by ypohlson
Fri May 27, 2022 10:07 pm
Is this a legitimate bank? https://www.equitytbonline.com/ and https://equitytbonline.com/account/login.php# -- this second address being a site supposedly for a bank customer that has an international online banking business account to access their account, statement balance, transactions, and be able to transfer money to other people's accounts using IBAN and SWIFT codes for international wire transfers for overseas business transactions.
I met a gentleman claiming to be construction engineer who lives on Long Island through the Facebook dating site, but working in Massachusetts and almost done finishing a building contract there remodeling a house. We talked on the phone almost immediately through What's App every day and texted every day as well. He sent me photos of himself, the house he was finishing up and we were planning to meet in person after he was done with his contract in MA; however, he received a notice from Pera Contruction in Istanbul, Turkey regarding a contract that was suspended due to the pandemic. He started the construction and remodel of a corporate building in Istanbul before the pandemic but Turkey put all construction on hold during the pandemic and supposedly recently lifted the construction hold and he was being summoned by Pera Construction to return to Istanbul immediately to finish the job at the job site and he was given (I think it was) 30 days to return or he would risk losing the money he was to be paid for the contract, including for the work he already did two years prior (something close to almost $500,000).
So, he had a member on his crew in MA finish up the job there while he travelled to Istanbul within a few days later and our in person meeting was postponed, continued to get to know each other talking and video chatting through What's App during the 7 weeks he was going to be away to finish the construction job. The second day he had his wallet pick pocketed and his Debit card, passport, and all identification stolen. Supposedly had to pre-pay his hotel in cash that he brought with him upon arrival, because for some reason his Visa debit card didn't work to pay for the hotel when he got there.
The Monday after arriving over the weekend he supposedly called US embassy re: passport and scheduled an appointment for a replacement. He claims the earliest appointment he could get was two weeks out on May 20th 2PM in afternoon. He was then told they have been very busy with lost passports and it will take longer and might take 4-5 weeks. He sent photos from the supposed corporate building he's working on, photos of his crew while working, a little video clip of the rooms under construction while walking through the interior space.
He claimed to be successful and because he had his identity stolen in 2019 paired down his accounts to just the one personal/business online banking account and debit card, and doesn't use credit cards anymore to reduce risk of future identity theft. The bank locked his account so he did not have access to pay for the heavy construction equipment he needed to rent while there because of two reasons: he forgot to tell them he was leaving the country and the security on his account locked it when he tried to use it to pay for his hotel upon arrival and saw the transaction was coming from Turkey, and then supposedly the thief that stole his card and passport tried to access the account with the debit card.
The bank he called Equity Trust Bank supposedly has a branch in NJ where he lived for 8 years until he moved to Long Island last year. While he was freaking out about someone trying to access his money he said the website for his account wouldn't let him log in to see if his money was still there from Turkey and wasn't sure why he couldn't access it from there. So he asked me to check for him, sent me the link listed above to log in, his account number, password, a pin to get further in as he claims he is paying for an extra secured account that seems to be working against him since his debit card was stolen.
I was able to log in and take a screen shot of his online statement and recent transactions and he was relieved the extra security level of the password, and pin, and then he receives a new passcode via his personal email every time a transaction is made "must have been good enough to keep the thief from getting any of his money." We continue to talk, he gradually uses up the cash on him, he's worried about the shipment of building materials arriving and trying to figure out how he will pay for it because he called his bank and they claimed they would not unlock his account until he returned to the US and showed up to the branch in person.
However, he is still waiting for his replacement passport and cannot leave Turkey without that. He's a little stressed but said his translator he hired while there said he can probably take out a loan at a Turkish bank when he gets his passport but not before. However, his hotel was only paid through 5/18 and needed to be paid. Long story short after I did some searching and found nothing suspicious on Google about his name, did not find his photo anywhere with an image search, but I was a little skeptical that there was so little about him, he explained it away due to his identity stolen in 2019 and he paid to have most of the references of his identity wiped from the internet sources.
I wanted to believe him and paid with my credit card for his hotel expenses that was to cover the next 2-3 weeks, but he still needed cash and I sent some cash to Western Union so he would be able to eat and pay for some of the initial building supplies he ordered when he first arrived and he tried to hold off the people he owed but they were pressuring him to resolve his money access problems because they didn't want to wait much longer to get paid.
His shipment of a new elevator for the building and other building materials supposedly arrives M 5/23 and he still can't access his money to pay for the shipment and customs and his supplies have to be picked up within 5 days because after 5 days he starts to be charged fees/fines for not picking up his shipment on time and basically paying for the storage space.
I worry about him and look for his bank's website to get a phone number and I call on his behalf and a Mr. Marshall answers and I explain the terrible situation he is in and he needs to have someone with higher authority at the bank to make an exception with their policy of unlocking the account in person so he can pay for his building supplies because he can't fly back home until he has a new passport. Mr. Marshall with a strong accent claimed to be the bank manager and could help.
He sent a reactivation form to fill out and because of the unusual circumstance was going to start the process. I helped fill out the form and send the form back but then Mr. Marshall claimed to reactivate the account due to the substantial balance they had to have $2,500 deposited into the account. My love interest actually talked me out of doing it at first because he said they shouldn't have to ask for more money when he clearly has so much.
He supposedly talked to Mr. Marshall and angrily told him off and spent two more days trying to figure out what to do and making phone calls and trying to negotiate with the construction company but they refused to give him an advance of his money to cover costs and he claimed they wouldn't pay him until the job was done and he just had to figure it out.
After 2 more days of no success negotiating with his business I actually talked him into calling Mr. Marshall back explaining that the majority of the deposit to reactivate his account would be going to him and that $500 was the fee the bank would keep for overriding the security protocols placed on the account. I again helped with that by taking a small personal loan from my bank and wired the money to his bank. Mr. Marshall claimed the account would be released after he can confirm the wire transfer was received. It took a full day before my bank would release the account as their compliance dept interviewed me and I told them I was sending the money to family that had their wallet stolen overseas. My bank released it but it was the end of the business day.
The next morning reaching out to Mr Marshall again to check status and letting him know my bank released the wire, he claims they are still processing the transfer and he's still waiting to get confirmation it went through. About 2-3 on Thursday he unlocked the account I was shown on the login page link I provided above. My love interest was relieved, offered me an additional $5,000 on top of what he owed me and I actually refused it saying that I wasn't helping him expecting any extra compensation, but would need him to pay me back what he owed me.
I then suggested we do the transactions immediately for the building supplies first so the crew can go back to work. The transaction went through for $23,500. We then tried the next transaction for the large shipment at customs that arrived by ship, and the transaction was supposedly flagged by International Monetary Fund agency requesting for Proof of Ownership Certificate. Reaching out to Mr. Marshall, he only forwarded the IMF email he supposedly received on his end re: the IMF intercepting the transaction due to the large amount and they needed the ownership certificate to prove it's not fraud or money laundering for a drug cartel, etc. However, Mr. Marshall never explained how to go about acquiring one.
This morning he calls back stating we could either try to procure one ourselves, but we didn't know how to go about it, or if we were to ask their procurement agents it would cost 10% of the transaction ($7,500) and he may be able to request a rush on it. My love interest became angry and didn't want us to spend more money and asked me to no longer talk to Mr Marshall. He called his bank directly and was told that he wasn't supposed to gain access to his account until he resolved in person still, and we were then suspecting Mr Marshall worked for the bank, was not the bank manager, but scamming some of the bank customers when the opportunity presented itself.
As of this afternoon he finds himself in a desperate situation again and doesn't know what he is going to do, but he also knows I'm tapped out of resources. I suggest he try to call the embassy to speed up the passport and he either use the passport for a loan from Turkish bank or fly home to resolve bank issue and then return to Turkey immediately after.
Being 7 hours ahead in Istanbul he went to sleep as he was hoping to go to the site Saturday and do whatever he could to continue doing some of the work with the materials and equipment he has left and he would try to figure something out over the weekend.
In the meantime, I call the US embassy in Turkey was transferred to someone that listened to my story and believes I'm being scammed, but since we have video chatted a little (wifi seems to disconnect a lot when video chatting and even while just talking through What's App, that we do mostly just talk, but have video chatted briefly a few times until we were disconnected), she claimed that part is not typical of the scams, but she gave me an email to contact at the embassy in Istanbul to verify the person I've developed this long distance relationship with.
She also referred me to your site and a couple others. So now I don't know if I'm being scammed by both him and Mr Marshall and they might be working together, of course I hope that it is just Mr. Marshall. I did do the typical lookups to do high-level due diligence but was lured into believing by the website permitting a supposed transaction to his creditors with IBAN, Swift code, other bank names, etc., our speaking so frequently each day and night, hearing the muslim mosques informing the muslim population the moment it is time to stop and pray in the background in Istanbul at least twice, people in background of what seemed to be spontaneous pictures sent to me. So there's my spectacular story of how a recently divorced middle-aged lonely woman is being sucked into this mess, but still has a little hope he might be real.
Can anyone help? If yes, please message me if there is more information I can provide but I would prefer at least during the research to keep anything further private. If everything ends up being a scam I don't mind sharing other details after the fact if it will help someone.
I met a gentleman claiming to be construction engineer who lives on Long Island through the Facebook dating site, but working in Massachusetts and almost done finishing a building contract there remodeling a house. We talked on the phone almost immediately through What's App every day and texted every day as well. He sent me photos of himself, the house he was finishing up and we were planning to meet in person after he was done with his contract in MA; however, he received a notice from Pera Contruction in Istanbul, Turkey regarding a contract that was suspended due to the pandemic. He started the construction and remodel of a corporate building in Istanbul before the pandemic but Turkey put all construction on hold during the pandemic and supposedly recently lifted the construction hold and he was being summoned by Pera Construction to return to Istanbul immediately to finish the job at the job site and he was given (I think it was) 30 days to return or he would risk losing the money he was to be paid for the contract, including for the work he already did two years prior (something close to almost $500,000).
So, he had a member on his crew in MA finish up the job there while he travelled to Istanbul within a few days later and our in person meeting was postponed, continued to get to know each other talking and video chatting through What's App during the 7 weeks he was going to be away to finish the construction job. The second day he had his wallet pick pocketed and his Debit card, passport, and all identification stolen. Supposedly had to pre-pay his hotel in cash that he brought with him upon arrival, because for some reason his Visa debit card didn't work to pay for the hotel when he got there.
The Monday after arriving over the weekend he supposedly called US embassy re: passport and scheduled an appointment for a replacement. He claims the earliest appointment he could get was two weeks out on May 20th 2PM in afternoon. He was then told they have been very busy with lost passports and it will take longer and might take 4-5 weeks. He sent photos from the supposed corporate building he's working on, photos of his crew while working, a little video clip of the rooms under construction while walking through the interior space.
He claimed to be successful and because he had his identity stolen in 2019 paired down his accounts to just the one personal/business online banking account and debit card, and doesn't use credit cards anymore to reduce risk of future identity theft. The bank locked his account so he did not have access to pay for the heavy construction equipment he needed to rent while there because of two reasons: he forgot to tell them he was leaving the country and the security on his account locked it when he tried to use it to pay for his hotel upon arrival and saw the transaction was coming from Turkey, and then supposedly the thief that stole his card and passport tried to access the account with the debit card.
The bank he called Equity Trust Bank supposedly has a branch in NJ where he lived for 8 years until he moved to Long Island last year. While he was freaking out about someone trying to access his money he said the website for his account wouldn't let him log in to see if his money was still there from Turkey and wasn't sure why he couldn't access it from there. So he asked me to check for him, sent me the link listed above to log in, his account number, password, a pin to get further in as he claims he is paying for an extra secured account that seems to be working against him since his debit card was stolen.
I was able to log in and take a screen shot of his online statement and recent transactions and he was relieved the extra security level of the password, and pin, and then he receives a new passcode via his personal email every time a transaction is made "must have been good enough to keep the thief from getting any of his money." We continue to talk, he gradually uses up the cash on him, he's worried about the shipment of building materials arriving and trying to figure out how he will pay for it because he called his bank and they claimed they would not unlock his account until he returned to the US and showed up to the branch in person.
However, he is still waiting for his replacement passport and cannot leave Turkey without that. He's a little stressed but said his translator he hired while there said he can probably take out a loan at a Turkish bank when he gets his passport but not before. However, his hotel was only paid through 5/18 and needed to be paid. Long story short after I did some searching and found nothing suspicious on Google about his name, did not find his photo anywhere with an image search, but I was a little skeptical that there was so little about him, he explained it away due to his identity stolen in 2019 and he paid to have most of the references of his identity wiped from the internet sources.
I wanted to believe him and paid with my credit card for his hotel expenses that was to cover the next 2-3 weeks, but he still needed cash and I sent some cash to Western Union so he would be able to eat and pay for some of the initial building supplies he ordered when he first arrived and he tried to hold off the people he owed but they were pressuring him to resolve his money access problems because they didn't want to wait much longer to get paid.
His shipment of a new elevator for the building and other building materials supposedly arrives M 5/23 and he still can't access his money to pay for the shipment and customs and his supplies have to be picked up within 5 days because after 5 days he starts to be charged fees/fines for not picking up his shipment on time and basically paying for the storage space.
I worry about him and look for his bank's website to get a phone number and I call on his behalf and a Mr. Marshall answers and I explain the terrible situation he is in and he needs to have someone with higher authority at the bank to make an exception with their policy of unlocking the account in person so he can pay for his building supplies because he can't fly back home until he has a new passport. Mr. Marshall with a strong accent claimed to be the bank manager and could help.
He sent a reactivation form to fill out and because of the unusual circumstance was going to start the process. I helped fill out the form and send the form back but then Mr. Marshall claimed to reactivate the account due to the substantial balance they had to have $2,500 deposited into the account. My love interest actually talked me out of doing it at first because he said they shouldn't have to ask for more money when he clearly has so much.
He supposedly talked to Mr. Marshall and angrily told him off and spent two more days trying to figure out what to do and making phone calls and trying to negotiate with the construction company but they refused to give him an advance of his money to cover costs and he claimed they wouldn't pay him until the job was done and he just had to figure it out.
After 2 more days of no success negotiating with his business I actually talked him into calling Mr. Marshall back explaining that the majority of the deposit to reactivate his account would be going to him and that $500 was the fee the bank would keep for overriding the security protocols placed on the account. I again helped with that by taking a small personal loan from my bank and wired the money to his bank. Mr. Marshall claimed the account would be released after he can confirm the wire transfer was received. It took a full day before my bank would release the account as their compliance dept interviewed me and I told them I was sending the money to family that had their wallet stolen overseas. My bank released it but it was the end of the business day.
The next morning reaching out to Mr Marshall again to check status and letting him know my bank released the wire, he claims they are still processing the transfer and he's still waiting to get confirmation it went through. About 2-3 on Thursday he unlocked the account I was shown on the login page link I provided above. My love interest was relieved, offered me an additional $5,000 on top of what he owed me and I actually refused it saying that I wasn't helping him expecting any extra compensation, but would need him to pay me back what he owed me.
I then suggested we do the transactions immediately for the building supplies first so the crew can go back to work. The transaction went through for $23,500. We then tried the next transaction for the large shipment at customs that arrived by ship, and the transaction was supposedly flagged by International Monetary Fund agency requesting for Proof of Ownership Certificate. Reaching out to Mr. Marshall, he only forwarded the IMF email he supposedly received on his end re: the IMF intercepting the transaction due to the large amount and they needed the ownership certificate to prove it's not fraud or money laundering for a drug cartel, etc. However, Mr. Marshall never explained how to go about acquiring one.
This morning he calls back stating we could either try to procure one ourselves, but we didn't know how to go about it, or if we were to ask their procurement agents it would cost 10% of the transaction ($7,500) and he may be able to request a rush on it. My love interest became angry and didn't want us to spend more money and asked me to no longer talk to Mr Marshall. He called his bank directly and was told that he wasn't supposed to gain access to his account until he resolved in person still, and we were then suspecting Mr Marshall worked for the bank, was not the bank manager, but scamming some of the bank customers when the opportunity presented itself.
As of this afternoon he finds himself in a desperate situation again and doesn't know what he is going to do, but he also knows I'm tapped out of resources. I suggest he try to call the embassy to speed up the passport and he either use the passport for a loan from Turkish bank or fly home to resolve bank issue and then return to Turkey immediately after.
Being 7 hours ahead in Istanbul he went to sleep as he was hoping to go to the site Saturday and do whatever he could to continue doing some of the work with the materials and equipment he has left and he would try to figure something out over the weekend.
In the meantime, I call the US embassy in Turkey was transferred to someone that listened to my story and believes I'm being scammed, but since we have video chatted a little (wifi seems to disconnect a lot when video chatting and even while just talking through What's App, that we do mostly just talk, but have video chatted briefly a few times until we were disconnected), she claimed that part is not typical of the scams, but she gave me an email to contact at the embassy in Istanbul to verify the person I've developed this long distance relationship with.
She also referred me to your site and a couple others. So now I don't know if I'm being scammed by both him and Mr Marshall and they might be working together, of course I hope that it is just Mr. Marshall. I did do the typical lookups to do high-level due diligence but was lured into believing by the website permitting a supposed transaction to his creditors with IBAN, Swift code, other bank names, etc., our speaking so frequently each day and night, hearing the muslim mosques informing the muslim population the moment it is time to stop and pray in the background in Istanbul at least twice, people in background of what seemed to be spontaneous pictures sent to me. So there's my spectacular story of how a recently divorced middle-aged lonely woman is being sucked into this mess, but still has a little hope he might be real.
Can anyone help? If yes, please message me if there is more information I can provide but I would prefer at least during the research to keep anything further private. If everything ends up being a scam I don't mind sharing other details after the fact if it will help someone.
