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

Women and men both be aware of a Rebekah Martins. Said she is from Tennessee and travels for her import and export clothing goods. Then will tell you lets talk through google hangouts. Will tell you she is stuck in Turkey and needs money. Promises to pay you back everything. Will send naughty pictures to you but for sure it isn't her. Rebekah is a phony. She would get mad when I refused her money. Would wait a few days and come back at me with another angle. Sorry I work for my money and if anything I give to my family only!!

Hello Everyone,I guess I am joining the group also. I am a smart woman, all though I thought I was, Dr. Justin Johnson, Army, in Damancus Syria. Widow 53, ready to retire, son in military boarding school, wife passed away drugs. Loves me deeply, wants to marry me after 3 months, can I get a package for him from customs in United Nations in Canada, just pay the taxes, he will pay me back..2850.00, when the package areas, he will be here within 72 hours. We are arguing right now, the only way you can come here is if I can pay the taxes on the package. I am playing him along right now to see where this is going. Wish me luck, suppose to be a large amount of diamonds. Which I am calling Blood Diamonds. I am not about money, I am about being used, to get what you want.

Has anyone been contacted by Curtis Anderson...on instragram known as curisanderson295. I'm sure he's a scammer but can't figure out his end game. Says his wife died 5yrs ago in a car accident, says he is in dallas on business...he sent me a photo I ran an image search and it's a stock photo on line. Would like to know if anyone else has had contact with him and know their experiences.

Well it happened with me as well. I fall in love with this English teacher from UK. we traveled explore the country, later he asked me he needs to go to china for some work and be back after months. while we were together i used to pay for his bills , food , rent etc.. now he tells me he has new girl and cant be with me . So that's the end spending so much money on this guy , now he found better girl so left me crying , anyway karma is a bitch mr. felix hope you feel that soon.

I’m so grateful reading all this experiences, I had an attempt of being scammed recently in more than one occasion using the dating app called hinge, same story about military handsome man, wife cheated badly and he was half “French” and half american but when I sent him words in French he just ignored them ( obviously he didn’t understand) immediately talking with me in the app ask to talk outside the app and started talking about marriage at just the second day of talking ( weird )told me he had inherited a lot of money from deceased French dad and needed my bank info so I could help him because he had no one, he got the wrong woman since I’m pretty skeptical, I thank God for his protection, now I more skeptical than ever.

This has happened to me as well, and I'm a guy. I don't understand something though. While this had always happened via Instagram, why am I always asked if I have Hangouts? And I have another question. Is there a way to take these people's (scammers) profile pic and run a integer search with it to see if indeed this is a stolen pic?

From the previous comments, I believe that they are the same person. Has many names and many stories. I was scammed. His name he used was James Rogers Galbraith. Was shot in left leg while on patrol in Syria. Staff Sergeant, Special Forces. Has an adopted son, Peter or Prince in school in Tamale Ghana. Son injured and in hospital. Sent pictures to prove it. Asked for money all the time. Pics I was sent of him was of a Col. William S Galbraith. He even sent me a picture of a soldiers penis. Shocking. Madly in love with me and going to marry me. Went to Ghana, because of son and caught Malaria. This guy is good. Been at it for years. These scammers are evil. They are heartless and they can ruin your life if you allow it. Said he was born and raised in Miami, Florida. An inheritance of millions from his parents who died in a car crash. His father was a doctor and mother was a school master. Look out for this one. He speaks in broken English. I've made him mad before, he gets flustered. Played his game against him. I've prayed for him, because he is surely on a dark path to hell.

Has anyone come across a guy Named Fred Peter Samuel? He supposedly in Turkey on a job assignment until October, than he is retiring and moving back to Oakland to be with his 2 kids Sarah & Terry. He was telling me his wife died, was in a relationship and that didn’t go well cause she cheated on him & stole some of his money. He started out super nice & we hit it off until he kept asking if I’d go get him an $100 iTunes card or streaming card. But this morning I said I couldn’t know he offered to send me $10,000 to my bank account. Something seems awful fishy

I had a guy contact me on Facebook,said he was a surgeon in Afghanistan attached to the army by the UN.He did send photos of himself in a theatre and hospital,was supposedly from LA but his English wasn’t great and he confessed his love for me very quickly.I think he had stolen the identity of the real doctor and this doctor was hot looking.Said his wife died 5 years ago and he had a son who was in Florida at school.I knew there was something not right about this but I decided to play it out.He had a Facebook account with the name Michael Christopher which suddenly disappeared,got me onto What’s App with the name Anthony Francis and then onto Hangouts with the same name.He then asked me a few days ago to send his son some money for his birthday,I refused,he was a bit upset but didn’t pursue it,then he sent another Facebook request with another name Mark Frank,think he mucked up here as I don’t think I was meant to get the request.Next he asked me to send an email to the United Nations to request his holiday,I refused and said if he was a US citizen why would he need me to do this for him,so I call him out and now he has disappeared,wish I could put pictures up of the guy he’s impersonating because I feel so sorry for this man who knows nothing about his identity thief but I can put up a phone number +1(518)558-5258,I hope this will help some other person not to fall for this scam

I have been scammed out of Thousands of SA Rands (Close to a R100 000) by a man that send me a friend request on Facebook. His name is Philip Edward. I am 72 years old and my husband died 3 years ago. After I accepted his request he said we must chat on a page Called Hangouts. He told me how to install and soon after starting to chat he said he loved me. He is 56 years old and have a 15 year old daughter called Jenny who is ill with Leukemia. His wife died a few years ago. He is an engineer who works on an oil rig . He started asking me for money to help his daughter as he could not since he’s not near a bank. Or his money is tied up and he only gets paid end of the month. He constantly say he wants to come and visit me. I reorganized my whole house for him and his daughter. He send messages saying he loves me, I’m his love and he calls me honey all the time. He can only chat at night time because of the time difference. I was constantly running short of money and in the end my son found out about this man. He was furious! He did some digging and found out he is a black man from Nigeria living in South Africa looking for older women on Facebook to target. I didn’t want to believe it. My children always warn me not to accept anyone as friends I don’t know. This man told me he’s in love with me and wants to marry me. He was just after my money. He even send pictures of him (pictures of a white man in his 50’s). I send him money through Checkers Money Market. The police says I will never get it back. This man have a lot of woman he does this to. He’s living a good life of the money of old desperate women like me. There’s no fool like an old fool.

Anytime you see that there an engineer or a geologist don't spend time with them block them right away or just ignore them. It's the same story always the wife cheated or died that was small daughter well at our age and our 50s and early 60s how could they have a young daughter? I know it's been done but hundreds and hundreds of widowed men with young young daughters come on. Their stories are all the same and their words their phrases their poems that they send their all the same ones over and over and over again it makes me sick

Watch out for Nicholas Silva also goes by Nikko silva..Solider US Army.

here goes, he say's he's in the Army and a General, and he want's me to be his beneficiary for his retirement box and he say's in Syria and write a letter saying I was his wife and send the box to me and there might be a fee.

seriously, PLEASE THINK WITH YOUR HEAD< DO NOT EVER BELIEVE ANY MAN ASKING you for Money, WE R WOMEN< if they are NOT showering YOU with GIFTS, Y on earth would you even CONSIDER to SPEND a DIME ON THEM, if they want MONEY FOR ANY REASON< i PROMISE it is MOST LIKELY A SCAM

Thomas Ruiz.... claims to be special ops in War zone of paris???? Asked for $2000 to take his troops out for dinner. I said no. Then he asked for $2900 for his paperwork to retire so we could get married and have babies. Im in my late 50s! Lol He said age doesn't matter. I would google search key phrases here would say "from the heart" and find the exact quote. Do these men think we are stupid? He follows thousands of women on Instagram but claims he can't live without me. Im his soulmate. The is no other that can take my place. He will die without my love. Ha! So ladies, beware. The pictures are extremely handsome and oh so hot, but don't get burned.

Anybody have contact or heard of UN surgeon based in Afganistan? One daughter boarding in UK. No family Born in Iceland. Educated in Scotland. 50 years old. Goes by Williams Mack. Messaged me I believe by mistake in the Romanian language translated to English . Would appreciate any feedback. Thanks

Just recently I received a message on Facebook from a lady claiming to be in the service. She asked me to contact her by email. She said she was a Sargent born in CA. widowed her husband killed by a shark. After thee emails she said she was in love with me. I told her a bit about myself. She claimed when she got out of the service she would come to be with me. She wanted to invest in property etc. I did a bit of investigating I found ten different facebook accounts. Mosly the same pictures although she sent me several other pictures of her with male soldiers. She had two different dates of birth. Her last email claimed she knows we will be happy together. And she wanted to tell me exactly what is going on. She has 4 million hidden in Syria she wants my name address phone number email address occupation. She wanted to send this money to me and I get 30%. When she comes here she will sell the properties etc. Has anyone else received this scam. I suppose this is either money laundering or some other illegal activity. Does anyone know?

Ladies I'm right there with you. I too met a scammer on Facebook, which I never accept any friends request unless I know him or someone of my friends do. Well he had a friend I know so I accepted. Big mistake!!! His so call name is Dr. Marc Anthony from Charolette, North Carolina but stationed in Germany. Widow with two girls Cindy and Olivia who live with a nanny in NC. He was a smooth talker. He introduced me to the Hangout app. because the military is very strict of social media and for security reasons. We spoke for weeks told me all the sweet words a woman wants to hear. He loved me sent loving pictures and poems. He was going to come back to the states soon and wanted to marry me. Funny thing is he never asked where I lived??? Anyways he sent me several pictures of him working out, with his daughters and in his Dr.'s coat because I wanted to see him in his professional uniform. He even face timed me because I was having doubts he wasn't a scammer, but we lost reception quickly. Long story short, he began telling me He loved me so much and couldn't wait to come down and marry me. He had told his girls about me and they were looking forward to meeting me as much as I was looking forward to meeting them. Then the moment came, he needed a Passcard because he hadn't renewed it and he didn't have access to his account in the states. I asked him straight out Are You Asking Me for Money?? He said No I never asked you for money just Support until he could get back into the states, he would pay me back every last dime. I told him have your Nanny wire you the Money. How can you even have the audacity to ask me for money when we haven't event met in person? So I told him GoodBye Love. Please be careful, I know we can fall so easily when they tell us all the right words. But keep in mind how hard you've worked for your money. A man should be able to take care of you first. Hugs to all

I have talked to many fake military men they tried to manipulate me into sending the money and everything in between. I would ask them if we can video chat and all of them told me they were unable to I have heard every single story possible from these fake men. 2 weeks ago I send a message to someone he didn't look military at all or anything I just thought it was cute so we start talking and turns out he's in the US Navy immediately my heart sank and I figured out here we go again. But this guy was different within 10 minutes of talking he wanted to video chat with me I was at work at the time so I could immediately but at that point I had a good feeling about him. So a couple hours later we video chatted and he was real and he told me all military guys have access to money that access to food they have access to anything they would ever need while on deployment. I told him from the beginning about what I've been through and I asked him to please never asked me for money and he never would. Another thing that the fake military guys will never do is give me their fpo or Apo which is a military address so you can write and send care packages this guy however gave me his and he says he wants me to write him and everything. We video chat several times a day when the time allows every text off and on as well. I I'm sending him a care package which I'm really excited about because I'm really excited that I found a real military man. So if you're reading this and you're wondering why you're military man says he cannot video chat he's a scam. My guy told me all military can video chat when time allows no matter where they are. I feel so lucky that I found one of the good ones LOL which honestly I never thought possible. I even told other military men after five or six of them that I was no longer interested in dating military men and I can no longer trust them. But this guy showed me he was real instantly and I have no reason to doubt him. Plus even though we tell each other how we feel he has yet to tell me he loves me which also means he's real and he doesn't want to rush into things which is also a good sign that he's not real period every military or fake military man I've ever talked to has always told me they love me very soon after talking and they would immediately want to plan our future LOL I can't believe how naive I was but I'm glad that's all in the past and that I have a real man in the military that I can have my own. Oh and an indication that someone is real and wants only you will be if he deletes his dating profile immediately after you asked him to which my guy did he didn't even hesitate.

My story isn't a romance scanner, it's way way worse. My father had a call a couple of months ago from his "mothers boyfriend" saying they were traveling from Ensenada Mexico, to a town a hour north of us. They wanted to stop and see my dad, now mind you my father hasn't seen his mom in almost 13 years. So you can imagine his excitement. He was so thrilled that his mom was going to come. For me a major red flag went up. I felt like it was a scam and was trying to talk to my father about it while researching online. The "boyfriend" called back about 45 minutes later saying they were in an auto accident, that their was a child in the other vehicle my grandmother as well were hurt needing to go to the ER. He needed my dad to send him $1400.00 via money gram. My father told him he don't have that much could send $600 the guy says yes that's a good start.I luckily got through to my dad that this was a scam by making him realize that my grandmother and her boyfriend were not able to come on their own, and accidents and er visits don't happen quickly not 30 minutes quickly. The sad thing was watching my dads emotions go from excitement, to worry, to sadness. That's how they do it, they use our emotions to cloud our better judgement. How did he know personal details about my father? He really didn't, my father offered it trying to find out who he was talking to.Warning to the scanner that called my dad, you made the biggest mistake of your life, you hurt my father, I am very close to finding you, and when I do, you will pay for your sins.

Does anyone know or has talked with a guy from Egypt living in Dubai by the name Hosam mohamed, claims I’m the love of his life but I think he may be a scammer, hasn’t asked for money or anything yet , But I would like to know if anyone has been talking to a guy by this name from Dubai

Good afternoon, a friend of my became involved in a romance scam. When I ask her about it, she mention he was in the Army, in Syria, and a Captain. When I ask her about his name she said his name was Airnas Biumus. I recognized the name from a previous scam. I report the profile to FB as violating FB standards. The profile was removed. I search FB with his name, 2 additional profile pop up with Airnas Biumus The person in the Picture goes by last Gonzales. Rank does not match. I search on Tineye reverse image search. An additional 25 extra profiles pop-up on various dating website as scanms. Same pictures were used in all dating sites. I copy some of the names and began to search FB again, 4 additional pictures pop-up again under different first names with same last name Gonzales. The male in the picture is a Hispanic male. Has anyone encountered any of these profiles. I would like to read replies.

So I was just chatting with this guy it’s only been 2 days. Right off the bat I knew he’s a phony. But I already have a feeling these ppl are phonies anyways but I just want to see how slick they are. He says he’s from LA. Currently deployed in Afghanistan. I told him I love watching football and I’m planning on going to the game. He writes back American football?. I’m like yeah. Then he says that he’s gotten use to European Football. I said, “you meant soccer” he’s like yeah European football. Americans say Soccer! We never call it football. Then he types the word favourite. In America we drop the U letter. Then he’s rambling on about how he spent so much money coming back home to visit. Blah blah blah. I said something like that the government should be providing. I’m just waiting on what else he has to say. He’s use the word account twice.

Anyone run into a Rob Wilson? Robin Alan Wilson? Has a 7 year old son Gary from a second marriage after his pregnant wife and young child killed in a car accident on September 22? Says originally from North Carolina, has been in security intelligence, now living in Washington but is in Yemen on a mission? Asks to talk via Skype and professes his love immediately.

Anyone talking to a man Clark Bowen. Very handsome man. Has many pics and videos he sends. Very muscular. Something doesn’t add up. Been talking for a long time. Feelings are involved and he says he lived here in Atlanta . Supposedly coming home end off September. In army. Long story short, he saved a couple of females lives in Syria. The husbands showed up and rewarded him with gold bars. His general told him he had to get the gold out . He wants me to meet a diplomat you sent me a letter and ID in New York to make sure it gets lock up in safe place until he returns since he just got sent on a mission to Yemen For next 30 days . The letter has grammer errors .

Hi together, I've got a bad feeling talking to a guy with the name Stefano Daniele. He wants to send me luggage of himself and even he gave me his ID I feel something is wrong with this story. He is a doctor in Damaskus. Can't believe his story. Of course he tries to convince me with sweet words and compliments.

I met a man name Rojas Kelly was base in Syria on messengers, we start text small things at first things like Good Morning, hows your day.. Then time past and we text more every day...Then he asked to which to WhatsApp never heard of it before...So I tried it and we started text there every day agsin.. As time went on he started saying thing like, I'm glad we met I love texting with you and you are what I have been looking for.. And after a month and half had past, his words changed.. Good Morning my Queen, I love You I'm glad you came in my life that was every conversation.. Which I never said it back.. He had one son 11yrs old and wife had passes three yrs ago.. His son lived in Maine and was being taken care of by a nanny.. And he Did'nt have any one to trust.. And that he was in a war zone and they where getting bombed every other day... He was getting scared and was wondering if he could trust me with all his belongings until he come to the States in September..we talked about it for awhile weeks had past so I agreed, He sent me picture of thing he had brought for me, like purses..shoes..cell phone for both of us..along with a Apple laptop I told him a Did'nt need anything, but he said that he wanted to buy me somethings, plus he need to hide all his other belongings..And a watch and necklace and all his money and personal belongings.. He sent me a picture of everything that was supposed to be in the box... I really Did'nt beleive him, but I went along with it, he sent a Fastway tracking number and it was suppose to arrive in 4days... But on the 4th day it was held up in custom and on a delay, because extra funds Would have to be made in order to be shipped.. That morning I received a message telling me to pay $3160 in US dollars.. I was shocked I text Rojas Kelly and he asked like he was shocked.. He wanted me to pay the money and afterward just take it out his money that he sent and much more... They even had Custom Agent Names telling you who to send the money to...calling and texting me telling me if I didnt that custom would keep his package.. With all his belongings, I told that i DON'T have $3160 and they said can you send half and pay the rest on arrival.. Mr Rojas Kelly was so mad and at that point his attitude changed.. He point blank said that I wasn't a good person, because I just wouldnt give my money to a so called agent to release his belongs..and GOD is going to punish me if he lose all his belongs he worked hard for all his life.. Then he had the nerve to tell me if didnt he would kill me and himself..This is the Agent name...Hephzibah Eniade # 205-386-1752 and this his other # 205-831-3364... They are using fake Fastway email address and they have tracking number too... But I called the real Fastway and the tracking number don't even come up on their site... These guys are Good, so Fastway says DON'T send your money Its a scam...And here's Rojas Kelly number Serving In the U.S Army base in Syria...706-995-6486...Looking for women on WhatsApp to become friends...

I got a person claiming to be Stephen Celestine Klemp. A ship engineer working for "DGS Marine Dgynia a subsidiary of DGS Marine Corp". On his way to Australia. Has a daughter that stays in Birmingham with a nanny. Gorgeous guy in the pictures. One of my friends had a feeling that something was terribly wrong. Looked him up. Found out that the story is a very common one used by scammers. It hurt a lot but I'm thankful that this was all found out at the right moment. Be aware of that name and story.

I think I was trying to be scammed. Got a comment on one of my photos on dating site. saying his friend Larry wanted to connect with me and had moved in driveable distance from me. Discribed his friend and gave me his personal email. Said I would make his friends day if I emailed him. He was very convincing and said he was getting off the site as he found someone and decided to end his subscription. I was foolish and emailed the guy. He said he was originally from spain and moved to Mass when he was 31. He recently moved to Maine in 2017. We exchanged pictures and I found him on FB, but he blocked me from seeing only the pics he had sent me. He said he had stopped uploading pics to social media because of his daughter safety. He said he was a freelance engineer. I asked him several times to meet since he lived so close, but he said he was leaving on business to Belgium and wanted to communicate via phone and email. I asked him if he would meet me after he returned. He never gave me a direct answer, always upset and saying why would I invest the time in a relationship if I didn't want to meet you. He said he had a linkedin profile and told me the name of the company he is doing freelance work for. same photo on Linkedin. In one email I caught him in a lie and he was very upset. I told him I was almost scammed by someone when I first got divorced. He said there are bad people in the world but he was not one of them. He said he didn't need my money, he had enough of his own. We continued to communicate via email and I eventually gave him my phone number. He did have a spanish accent and he texted me when he arrived in Belgium with a Belgium phone number. I know you can buy a cell phone at airports to use while in the country. Does anyone know if you can call outside of Belgium and it appear they are actually in Belgium. I know scammers can within the US, but can they do it in other countries. I have been researching virtual phones, but it appears you have to log into the countries network. If that is the case then you must have to be in the country, correct? I have blocked my number and Facebook account. His name comes up on FB now with many different photos of other people.

I’m on Jdate and eharmony - 2 men from Jdate I’ve been reading all over the net today while on a plane trip. The new little wrinkle is they send flowers But from what I read they don’t pay for it - they use stolen credit card numbers to buy the roses - not such an expensive purchase that it hardly makes a blip on cc fraud security - but it’s all to catch a bigger fish. Financially independent women like me. I’m 60 and widowed for a few years. Own my own business / not naturally very cautious but just from business experience a little wary. Pressuring me to not be speaking with anyone else while they groom you - expert psychology - by challenging my authenticity followed by feigned concern and sweet talk. All too good to be true. And that’s exactly what it is. The minute they ask you for money Mine was for a travel agent to book tickets so we can meet midway but he uses a travel agent in Mexico - each of us to pay their own ticket - fair enough - so I ask him to have the travel agent email me a copy of the booking. Travel agents have a binding ability with the major airlines while they wait for payment. No the communication is filtered through him. Nope. I’ve got another one - on an off shore oil Rig in Ireland but he sends me a copy of his passport without me asking. - Same story as so many -child in boarding School. Writes long long letters and never capitalizes “i”s and hardly any paragraph breaks. On one site I saw same writing style that was copied and pasted on a woman’s blog. So wading through the imposters. There’s some real ones out there.

I have a guy that is trying to get me to get him a phone and itunes that say he works on the Irish Oil Rig. Claims he has a son and lost his wife a few years ago. His so called name is Chris Martial.

I have Jamise Smith, Dr in Syria, at first, was awesome, the photos, who ever he is are gorgeous, am I going to give him as some, nope, not a phone, nothing, no ty willing to risk Federal jail time either people! They don't need our money$

I have been talking to a guy that says he is from the USA army as a senior sergeant and his name is Philip Johnson Brandon clark I sent him.money for things and to day his commander message me on WhatsApp as I have been talking to this guy in there is commander said that he was he hospital today and he hurt his leg I fell in love with Philip I don't know what to do I have talked to him on the phone he has never video chat me just talked to him please help me with this

Anyone being scammed by a guy named Joel Willis

Anyone knows about a so called female named Elena miller who claims to be stuck in Nigeria and is on a unicef program all she does is provide pictures but cannot call or video chat with me and money I don’t send is a call from a man just saying guys get scammed as well

Ok, Ill join the crowd. Looks like I'm in good company Mine was Andriano Hayford Italian Engineer, here in Washington state for a contract job 2 kids-rose and tony wife died in 'ghastly' car accident. Sent me pictures that made me believe. IDID NOT SENT MONEY ASKED FOR ( $700). But did try to explain to him why I was reticent. found someone by this name on Facebook with no picture and very little information- just that he was single, with 2 kids with same names he told me. Very attractive caucasian gentleman with salt and pepper hair, green eyes. can anyone from FTC please tell me how I can load or search pictures so I can see if his appears.

Has anyone been talking to a chris Gulich?