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

Well its not me being scammed its my idiot husband who put a comment on Ashley Campbell's FB page then he got a friend request and accepted, conversed back and forth for a few days before them asking for his phone number to keep it more private. He gave his number and the 10,000 is texts began along with a romantic online affair. After a couple of weeks the requests for money started. They said they had a very large some of money that they put aside in a case and sent off for safe keeping so she could get away from her family and start a new life. All he had to do was send a holding fee for her to a certain person and they would send him the case by courier then he could send a portion of the money to them for a plane ticket and she would come and retrieve it from him and they could start their new life together. He would also be compensated double of what he sent. Then the case needed to have a security fee clearance, now a courier fee. I can't make him understand its not a celebrity but a scammer. Oh and here's the best part, he's never spoken live on the phone only via texts. I said tell them to call or Skype to prove who it is, and they said she couldn't sgevwas being watched and would get caught. How can anyone fall for this stuff I don't get it. And now our life together is over I can never trust him again 40 years down the drain just because some older man thinks a woman half his age is interested in him. Any suggestions on how to make him understand hell never see a penny of that money back?

Anyone have contact with a man by name of James Stupplebeen? Says he is an engineer on a job in Lagos. Living in states but works international jobs. Has an estranged girlfriend and daughter too. He told me his wallet was stolen and needed money. Then he said his equipment broke down and needs several thousand to fix it. He is sweet and kind but obviously trying to swindle money from me and anyone that will believe his story.

Sounds so familiar. My guy is from Los Angeles supposedly he did have Calif license. Took a job in UK and needed extra money of 43,000 to finish job and come back to me. His name is Alex

there is this guy that i met in messenger, he said that he is a military doctor deployed in afghanistan...he is divorced with one 7 year old son living with his nanny...he said that he loves me and promises to marry me then after a few weeks he isdeployed to west africa for a peacekeeping misssion...then he told me that he will make his son come to our country once he is here and stay with me....when he told me that their superior already talk to them that they will come home..then a problem arises since he needs to pay taxes so his benefits will be transferred to his account and he can leave Africa to meet me...I told him I can't help him and he said it is okay and dont worry...I ask him what will his colleagues will do..but he said they have the same problems..how about ask for help to his friends in the states but said he cant get in touch with them...he said he will find a wait out...is he scamming me???

I've met a man on Match. com. He goes by the name of Robert Girard. He's an engineer and is supposed to live in Fairfax VA. We started chatting on match then went to email, then text. We've spoke on the phone several times. He is supposed to be in Johannesburg on business. A few weeks ago he sent me beautiful roses. They cost about $150.00. Then he asked me to purchase him an I-tunes gift card. I didn't. We were still chatting...and then yesterday he mentioned having trouble with his international calls and messages and banking trouble. He can't access his funds the bank needs some sort of physical evidence and he can't provide it until he returns to the states. He says he sent them his Identification but they need to see it in person. Then he asked what bank I used. Just told him a local credit union. He said they money he did have would only pay his workers for two weeks. He wanted to transfer money into my bank account. I suggested he ask his daughter. His daughter lives in Mexico. He wanted my acct and routing number. I didn't give it to him. I'm not stupid...but it's just sad. I thought at first I had found a nice guy and after what happened yesterday, this evening I will be reporting him and I've already blocked him. He has a Lee, VA phone number 703-687-6982. I tried searching his photos online and nothing comes up.

This is for all those wondering if their new online love interest is real or not: Have them verify they are real using skype or another means ... taking a selfie doing a specific action. Also, ask questions about the person's city like their favorite restaurant, where they went to high school, their mother's maiden name. Don't accept excuses from the person ... anyone can skype. Almost everyone has the ability to take a cell phone picture. Also...facebook profiles are often built using other scammers as "friends" so don't rely on facebook to validate the person is real.

I am a widow living in Turkey. I went to onesingleperson. com to improve my English. He is a widow, came to Turkey for a project with a contractor in different city. His father is Norwegian and he is dead. In Germany, she has a 12-year-old son who lives with her mother. His wife is dead. Suddenly when he came to Istanbul he flew to chicago, for work. Now there. His name is Michael Scot. I felt in love with him. But the strange thing is; Last year, he was a friend of Norwegian midepedial surgeon, facebook da. His wife is dead. She said she lived in America with her mother of her 12-year-old son. He declared love and suddenly he had to go to Yemen. I met my son through the mail and said "mother" to me. My blood froze. His name was Luster Gerald. This analogy bothered me. I slowly finished the relationship. I am unemployed and a young retirement, so I need my job and my wife. There was no fraud with money. I still feel like an idiot myself. I searched for suspicion, I found this place. Marriage was offered in 15 days. Is loneliness and hunger? What a pity. I wrote this maili with translater. Tell me; Am I being deceived?

Lisa ... glad you caught the scammers trying to take over your accounts and are protecting yourself. When scammers are confronted and called on their BS, they do one of several things: - they blow up and go off on the victim - they attempt to turn the victim into a money mule - or they guilt trip them with some tripe response (like your guy did). When my scammer asked me if I would do a small favor for him, I said I'd try. He asked me to go and buy iTunes cards for him. When I confronted him and said men don't ask woman for money and his actions were disgraceful. His response (he used the guilt trip routine like yours): "I'm really disappointed in you" OMG!!! LMAO!! I lit into him and called him a loser and I was "disappointed in him and it's laughable that I would care what some guy thinks of me who I've only talked with and not met." blocked him everywhere. You're doing the right thing Lisa. Be cautious and always check google image search or tineye for anyone you meet online. Also, meet them in person within 2 weeks or drop them. Then you won't get strung along. Find out who they are ASAP. Be safe.

I am talking to a soldier in Syria. It has only been 2 weeks. He thinks of me a lot. Good looking. Annoyed when I didn't talk to him more on my day off. We met on meetme. We talk via whatsup. I think it is a scam. He hasn't asked for money but sweet talk. He said he gave his user account to his friend to use. Same name different home town and pictures. That is the story I got.

Have a dear friend who friended a girl from Prescott, AZ. She said her father left her 900,000 but that in order for her to get ita "male" must send 770.00 and in return he will get a check for 7500.00. My friend fell for it once 6 mos. ago and now again. He trusts her. Her name (don't know if its her real name) is Grace. Hesitant to put surname. How can I convince him that it's a scam

I hear ya. I recently got scammed. These con artists were good and unfortunately they got me. It was an online dating site. Now I'm trying to do everything in my power to get my money back. I want these people caught

please i want to know if real or scam he ask for call card then i start doubt so i search internet and found out army scam. but when i tell i will borrow money from friend he told no dont do that i dont like you barrow money from others bcs of me, soo im confused and i ask him about army email add so he send me some letter and the email add ending 'mil' so now i dont know

A loved one was scammed online via FB and then Hangout in which this "woman" advised him to download. The "relationship" escalated quickly and within a month, lets say he lost a lot of money sending ITunes gift cards via hangouts. Her name is Christiana Anabel and she has several different accounts and pretends to be a single mom and loosing her house to promising to give him more money, a baby and a place to live after she gets her house back from the bank.....Watch out, she will take you for everything you have

It is very easy to fall prey to some of these scammers. For them, this is their 'job', and many of them are very good at it. An easy way to tell is to make a local or cultural pop reference. One guy who claimed he was born and raised in Texas, didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned "The Yellow Rose of Texas". I must be some type of magnet for the fake military scammers. They seem to be the most charming and down-to-earth. But I always play naive or very concerned when they ask for gift cards, or money for a sick child. Eventually they get the message and move on. As difficult as it may seem, always trust your instincts, do your research, and never send money to someone you've met online. Good luck to all of us.

My Scammer (he admitted him being a scammer after he scammed me huge amount of money), I think he is a MODERN Technology Scammer, and All you ladies should read this and pass along: HE sent me a link of Credit Union Bank Website, gave me his Username and password. asking me pay an invoice on his behalf. I logged in the credit union website, with his name and password, he had nearly 1 mil in the account, and asked me transfer out 55k to a cement company in Turkey. He provided me all detail info of the Turkey Cement Company's account #, routing #, etc. I clicked SEND, and the screen actually show a processing bar going, going, with indication of percentage completed..... after it says Completed, i check the account balance, the total amount was actually deducted from the total amount showing before the transaction was made. So, remember, all this was his "money", i was simply helping him to do the transaction. That was Thursday, Feb 9, 2017. So the following Early Monday morning, I got a long text from he, telling me that He needs to secure a job, worth $1.6 million. to do that, he needs to send $20k to the broken he sort out jobs for contractors. Since he stuck in Turkey (He claimed he is American born Indian, Lived in Texas and San Francisco before he won a job, helping Turkey Gov to build a bridge there in Istanbul. Turkey Gov took his Passport as soon as he got there, because he said it happened before that other contractors dissapears on the jobs as soon as they get paid, with the job half done. and he didn't want to access his Credit Union Bank account from Turkey to cause any suspition. So that was how he asked me to the transaction using his account user ID and password). Now back to where i was. Monday Feb 13, he needed 20k to secure a FAT job, I said i can't give his money. He said why don't we do this: you go ahead and transfer $50k to your own account from my Credit Union bank. "You still have my ID and password, right? I didn't change, I trusted you, I noticed you didn't touch the account since last Thursday. You are a good woman". I said that was your money, you worked hard for it. I would never touch your account without your permission. That's criminal. So, i agreed his idea to transfer $50 to my account, with his permission, so that i can pay on his behalf to secure his FAT 1.6 Million dollar job. He rest of money, he said eventually, he needs my help to pay other stuff on behalf of him, since he stuck in Turkey. I transfered $50k, the "Green" transfer bar going going, until indicating 100% completed. Since it takes 24 to 48 hours to be actually deposited to my account, I went to my bank, and using my own money, wire transfered first $10k to a Wells Fargo account that he provide to me (name and account # and routing #), who suppostly to be the broker who would secure the Fat Job for him. I was checking my Chase bank, where i transfer the $50k to the whole day, it didn't show (of course). He even asked me a few times during the day if it went through, i said NO, he said it will, just take time, 24 to 48 hours. "You saw i have over 900 thousand dollar in the account yourself, right" The next day, Feb 14, Valentines Days, when he supposedly be back in US to meet, he said the broker is asking for the rst of $10k (he need to give that person $20k to secure the FAT job). I went to bank, using my own money and send to another Wells Fargo account with a different person's name. I started getting suspitious, even on the way to the bank, joking with him "this completely sounded like ONLINE SCAM"!!! He even laugh, tell me no need to worry, he had dealt with these people before, this is how he gets Huge contracts. I know my writing is so long, maybe you got bored. But hang on. I came back and loggin in to his Credit Union bank account, OMG, the account status shows "BLOCKED" instead of "ACTIVE". The balance not showing my $50k was deducted. I freak out, called him, He said NO WAY, He will check and get back to me. He called back, saying he contacted the bank, the reason he was given was that they got suspicious on the transaction i made of that large amount of $50k being transfer to an individual account, that the bank was not pre-knowledged of, and the bank autometically raised the Red Flag, and REVERSED the transfer!!!! So I lost $20k. The Truth is, I LOST MORE THAN THAT. but the rest was because he promised to pay me back after the account is straightened out when he get back to America, and he even asked me to go with him to the bank, and as soon as he close the account, he would deposit the FULL amount of money to my WHatever personal account, because "I was his WIFE" in his mind for all this time!!!!! Now Ladies, He didn't ask me to use WESTERN UNION, nor MONEY GRAM, like most of the other scammers did I read from here. HE CREATED A FXXKING BANK Website to scam money!!! Of course, the website is no longer exist now. But i did took pictures of it when it was still valid, with his NAME, account number, amount of balance (on 2/23, the last time i was able to logged on to the account, using his name and password, there was $911,265.06 in the account, and i have photo of it. but the status of the account is "BLOCKED"). Since then, he said he was advised to change the ID and password, and eventually the website is No Longer Exist - Invalid Web address!!! I totally wired money to Four different US bank account for him, with 4 different account holder names. So my question is Since they are Wells Fargo and Chase banks, why Law enforcement authorities can't catch them? I did report to my local police and filed with FBI. The irritating part was, after i confronted him, after he told me he is a scammer, the whole thing is a scam, he is a fraudster. He was so arrogant, he even encouraged me to report to my back and my police, seem like he did this many times, and he knew he wouldn't get caught!!! I have his photos, his email, his phone number. His claims his name is Steve Paresh Patel. Born in Ohio, Dad was a doctor, but when he was five, the whole family had to move back to India due to grandfather illness, and his father need to take over the family business. He return back to US, only a few years ago, thus he has accent, (but was not Indian-English, i even told him the first time I spoke him on the phone, he said he was raised be a nanny in Indian when he grew up, and he speak the accent like his nanny. I didn't realize that was mostly Nigerian accent, but was too late after everything had happened.) I even at a point, asked him if he needed a Green Card. He insisted he is a Citizen, no need Green Card. Maybe this guy is rooted in the US? since all the account he can access to are based in US? The way he created his SCHEME is too clever, he made almost $50k out of me in just a WEEK. He must be so rich, he sent me pics of him with his two luxury cars, wearing Rolex watch, live in a Compound (he said), in San Francisco, on Pacific Ave!!!! one of the most expensive area..... the last text we exchanged with him was 5/19, 3 months after he scammed me, I believe if i kept texting him, he would still reply.

Ladies, i just posted something a few minutes ago (on 6/10 7pm.) I want to add that the reason i created my USER Name as "CouldBeWorse" is that i even bought a one way flight ticket to Istanbul intend to meet my scammer. He said he would go to the airport to meet. I sent the copy of the confirmation, he then changed his mind, since he asked me to transfer more money before i leave, i said no, i would bring a large amount of cashier check with me, and give to his superior who is holding his passport. He then backed out, telling me to cancel the trip and get a refund. My point is, afterwards, when i thought of it, WOW, i could get Kidnapped by this guy or his group for ransom!!! That could be Worse, hard to imagine!!!! We all want to know the REAL Identity of the person we talk to behind the screen. Although we had their photos, i didn't even know the person who sent me the photos might not be the real person himself. - I believe til this day, my scammer is the same person on the photo he sent to me. Indian, wear and drive luxury things.

I think this happened to me ... does the name Craig Eaton ring a bell?

If they do the I am deaf or my phone is broke and say they can't hear you or they do not talk back is a sign of a scam. The newest that I have encountered is, plagiarized video chat they use someone else talking on video that was most like scammed from a legitimate person looking for love. They will play it back for you to make you think that you are talking to the person that is in the video clip. The sound from the clip is omitted and the person running the scam will say my mic is broken.

I, too fell victim to an online scammer. I recognized all the red flags along the way, but I played along because I was curious to see how it would end. It ended when he told me he needed money to pay the medical bills for his sick child. Ironically, HE broke it off because he said that it was obvious that I don't trust him, and that he didn't want to be in a relationship where there was no trust. Now, he's trying to blackmail me with intimate pictures we shared. I fell for the carefully crafted conversations, the pictures, and the promise of love. I was always cynical, but this experience has turned me into a bitter, hard-core cynic.

Sorry you had this experience WaryForever and glad you didn't lose all your money. Chances are your scammer wants to use his time looking for his next easy mark and not getting revenge ... PLEASE don't fall for the blackmail ... that's part of their carefully crafted script (otherwise why would they ask for the intimate pictures to begin with...think about it). Also... "he didn't want to be in a relationship where there was no trust" This is Nigerian sociopathic criminal speak for "you aren't gullible enough to fall for my scam" "you didn't give your heart completely over so you could not think logically any more... so I could take all your money" Being skeptical is good quality. Bitterness comes from lack of forgiveness, so forgive. Forgive these idiot scammers for who they are...pathetic losers. Forgive yourself for falling for a bit of the scam. You'll look at this experience many months down the road with a look down and shake your head attitude. Help those you can by posting the name and details about your scammer on as many scammer websites as you can so he can't victimize someone else.

I have a darius townsend says he Is in Afghanistan he is a widow says he has two girls need money for food and he needs money to get out of army

Pla use caution with a German named JACK ROBERT. He claims to be ain independent software engineer, traveling & meeting with clients. He plays the role well; kind, sweet thoughtful, attentive. And he takes his time while promising you the world. Several months into it he asks for but coin loans so he can wrap up his business and come to you. DON'T fall for this scammer!!!!!!!

I met a guy on a dating site "Vigr" which is ironically supposed to be about legitimate people. His name is Hayden Sherry Curtis. He' says he's stationed in Camp Phoenix in Kabul. I can't tell if he's real or a scammer. He hasn't asked for money perse but for a care package. He wanted me to send an email to a Diplomat Kelvin Brian... how can I tell if this is a scam?

I talked via skype with a guy Nickolas Estes. He was at a mission in Estonia. His son Robert 11 years old. He sounds wonderful que told me he would came to Argentina for living. Two weeks later que asked me money for his son because he was stolen so he does not have anything to eat....

Have any of these people ever asked you to Skype with them?