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

Guy-Michael; 41yrs old; 6' tall; sandy colored hair; looks like JFK jr. work- 10 yrs navy in military based in Qatar soon to be deported to Afghan. Never married. We met on CMBagel and hit it off; logged out of CMB very quickly and used Skype. We are like soul mates, 100% match in every details of mind and soul. Claim he wanted to come home to see me , start a family and was very eager to find a replacement for him in exchange for his return and break the contract for his work. The replacement is from Turkey and he required 80k, but 30k down payment is needed. He only has 20k and wanted me to help him with 10k. I denied any funds soon after finding this website with the same stories. I'm grateful to find this support group.

Does any one know Dr. Willy Williams? A orthopedic Dr serving in Damascus military hospital. Says he is from Germany, has 17 year old daughter attending boarding school in Dubai. Says he is wealthy. An only child. Has not asked for money, but is pressuring me to connect on Hangouts. Professed his love..shortly after we met.

Has anyone been scammed by a Robert Jim or James martian.my friend has betscamed out of over fifty thousand dollars lost her homy

okay so i was on tender singles and this girl that goes by the name of jenny donald starts messaging on the site and quickly requests that i download hangouts app. so i continue talking to her on there and about 10 messages in shes like a i need a huge favor i need you to open a credit union bank account i need to collect my pay. so i asked her where are you from shes says originally from utah united states but shes currently in west Africa working with UNICEF says shes been in west africa for seven months. she kept asking me to open the account i never did. so i asked for a photo of here where she is right now sends me a previously taken phote which was blurry as hell. sent me a couple more still blurry. so then i asked her to video call on the app she did but connection was really bad it looked like her in the photes but still didnt trust her. she then started asking me to get her i tunes gift cards for $100USD saying she needs it to activate her iphone sends me a picture of her screen and its writing in the notes app. she continued talking to me and quicly starts confessing her love for me BS. so i started playing along. after about a week of talking she asked me to send her $1200 for a plan ticket and i said NO. she got pissed lmao. so continued talking trying to waste as much of this scammers time as possible 3 weeks latter still talking to me lol. she then asked for $500 itunes gift. first it was a $100 now 3weeks latter its $500 lmao. she then says i wish my parents were alive to see me happy bs. now going on to a month i stopped messaging her for 3 days she got really upset i was dying with laughter. shes like what did i do to im like youdid nothing to me all you did was waste a month of your pathetic life trying to scam people

I have been reading these posts. I want to share my story to help others. First, I have been scammed twice, both began on online dating sites. Before I start, let me say I have never sent money to anybody. If my story helps put an end to at least one scammer, wonderful. My first scammer impersonated a U.S. soldier deployed in Afghanistan. He quickly wanted to continue taking on Hangouts. He is the name Greg Martin, Master Sgt. at the beginning he did not ask for money, but hinted that he could use an ITunes card, or phone. We never ate dia phoe, only Texts and he had a gmail account. He old never give me his military ID. Said he was divorced with a 14 year old son living in Phila. Pa. With his mom. He also cla o be from a Colombian father & mom from No. Carolina. He gave a phony high school, could not give credible stor about how his parents met, etc. eventually his stories got very dramatic, saying he had some gold bars to send me. I refused. When confronted with all the fantasy, he acted hurt. I ended it by telling him I had recorded everything and filed a complaint. I did, with FTC. The picture of the soldier had 0 results when I did reverse image search. My second scammer was really slick & more intelligent. This one had a cell phone: 443) 438-8307 and email. Also lots of pictures. This one said he was a engineer, half Turkish, half British, a 24 year old daughter. He said he was 58. Daughter lives in London. We got along very well. In 6 mos. asked for money 3x. Since he said he was working on a sub, his money was not accessible. The first time he asked for money for his daughter’s field trip. Said he had forgotten to make prior arrangements. His “financier” could be contacted, and I could “lend” him the money, until his funds could be released. Needed about $850. I refused & gave him ideas on how to resolve this. I ignored him for about 4 days, then he texted me and apologized. I never did find out how he resolved that. The weeks went by & we got closer. He sounded like an older man, nice voice, always respectful & very intuitive. Let me say that I was the one who didn’t want to do FaceTime because of my own reservations. He never refused to do it, just me. Well, the 2nd time he asked for money was he needed about $1500 because he had some oil rigging parts being stored in Shanghai & it was raining daily & getting ruined. I even checked weather reports for Shanghai & you guessed it! Raining every day. My refusal then led to him suffering a $50,000 loss as the parts got ruined. Anyway, the 3rd and final time was when he was finally finishing this work assignment, retiring to his home in Maryland. But guess what? He needed airplane ticket from Georgia where they were docking to Baltimore Md. when I told him Spirit airlines wanted $240, he said he could reimburse me once on land as he could access his funds, but his “agent” made all the arrangements & it would be $485. I refused, and as I write this, he claims he is in Georgia, stranded. When I finally agreed to FaceTime, his phone number nor his email was not available. Surprise, surprise. I wish I could find the real guys in the picture to tell them their pictures are being used. The soldier I pray is a living soldier. Never send money, and if you string them along, you will catch their lies. The pictures used by my 2nd scammer also were negative when I did a reverse image search. Good luck out there!

I'm one that isn't what u would say a hottie so when I was on a dating site and I came across this girl's picture that text message her that messaged me and she was absolutely gorgeous I fell head-over-heels very quickly. The issue now is that it didn't take very long but she wanted me to start sending her money. She claimed that she had no money and that she needed money for personal hygiene products she even sent me pictures to prove it. Overtime I started thinking that we were really together and that she really wanted to be with me we even talked about marriage I came across this article and it broke my heart. I started looking at what she was doing what she was saying the excuses she was giving I started to realize that it was probably just a big scam she asked me to deposit a money transfer into my account because she said that she had lost her ID couldn't open her own bank account and when I accept the transfer my account immediately got shut down because it was for fraud. This was apparently all a big mistake and I fell for it and I continue to talk to her and continue to try and help her out cuz I thought we were going to be a family we're going to get married and be together forever. She used the fact that I'm not able to find anyone and no one wants to be with me against me in order to achieve financial gain. I want to spend my time now wanting people and trying to help them to avoid the heartache financial problems and headache I'm having to go through this type of situation.

A guy named Scott Good contacted me. He said he got my name from an online dating site. I never put my name on a dating site. Of course he said there was something about me. He kept contacting me getting more and more romantic. Then he began calling me. Has a very thick accent. He said he's from England. Open up a checking account so he could put his pay in. That sent off questions in my head but I stupidly caved in. Then yesterday he texted me saying he's going on a mission. (He is in Afghanistan) Then I get an email from a priest saying that he found this unit. 3 were dead, 2 wounded. One of the wounded died on the way. Scott suffered multiple injuries and is in surgery. He said the surgeon will contact me which he did. Informed me that he survived surgery but will need more and I need to sign a consent form. I started to get a little suspicious. When he sent the form it was from the Afghanistan department of public health. Wouldnt he be in an Army hospital? I'm just very leery of this

Someone I met on a dating site called Ferdinand Donavan. Says he works on a station drilling off the Italian coast. Asked for $1000 for his sister's tuition. Insanely good looking. Professed his love for me. Says his mom lives in Boston and brother lives in Australia. Is there a way to search for photos off this site?

QUESTION...My 80 year old Mom who has been talking to RAYMOND SMITH on Facebook messenger and has been sending money for his disasters on the oil rig. Well NOW they are telling her that his daughter Cindy who was in a moped accident is going to fly out with her nanny in January and come live with my Mom until Raymond comes in February. What are they UP TO? Credit card info, or flights? Or worse, what if imposters come and who knows kidnap my Mom. I have made a police report in November I have gone to the FBI, and ALL the banks are calling the police when she tries to wire money. But NOTHING seems to work to STOP my Mom. Any thoughts on WHAT they are up to?

Well I’ve been blessed by a million messages from Channing Tatum ! Not really. They claim to be even though I straight out told them their text are in broken English. Tried to get me to buy a 500.00 VIP ticket which entitles me to be part of his vodka business. Oh it gets better. He also wanted me to pay for it Via Walmart to Walmart transfer lol. And he loved me and wanted to meet me. I know, an opportunity of a life time but I passed. These people are crazy!

2 names to watch out for. Both looking for financial assistance. Both played the romance game. Both dropped the messaging when I said absolutely not. 1. Lou's Graham from NYC. Supposedly a custodial father of two young children. Supposedly financially successful. Supposedly a business deal in Canada that went wrong. Asked for $25k. He even asked me to take a loan against my retirement..lol.. Then tried hacking into my Google accounts. 2. Ed Sterling from Westport CT. Same deal.. romance, kind etc. Needed $25k ( must be the magic number) to save his quarry in South Africa..yeah..not..lol... Be careful out there ladies.

My sister in law (62) in Regina, was scammed out of her car and motorcycle by a person identified as Tony Matteo, supposedly from Italy, currently from Las Vegas and working on rigs in North Dakota. She is heartbroken and believed this person was going to Marry her and build their dreamhome in Hawaii! So cruel!

Woman on Instagram wants t know what phone carrier I have and bank I use. Attractive girl. Wants me to be a State picker? Any info would be good..

I’ve met at least 6 of them, usually claim to work overseas and have one child. Wife apparently has died of some cancer...a lot claim to be military. So over it.

I’ve been chatting to a guy for about 15 months says he’s a doctor on a sailor ship in Australia sea. Firstly asked for iTunes cards £100 then started asking for £200-300 pounds to send to adopted son aged 12 who is on school trip to Ghana. Then son was involved in accident could I send money for his treatment. Then he wanted out of his contract could I send money to get him out. He always wanted the money sent to Africa!! I did sometimes think it must be a scam but I fell in live with him. He promised me he would pay me back when he got home but there was always a reason why he couldn’t leave the ship. Now he’s supposed to be home in New York and I haven’t heard a word from him. His pictures are on Facebook under 2 different names to the one I knew him by. What a fool I’ve been

I met this guy on dating wed site. his name is Michael Cunningham, has a dual citizenship of Irish and American ,63 years old officially retired 2 years ago.Lost his wife to cancer in 2014. has a son daughter in law 2 grandsons in Perth Australia.Have a business Administrtion in Ireland . Currently has a contract with TANAP in Cyprus.

I believe my mother is caught up in a scam and has sent a man by the name of Wilson Johnson who supposedly is working with dr beyond borders in Syria and needs money to get out of his contract. First thing is they don’t have a contract and second she is supposedly sending the money to his lawyer wife. She thinks she is in love and has given this man her entire retirement and wants to send him more but I told her I was giving her nothing. I had to start rationing out her money. He made her flat broke in 2 weeks. Anyone else experience this from the same man?

Anyone knows a Daniel Charles

Has anyone heard of Murphy Graham. 55-years-old. Contractor for oil rigs. Been corresponding with him and yes, I did send money and now he has gone off to greener pastures. From New York.

I have been talking to a Robin Taylor. Supposedly is a photojournalist. Met on POF. Found his pics on other photojournalist’s sites. Still waiting on him to send me a selfie with the date and time.....hahahaha!

Is it possible for one scammer to use several aliases to target the same female? My friend is talking to a couple of these guys. When one has an excuse for not flying in to visit, the other one will start chatting her up again. Then he has an excuse and the game starts again.

My 85 year old Mother has sent approximatley $40,000 to $50,000 to her online romance scammer. I want to be appointed her legal guardian to manage her financial affairs before she loses all her finance. She is not financially wealthy. She refuses to believe hat she is being scammed. She is up late at night and seems to be disoriented at times but she is sleep deprived. It's so sad and I need to help to stop her from losing everything. Please help me . What can I do. I don't want to take this to court and humiliate her but this has been going on for over 2 years and it must be stopped. . Does anyone have any advice they can share?

My story is a little different from the ones I'm reading. But still has a few similarities. A guy named nick krull from Seattle started talking to me on fb then asked me to go to hang outs. I was curious started doing some investigating. He does have his real profiles with real friends but lives in Sydney Australia. Said he was working for a modeling company in Seattle part time. Said he was in the army when he was younger. He was a travel writer and he let his friend who was deployed pit a lump some of money in his account and the army locked his account. He asked for money until it got resolved. Asked for my bank info and i sent it instantly the check being sent got rejected for being a fake check. My bank automatically shut down my account. He told me he wasn't apart of what was going on his banker must have done it. He was still talking to me telling me he lived in Seattle in a penthouse. Posted pics of going to a wedding and tagged that person in the pics. I have proof hes been lying to me this whole time. I doubt I will get any of the money back I sent. I hope this will help someone if he is doing this to them to. It's totally not right to preyed upon by these scammers.

I was one of the victims too.. there was this man Named Mack Lanza his e-mail add. lanzamck@ yahoo. com at first he was sending me various of sweet emails showing his interest that he wants to be with me and meet my parents. he told me he saw my pictures on Facebook and fall inlove and called me. then he was saying he was working as seaman. he told me also about his future plans for us. he also got filipina contacts. he was saying it's his friend's wife so he asked the filipina girl to call me and the filipina girl was so friendly they can easily talked and pretending it's for real. her name is Candy Perez she was using perezcandy 313 @yahoo. com she got her sister's too named Maria Jane T. Perez from Naga City. the first time they asked for money was when they're saying about processing my Fiancee Visa so I can easily go to U.S then they asked me to sent it through Western Union money transfer to Candy Sister's Maria in Naga City. then after they asked for another amount. still I trusted them. he called me almost 6x in a Day. saying he loves me and can't wait to be with me. then he asked me about my email address password also. he emailed me about his account money on his money at his company it's Alliance Volt. then a guy from his company emailed me that I need to send money so they can release his money in the company for his early retirement. after then I have suspected it's a scam. so I stopped talking to the guy and change my e-mail and phone number I blocked him on Facebook too. it's not only one person who make this Romance Scam. Please be Careful...

I was talking to an "orthopedic surgeon", also based in Allepo, Syria. His name is John Michael Williams. He wanted me to transfer funds into my bank account, then when i told him no, he asked for me to write $5,000 for his vacation. Yes, he said all the sweet things, just like all of you out there. Thank goodness I was knowledgeable about this. He promised the world... blah blah blah. Don't fall for it

Would like to know if anyone is being scammed by an Eric Leonard?? Found me on a dating site gave me his number so we could text. Professed his love to me very quickly, always ending with I love you more than forever. Has asked for 500.00, but he's not getting anything from, promises to pay me back once he gets his 74,900.00 check from his company that's being held till the 10 th of next month, some kind of engineer working on in Asia.

Hey I'm kind of having a similar situation to everybody's and I'm wondering if the person I'm talking to is a scammer myself. For some odd reason my account ended up having some fraud activity going on with it ever since I have met him, which is pretty strange. Yes I was one of the clumsy ones and ended up sending this man almost 500 dollars in total of expenses . But the first time I offered to help him out to pay for his son because the nanny is taking care of him for the time being while he's out of the country for work . Also for some reason he can't carry cash on him, in the country he is in which is liyba . But once I offered that help.... He just started asking can I buy his son a steam card then later it went to can I send him money ... I've got mad at him a couple of times because I don't have no money to be sending and especially that much that he asked for . But then for some odd reason he backs off and tells me he's sorry abd etc... Which makes me look confused because I want to believe that this man is real since this is really my first time online/ long distance dating, and we met on Facebook and we have been just talking for a month and some weeks pretty much . But I don't know if I should stop talking to him or just follow my heart with it . He goes by Frank Collins, if anybkdy heard of him . Oh we also talk on the phone here and there but no video chat since his camera is messed up I guess .

Has anyone heard if an Eric Goodman claims he is Jamaican. Calls or texts from oddball numbers. Always traveling has broken Englis sweetie seems to be his go to word.

I played Word with Friends 2 and I was asked by 2 men to chat on hangouts, each fell in love with me , then came the I Tunes cards they needed. I'm sure they are still trolling WWF 2 for more women. They used the names of David Walter, Townsend Freeman. Hope this helps you ladies!

They call it Yahoo plus. These guys are desperado's but are masters of their game. Its best to be careful who you fall in love with on social media or the Internet generally cause these fraudsters are out there desperately waiting to go to any length to con innocent and unaware ladies. please be careful.

I would like to do a reverse photo search how do I do it, think I’m being scammed

I know for a fact that my friend is being catfished. Told her that immediately as have her other friends but she is intent on ‘having’ this relationship. The catfisher’s story: He goes by the name of ‘Jeffrey Williams’. He works on the ‘Seas’. He has a 15 year old daughter in boarding school. He told her he is about to retire and can’t access his money until then so needs 1400$ to come to Canada to see her. 2 weeks later he will have his money, pay off all her debts and they will live happily ever after .... sound familiar ladies? She doesn’t question much . I asked her how do you think he lives now? On nothing?!?!? She’s far too lonely and is getting ready to skip a mortgage payment and live on peanut butter sandwiches in order to send this money. She already tried twice by western union - his request- but it was sent back. He’s having her send it to a woman- supposedly in a NATO office who controls his money- and now she is going to the bank tomorrow to send it to yet another woman name in Edmonton who will then send it on to Indiana. He has said he lives in Baltimore. To be clear I KNOW this is all BS but I am writing this out as told to her in hopes that someone reading will recognize this name used or aspects of this scam and techniques being used. I want her to see how common this is to open her eyes.

Does anyone out there know a Greg Anderson William?Please reply. He is in Yemen, a surgeon, and is from Denmark.

I was scammed as well. Out of 3k. This man claimed he lost his wife while birthing his son. Ironically our sons were 15 days apart. He professes his love after about 3 weeks. News on an IT contract but it was locally. He said he has an antique business as well and his license and cards were stolen in flight. He asked for cash as well to pay the difference of an antique he bid on and if not he would Lose his license and in return lose his main source of income. He sent me lots of pics, a report where he had his full name and his “bank claim” he did when he got his satchel stolen on the plane ect ect. He sent many pics of “him and his son.” I regret this extremely. He sent me video and pictures that all looked current, but I was so very gullible. I didn’t drain a Savings but any amount of money does hurt. There are some Terrible people out there. His name was Charles Carter on his profile and in Google hangouts.

This guy with the username gamiereed and a very attractive man on instagram started following me and then shortly thereafter messaged me. He appeared to be looking for a love interest. He would talk and try to pull the heart strings that he's a good man and would really like to find an honest,caring and loving women. After talking for a couple weeks he asks me to help him out. That he would send me money through cash app and I could go buy itunes cards for him and send him the card numbers/pins because he can't seem to find the cards where he lives...mind you he "lives" in New York?? So beware if this guy or anyone for that matter that you don't know asks you to do anything that involves money! Don't become a victim!

I have been involved in what I'm hoping isn't a scammer. He caught me at my worst possible moment. I had just taken one of my grandkids to the hospital for sucide watch and was there until they admitted her to another hospital hrs later. Anyway he had talked to me about a month and then had me sending he's son in boarding school emais also. Yes he seemed to be a very strong Godly man and wanted to marry me. Then I don't know what I did but I sent him $$$ through money Gram and found out that it was supposedly he's auntie (money for he's son) while he was out of the country. I used Been verified and found he's address in California. Needless to say I went to California to meet him & he's son but he literally called me on my way out to catch my flight to California thankfully I had a backup plan. It made him mad that I went anyway he called me and said he's son was in a comma in Africa on a school trip. I blocked him from everything. But 2 months later he called me and said he needed to talk to me because he was still in Africa with he's son and was leaving the end of this month and still want me to be in he's life as he's wife. That he had 10million coming from the UN. Well fast forward to now I put a post up in a scammers group about this and the next day he contacted me angry as h*** so I told him my friends daughter did it. (Which is kind of true) but he's supposed to be here I would imagine within days or so. I am still in hopes and prayers that he is on the up&up and we do live together forever but wither it does or not is still yet to be seen. H3 says he is coming to get me in Ohio but since I now live in my car and waiting for my divorce hearing in two days I'm leaving for a friend place in Temple Texas and told him he'll have to come there to get me and he was very upset I wouldn't be in my own State waiting for him. As he's coming from NY which is closer to Ohio then Texas I guess. Besides he was hoping to get too meet my children which is why I'm leaving the State as my daughter's husband threw me out. Living in my car isn't good for me at all. Thank you for reading this and be blessed. There is more to my life with scammers below please read them and be careful online ladies I have another guy that talked to me got ALL my private information of me banking credit card everything even a picture of my license front and back and I'm so scared that guy does something to my accounts. I am on Social security and deposit get auto deposit but with it being New Year's Eve week I am praying I get my money out before he does and closing the account. As he had all my information of it and yes I stupidly sent him $$ too. For some reason I keep falling for these men! Can you please help me stop doing this? The first guys name is Jayden the next is Scott Mendoza. I also had a general contact me he's name is Martin Miller and I sent him $50.00 in ITunes. Please be careful

i think i am scammed too. talking to carla williams living in San Antonio Texas. She is working for a private company in the Netherlands..still trying to meet because i paid money for her permitform. it al looked fine but now i know it is a scammer..now she wants i-tunescard. what can i do now.?

where can i find my comment ?

I have had couple of hoaxes...one Alexander Morrison pretended to be in love with me and wanted to marry me and managed to take 6000 dollars pretending to be caught in immigration when he was coming to see me...I got fooled..it was the money I had saved for my daughter's education..list only with lot of debt...since then have been getting messages from different guys from different places..Tim Hanks ..a marine engineer..forced me to send him itunes card...now current is Colonel Joseph Campo... His description of himself is copy from the net with minor changes ..I wish we had a way to catch these guys..it's so nice to be able to share finally

I met a girl on kik. Jason Annabelle/ jason Ann . Now we are speaking on whatsapp. She asking money to pay her bills. She tell s me she has a daughter and her parent's are dead. Some help?

I’m being scammed by a person going by the name Colin Smart. He’s a handsome body builder with tattoos. He loved me right away and kept talking to me on Instagram, eventually moving to Hangouts. He’s very sweet and I loved our conversations. Until he started begging for Itune cards if I really love him. I found myself saying I would try to send one!!!! Then later kicking myself for agreeing. He got really angry with me and swearing up a storm . Calling me and hangin up so I don’t hear his voice. Actually scaring me that he was someone who lived nearby. But he says he’s in Japan . Only sends messages at odd times so I think he is not close. Seems to be up when I’m sleeping. Sad part is I know he’s a scammer but I miss talking to him when he takes breaks from me.

I was doubted of this guy because I asked him what’s his full name he said (Chris rolandkingsman Khan )but he has one more name (davidwolfgram7 )he said this is his company name . He seems like sweet guy started calling me you are my queen ,my world ,my everything but I don’t what he says . But problem is he started asking money ,credit card and iTunes card . But I will never send him . My problem is he always asked me pictures and one of my picture he posted as a Facebook profile . I got nervous when I found this website . We been chatting more a month now. He’s working as a marine engineer oil rig in Perth Australia. He told me : Baby please I have mailed to my agent to get me out of here please am going to need some assistance from you to leave here baby, I couldn't access my account from here please baby am gonna need some loan from you to pay the agent so he can send a helicopter to get me out of the sea here, I promise when I get to the land I will use any of the international bank out there and get the loan refunded to you baby please