBI and Interpol. They won't be able to get your money back, but as more of us submit reports on these scammers, they will ultimately find them. I have. I hope you will, too.

I receive mails from scammers on dating sites daily (currently on twoo). They ALWAYS SAY things like this - they are very highly educated (surgeon) - profi footballer - business owner (especially selling wood, it must be - common African business ) - Single father - wife died of cancer or in a car accident THEY ALWAYS GIVE A NAME - miachael luc hamston Seriously no normal person uses their full name on a dating site THEY ALWAYS HAVE CONFLICTS IN THEIR PROFILES - they say that they have brown hair but in their profile pic they are bald - they say that they don’t have kids but in their pics they show a lot of kids - they say that they are a surgeon but their English is very bad (bad grammar, spelling mistakes) THEY ALWAYS HAVE A REASON WHY THEY CANT MEET YOU - ask them where they are - tell them that you are in the exact same place and ask if they want to meet at 6pm at the main train station. They will quickly say that they have to travel to Africa on that very same day. If their profile is from another country, they use an exact name and their English is very bad then THEY ARE A SCAMMER. Oh yes they will also send long cut and paste messages. (More than one sentence messages) And they will want your what’s app or email etc . On their profile they will list fluency in multiple languages.seriously , I am a doctor and until recently I could only speak English. Busy educated people (doctors, engineers etc DONT HAVE TIME to learn more than their native language). They are too busy working. Ask them to send a pic of themselves with their finger on their nose . If they can chat but not send this pic (they will send other pics instead, and commonly a passport photo). Then they are FAKE.

I think I'm the latest person to be fooled by this guy calling himself Chan Jeffrey. I met him on tinder, he said he was living in LA as an engineer at www. aecom. I added him to Line but I can't find his ID now that I've added him as a friend. I started noticing inconsistencies with the pictures he was showing me. As the guy in the picture has a tattoo on his left wrist but in some picture's he doesn't appear to have a tattoo on either wrist. I got suspicious so added one of the pictures he sent me to google images to find the original source of the photo and found Zind Lee's facebook and instragram accounts. This guys obviously wasn't who he said he was. He hasn't asked me for money yet, so I think I figured it out in time.

I meet a guy in IG. Then we chat in WhatsApp. After 3days of sweet talk. He suddenly needs money that he's son has a problem about the credit card. How will I know if this is a scam of what?

I have been scammed by enough guys to see the red flags: usually a single dad w/ a young child in boarding school, a nanny or an aging relative. They live in an industrial country be end up working in a dangerous country (syria, somalia, afghanistan, etc) or on an oil rig. The rarely send pics of themselves, almost never facetime (and always has an excuse) and if they do, the usually are stolen from an innocent person. They might not want to talk on the phone because they have an accent or incorrect english. The profess love of God, family and fidelity. In a very short amount of time they are in love with you, call you honey, baby, my queen, etc. They can never come for a visit although they say they have lots of money. And then tragically there is an accident, a sickness, a mugging and they lose their wallet, money and passport. They say if you love them you will help, but not to worry they will pay you back. They ask for gift cards, but only want pics after you buy them (funny you can buy your own cards online and gift cards don't cure covid-19!). If you start to refuse, or back away suddenly you are the bad guy. NEVER SEND MONEY OR CARDS!!! Most of these guys are working 3 or 4 people at a time, they find you on gaming sites, online dating, IG, FB, Tiktok, etc. They are PROFESSIONAL LIARS, good at photoshop and catphishing. If you don't meet them, delete them. Be smart, and watch out for your friends too. Peace!

Has anyone came into contact with "Chris Bills" a.k.a "Tar Valery Makoli?" If you sends you a request on any dating website. RUN!! He's a scam artist. He will talk to you nicely and before long he tells you he loves you. He will begin to ask money and if he does not get it he will become down right belligerent one moment then nice the next moment. Thank God I realized what was going on and ran for the exit. He is nice looking but beware he is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Hi, does anyone met a guy name VICTOR OROZCO. He messaged me on IG 3 months ago and we’re talking almost everyday and then few months after he asked for a iTunes card worth $150 so I was stupid and sent him one and then he asked another one few weeks after like $600. He has an IG before but deactivated it said for security reasons sht

i have read so many of your messages on here and i see red flags on every one of them....no matter how sincere they seem, real men do not ask for financial help, gift cards, open accounts or get all mushy and want to marry you before they have even met you !.........all scammers use fake names, pics, profiles , information, my advice is to go slow, dont fall for him , wait to meet him in person, dont ever give out personal information, address, account numbers or send money ! a real man will pay his own way to come see you, you just be a friend and wait and see if he is real, let him prove himself.........i have met over 700 of these fakes over the past 10 yrs, heard every story there is....dont give your heart, your money or anything else to someone you have never met !!..............once they realize you are not going to ; they will suddenly stop loving you and stop talking....some will come back later to try again.....dont help them with their business......give them nothing but friendship......if he is a real honest person, he will never ask for anything and will do all in his power to come to you one day, a fake will never show himself on camera or come see you.....be safe ladies, be wise. love only happens after you meet in person.........keep your heart to yourself and hand it to that real man when you meet him...

I met someone online over 3 years ago they did gain my trust and proceeded to get So after the last failure to do as promised. I started running background checks on her and her relatives. He uncle checked out. the problem is the name she has been using for 3 years does not even come close to being related to the man. she has stolen over 18,000.00 out of me. I did save all the receipts the bank statements and a copy of the cashiers check. If I can get some help from the FTC to bring this criminal to justice I will be so greatful . It started on Facebook I have many pictures of her and have spoken to her twice. the last time she asked me for money I told her to use the money she already got from me.

French woman with 2 kids. Name Camille Pivot Kids Marion 7 & Laurenne 8. Lives in Deaux France. Starts asking for gifts and support. Writes in French only .

Said he was captain William Luke heading to austrilia,had a 12 year old son studying medicine lives in Las angeles,is a doctor wife died 4 years ago in car accident