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

On August 23rd, 2016, I was contacted via email by a man that I met online through a dating site. He asked me for my phone number, but I felt more comfortable giving him my email address. He immediately began emailing me and we began corresponding. By the first weeks of September we had been corresponding for a couple of weeks and had exchanged phone numbers. He had began writing that he wanted to meet me and stated he was going to fly in to meet me on a specified date. This person claimed to be a self-employed contractor in Topeka, KS and that he was a widower with a young daughter. He stated he would be flying in with his daughter to meet me. On the Monday of the week he was supposed to be flying, he informed me that he had just closed a huge contract in South Africa and would be leaving immediately, which would mess up our meeting for the following weekend. He profusely apologized and begged for forgiveness, stated he would only be gone for 4 weeks and then he would return and we could meet. He stated that while he was in S Africa, we could continue to correspond via email and call every day. He called me the day he "arrived" in S Africa and claimed that his luggage with his laptop, cellphone and iPad had been lost in customs. He stated that he needed all this equipment to complete the contract in Africa and that the Customs officers were looking for his luggage. By the following Monday, his luggage had still not been found and he pled with me to purchase new equipment for him, send it to him and when he returned to the states in 4 weeks he would repay me for all the equipment using his business account.

I believed all of it and sent him a laptop, an ipad and cell phone to the address he provided. When I questioned the name of whom I was sending the equipment to, he stated this was his construction manager and that I could not send it to him because his passport and ID had been stolen along with his luggage. He stated that he would not be allowed to accept any packages because he had no ID to prove who he was. Despite my instincts that something was wrong with this whole situation, I sent the equipment. He confirmed that he had received all the equipment and that the job could be done correctly now. Over the next week we corresponded via email and phone, he ensured me the job was going well and he would be returning to the states in a matter of weeks.

On Monday September 26, I received another email from him, asking me to call him. The email stated the following: "...I was told i was suppose to register with them as a foreign contractor before doing any job. All blame to the site engineer because he did not tell me anything like that i would have made provision for it. I don't have all that they are demanding from me. $17,000. (Seventeen Thousand Dollars)... I have channeled all my cash to every department of the job by paying down for everything because i do not want to keep any cash with me, rather than money to pay workers daily. I was told not to go back to the site until i have registered with them. They have given me just a short notice to settle everything to avoid permanent closure of the site. I have invested so much in this project...i do not want anything like that to happen. I am so confuse right now and don't know what to do. I really need to go back to work to be able to meet the set target as i do not want to disappoint you and the contractors. The contract award committee will be coming for first inspection on Friday. I do not want to disappoint them by not meeting up to their expectation with the delay this closure will cost me over this job."

I called him and asked him what was going on with the job. He repeated the above information and stated that he had $8000 and pled with me to send him the additional $9000 to pay the municipalities. Alarm bells were going off! When I informed him I did not have this kind of money and that I had maxed out my credit card sending him the equipment, he became upset and said he was sorry for bothering me with his problems. I attempted to talk to him and tell him that if I had the money I would send it to him, but I just don't have that kind of money lying around.

I tried to give him some alternate solutions to his problems (go to the municipalities and offer to give them the $8000 that he has and pay the rest on Friday when he receives 40% of the contract pay for completing 1/2 of the job, call his bank here in the states and ask for an extension on the loan, call his credit card company and ask for cash advance, etc.) He had an answer for every situation as to why he couldn't do that and again pled for me to send him the cash. I again told him I did not have the cash and he would have to go to the municipalities and ask for an extension on the fees. He stated he would try that and keep me updated about the situation. I received a text message a couple of hours later that stated he had gone to the municipality office and they would not accept anything less than $10000. He stated he still needs $2000 and asked me to send him that.

I again told him I have absolutely no cash, anywhere. Again I told him to call his credit card company, his bank, etc. and again he had an excuse as to why they would not give him any money. He eventually hung up on me. I began doing research online about scams and came across this website. Every story I have read is very similar to my experience. I have filed a complaint with IC3 as suggested. I know I will not get any of my money that I have already invested in this man back and know now that I have been scammed.

I should have listened to my gut instincts in the first place. I have kept every email this man has ever sent me, I have pictures that he has sent me that is supposedly "him and his daughter", I have his cell phone number, his email address. I feel like a complete fool, I am not a stupid person, I am educated, I am very well aware of the scams in this world, but was completely duped by this man. He is charming, knows exactly what to say in his emails. I have run his "pictures" through google images and other image websites to no avail. But I know this is a scam, particularly after he hung up on me when I refused to send him cash.

THIS MAN IS GOING BY THE NAME HANS WOLFBURG FROM TOPEKA KANSAS. HE SAYS HIS DAUGHTER'S NAME IS JORDAN. HE IS CLAIMING THAT HIS WIFE DIED IN CHILDBIRTH AND THAT HE MARRIED A WOMAN APPROXIMATELY 6 YEARS AGO THAT CHEATED ON HIM WITH HIS BEST FRIEND. HE CONSISTENTLY TALKS ABOUT HIS BROKEN HEART AND LOOKING FOR "THE ONE".

I know I have been scammed. I have talking to a guy named George Brumfield who contacted me on FB. I don't usually accept FB requests from people I don't know or have a friend in common, but I thought why not. My intentions were to flirt with him because I needed some fun in my life after losing my husband. We talked for awhile and then he told me he had to leave for Canada as an oil rig foreman. A week later he sent me chocolate, a bear, and a beautiful bouquet of 12 red roses. The roses weren't the cheap ones. They lasted for two weeks. We continued to talk online and he suddenly asked me for $1200 for a new phone.

I was to send the money to a Shirley Sullivan in KY. Money gram flagged that transfer and he never received the money. He then asked me for money because he was ill and needed medication. I sent him that and it did go through. During this time he continues to tell me that his check is coming and he will give me the money back and he is coming "home" to see me. He claimed he lived in NJ and was divorced and had two children in boarding school in Princeton, NJ.

The red flags went up when he asked me for $95,000 to get his check notarized. He knew I am a widow, so I assume he thought I had a lot of money. I may have fallen for him once, but not a second time for $95,000. After conducting a google image search, I found out he may be using the pictures of someone on FB. I have informed the guy who's pictures are being stolen, but he has not contacted me back. In the mean time, I have told George I know he is a scam, yet he continues to contact me and profess his love for me. I have filed a report, but using the innocent man's name. I have not told George that I filed a report, but this has now become a game for me. I am so curious and want to know how long he will continue to text me knowing I know he is fake. I met my husband who passed online and we built a wonderful life together. I thought I could do the same again. Beware of the scammers. I know this won't happen to me a second time.

anonymous annee,My story is so like the others, he was born in usa but raised in italy, was working on pipe line in the middle of the atlantic sea, enginer, wife passed away had a 14 yr old, withen 2 weeks hehad fallen in love, em 2 times aday, talking marriage,beauiful works, coffee pic's in the morning pictures of flowers sooo sweet then he wanted to talk to me i gave him my number as soon as i heard him talk(broken) i knew that was not an italian accent, maybe nigeria or african, i knew my third husband was italian, so in a few days i told him his accent was not italian,he got angry and gave himself up by saying i hope you find some italian men and since i did'nt trust him and i would not help him by wiring money to a hotel for a payment and payments (thats what the hotel page said that he had sent) so he was not going to contact or em me any more, i said Good bye.

i told him i was house sitting for my friend and she was having a hard time with her x husband so she had a recorder hooked up to her phone and i listend to it when i played it back and thats when i knew for sure, that was not his picture or name, he was using Robert Amadeo, if you see that name on pof back up you dont want any part of that, i am glad he did not have my phone no. and i have the recording, i had no idea this sort of thing was so widespread, i am also glad i told him no i was not sending money, we em for a month and if he had been for real, he would have been great, i als found on his google account he had 17 women going at once, i am also going to turn this in to pof, that will get one more off. Be careful ladies.

Ive been scammed but I don't want my family to worry about me. He goes by the name of Andy Chess (at this point he maybe using a different name now) with a handsome look from Lancaster UK (from the picture he sent me)and a mechanical engineer and working as an independent contractor in offshore platform maintenance based in UK.

He is widow of 6 years whose wife died of kidney infection, lonely and looking for an Asian partner upon the suggestion of his friend who found his partner on FB. He is the only child and his lovely father passed away in 2014 due to heart failure and that he is supposed to claim this contract payment from Petronas oil company in Malaysia. So he'd been communicating with Petronas chairman for the last one year to claim the due payment for his father's work contact with them.

I accidentally confirm his friend request on FB and he seems nice so I accepted. I gave him my email address and my phone #after he gave his saying that he is open minded and he is for real.he said that yes there are lots of bad people out there and also good people and he belongs to those good people.

He always write me email and text me that he loves me so much and that he misses me after only 2 weeks of chatting. The first time I heard his voice, I thought I couldn't understand his English and i thought he sounds like he is African but maybe I was wrong. I brought this up when we were chatting and he always say I am insulting him (because its' true i realize later). I told him I couldn't match the handsome photo he sent me with his voice and he always gets defensive.

Then after 3 weeks of communicating with him, he said he already bought his ticket to travel to Malaysia and claim the payment from Petronas. He even was texting me while he was leaving his "home" in Lancaster and when he was checking in and boarding his flight to Malaysia with connection to Dubai. It was great so I don't have to be bothered by his constant texting and phone call. But all the sweet talking and poems, and loving email are endearing and heart melting but at the same time I was having reservation about how a person can fall in love so quickly without even seeing each other in person.

So when he "arrived' in Malaysia, he called me with a Malaysian phone # that showed on my caller ID. He said to save it since we will be communicating thru the local phone instead of his UK phone. He emailed me or texted me his movement while he was "working" on processing the documents. he said he couldn't wait to get this procssing over so he can fly to US and we can meet. He already claimed me as his fiancee. I told him that you haven't even propose yet. He called me his future wife and he is my future husband.

For 5 days he was in Malaysia the moment of truth came when he start telling me that there taxes due before he can claim the payment of $1,400,000.00 and that he only has $9K and he needs the $5K since the there is a 1% tax due on the certificate. I was stunned and i knew its a scam but maybe not at the same time. I believed him thinking that if I come up with that money that will speed up his trip to the US and then we can meet.

I told him I have $1K and that I need to get a loan of $4. he said he's going to pay once he gets to the US. He is going to invest this money on an oil drilling business here in US. Even if I ask hi, he always has believable reason. I told him okay I will send the $1K thru western union. Because of the time difference, I got a phone call in the middle of the night that he has trouble picking up the money. I sent him info about my transaction including my home address which was a mistake.

He sounded upset and I thought he is the one asking for favor and yet he was upset. The next day, I came back to western union to get my money back and on the way home I got a call from western union fraud dept that it is a scam. I was so embarrassed when they asked me if I have met the guy and I told them the truth.

Western Union returned my money including the transaction charge. But this is not the end of the story. He kept asking to give him the benefit of the doubt which I was saying to him. I thought maybe since I really want to see him in person and that if I help him that will solve his problem and then we can be together as he promised. He gave an account through Wells FArgo thru Good News Marketing as a recipient. Its a money changer he said.

So I sent it and I was devastated when he didnt answer the 14phone calls I made. I knew I was scammed. I called him many times and texted him to demand him to give me my money back. He said he will but I know its not going to happen. I pretended to play along with and when he started asking for more money for the taxes that still due, I blocked his phone # but saved all information about him. So ladies out there beware, this is my story and hard lesson for me. I never do online romance but I was taken by accident.

Hi everyone. It's so upsetting to see so many hurt people the same as I am hurting now. I befriended a man by the name TOM DERICK, Dutch living in Cleveland Ohio. Said he was a widower. He said he worked for a mining company in oil exploration and has a daughter by the name of Kyla.

I like so many others never normally accept friend requests from people I don't know but on this occasion I did. He said he was new to Facebook and found me whilst looking for his cousin. He totally romanced me and I confess I was hooked. He made excuses why he couldn't speak to me and only messaged. Eventually he did and the voice didn't seem right. He then made a mistake about where his mother lived. First it was California then Amsterdam. I queried it and he said I must have misunderstood.

Then I had a friends request from the same man but different picture under the name of CHARLIE MARTIN a marine in Kabul. I realised straight away I was being played and I was in tears. He said someone had stolen photos of him. That he was flying to England to see me etc etc. First a contract had come up he had to deal with in the Benin Republic Africa after that he would come to me. I so wanted to believe him but knew it was all too convenient. We had been messaging 2/3 hrs a day and all of a sudden it went quiet for a couple of days. I didn't message him as I had looked on this sight and seen that my story matched so many others.

Then it came. A message saying he had been beaten an robbed when he had arrived in the country and had been unconscious in hospital. Said everything had been taken, money passport clothes. Begged me to help. I went along with it saying yes and what did he want me to do. He asked for $2000 to pay his hospital bill and get a hotel and he would pay me back. I was gutted as this is what I was expecting but praying I was wrong. I sent him a quick response saying I would try and help the person whose identity he stole.

I instantly blocked him on FB an messenger. His email was TOM999DERICK         He sent me a song by Sade called by your side beautiful song I don't know if this profile matches anyone else's. he said he had 3 cars and a bike and a boat. Sent quite a few pictures so it all looked legitimate. There was a few pictures of his daughter who was 11 no living with his mother. I lost my partner nearly 3 yrs ago I am 50 and this guy dob was 1st may 66 so also 50. It sucks when you feel someone has been playing with your heart strings. Anyway I hope this helps anyone who may be talking to someone with a similar profile.

Hi Everyone,just want everyone to comment on this name and story of this scammer and you all need to be careful of his SCAMMER,his always on Match. com,goes by the Name Scott Laurent and always come with this STORY. "The man said he was in Dubai getting antiques. A man he had hired died in a accident while working for him. The local people got mad at him and told him he had to pay wife a certain amount of money before he could leave. So he asked me for money to help pay and get him home" Please Drop your Comment if you know that Story and Name.

I have been duped by a male using Stephan Mark, for almost 2 years now. I am saddened learning this path he continues to choose as I believe with God everything is possible. Says he is 49 years old from the UK, and came to the US to meet me by boat/ cargo..I haven't wanted to believe that people are willing to sell their soul to the devil.He says he's believer in Christ. Has a daughter Tracy 10 years old.

My last payment was $465.00 to India for a courier delivery of an expected loan to come meet me. I am creating a new forum for victims who want to fight back, I will be back with my details. Sounds to me we could almost all be dealing with the same person. I intend to dedicate my life to going after people who are doing this to people, I think it's up to us to do something about it, -be back with information.

I'm texting right now with a man who's my dream come true, rich, good job, is from Australia and is working in Ohio right now. I met him on Plenty of Fish. we've been texting and emailing for 2 weeks, then we were to meet last Saturday for dinner. He cancelled in the morning saying he had to fly to Cairo Egypt to get a part for a machine that broke down and when he gets back this Friday we will go out.

He sent my a pic of his contract with Chevron showing his name and $1.455 million for the contract to drill for oil in Ohio. I've been doing phone reverse search on his number, face search and have only come up with his phone being in or from or at, Hawley PA. This afternoon he asked me if i had access to my bank online. I said yes, he didn't ask for any info other than my banks name.

but he then asked if he could send me $40,000.00 to my bank and then have me send it by wire transfer to him to pay for the part he needs for his job. I said I'm seeing red flags, a money scam, he said no baby, I love you, don't you trust me? I asked him why his company couldn't send it to him. he said cause he don't have a bank in Cairo to get the money. I'm 61 and he's 54.

i have been seeing these money scams in the news for years. He always calls me baby, but in his emails he does address it to my first name. Just means he's smart enough to copy and paste. We've never talked on the phone, I've asked him several times to call me but he just stops texting til later. Probably thinks I'm to scared of loosing him if I pushed things. He's promised me a home, travel, all the money I need, and he'll pay all my bills, and is so happy and lucky to have found his soulmate in me, Really? after 3 days. He must think I'm old, lonely and stupid. I called my bank, they said they can't do anything til I get the money and send it to him.

I called the police and made a report. but it's just going to sit there. And I just filed a report here at the FTC. they can't do anything either until fraud happens. This guy has stolen the identity of a real person and his photos. I wish there was some way to get in touch with him. The name he is using is Terry           , from Australia, working for P&H mine Pro Australasia. This is a real guy, but he's not the one who's contacting me, I'm sure of it that he's been hacked. He also said he has a daughter named Alice and has a home in Washington. Birth date 9-21-1962.