Ghana honeytrap.

hi,
this is happening to a friend at the moment..
i'll be as brief as possible.

I'm writing from the uk.
i've just posted this in 419.com but
read that it might be better to post it here etc ...


...................................

he met her online on a dating site..oasis

he quickly became infatuated
(he's divorced aged 51)
within days he was speaking to her on the phone.

she is stunning to look at ..a real beauty,
she says she was born in leeds england
but left aged 12 to go back to ghana,
she says she has a british passport.

she planned to travel to england
end of november to meet him and get together etc


but cancelled.

then 2 weeks before xmas, but cancelled
then xmas week, cancelled new year cancelled etc ...

she now says she's coming over end of january 2012

in the interim...
amongst the lovey dovey stuff, she mentioned that
her father had died and left her the business,worth much money,
and she was just wrapping it up and would be over as soon as etc

but........................

she has so much business stuff
on her computer that she needs a new hard drive...

so he bought her terra byte super duper har drive etc etc ...
sent it to her and aalso sent her a moby phone
because here's wouldn't work properly

and he also sent , as it was xmas
2 teddy bears ...(ahhh)

she got them all...
they still talk and lovey dovey etc ...


he's not daft but he's fairly naive on the net
(He's been warned)

and so he said to her

i'd like to see a photograph of you holding the teddy bears..
she said yes....

she'd sort it as soon as......

i asked him did she send the photo,

he said no because her auntie died this week
and she has been sad and had to go to her funeral...


so far no photograph has been sent.



he's now a tad more than suspicous
but still holding onto his dream..kinda thing


so last week instead of sending him a photograph
of herself holding the teddy bears......

she deposited 25,000 pounds into his bank account!!


the first question i asked him was as they say
"bleedin obvious"

"How did she get your bank details"?


he replied..
"i only sent her my sort code,
she said she had money from the business and she
wanted to put it in my account so she would have money
when she arrived here, and she wanted to give me
some money to treat myself until she arrived,
and also it's to prove that she is actually coming over etc "



i raised an eyebrow perhaps two....

it's clear he's experiencing the sin of avarice
as well as the crime of stupidity.....

but even Rodin nods occasionally....


today in email
(yes, of course she has his email and his
name and his proper home address)



today she sent him a form...
and on the phone she said she is about to
book her ticket to come to uk
but ...

(It's such a great word that isn't it...BUT
you just know something else is coming behind it !)

but .....what she needs first is 2,000 dollars
to prove to immigration that she has viable means of support etc



so i checked the ghanian requirements etc

bit complicated but whatever,

she claims she has a british passport
she said she was born in leeds

i know a tad about british citizens and british nationals
(i've an irish mother etc )

she claims she's coming here for love - to settle etc

as a british national with a british passport
she is entitled to walk straight back into HER country i told him,

briish citizen youy have to fulfill certain requirements etc

(that might be the other way round ..but its either or either )



so he 's just sent me the form she has sent him,
to explain to him why she has to pay 2,000 dollars ......

and true to form, the letter itself is nonsense
spelling mistakes grammatical mistakes and implausible


my friend is not the best speller in the world
and so he didnt see the mistakes.....

he is now rather disappointed and said he's going to confront her....

i've suggested he remain nice and just go along with it..

like the song says

"little does she know that i know that she knows that i know "
@kursall flyers


thing is ....other than hard drive a phone etc ..
she hasn't asked for anything else (yet !)

and he sees this as "must be real she's asked for nothing"



I've read on here etc about flashing and the likes,
i know it's a scam, not sure how its working though

the money was sent on a bankers draft,
and i don't know anything about them

i also read on here about money laundering and
suggested to him that's what's going on...

so he asked her..doh!

to which she replied ..
"course not" ..
and she got irate ...



there is an irony to this,
my friend has had more women than most guys could dream of
(that's why he was on a dating site..fishing ...and he got hooked Smile)

and there's an element of karma about this,
and even though his name is not earl..it could well be !


and on top of that he's new to the net,
he thinks he's just invented it kinda thing,
and he hasn't exactly been modest in his revelations

"I've met this tasty bird on the net,
she loves me she's rich etc aren't i lucky"



er lol no not at all sucker....
but he is my mate so....

etc etc ..
anyone any ideas of how this scam works please?


(sorry tried to be brief but....)





I have the form he sent me but can't see where to input it...
Img button but can't see add attachment button

Cant find the attachment button...


form reads

Ghana Immigration Service
P.O Box 132
Airport- Road
Accra - Ghana
West Africa




NOTICE TO ALL TRAVELERS

We hereby notify you that, there is a severe problem
which needs to be addressed pertaining all Ghanaian citizen travelers.
It has come to the notification of the Ghana Government that many Ghanian citizens,
travel on their own will and sometimes
get stranded at their arrival points once they pass immigration.
In this vein, the nations losseshuge
amount of money in the deportation of
such travelers,
hence the passing of this law.


Ghana Immigration Service in collaboration
with the Ghana Government
decides that each and every citizen who
wants to travel aborad (out of the country)
should compulsorily posses an amount of
$2,000.00 before he or she passes immigration.
The said amount will not be spent by the
traveler until he or she
get stranded at the
arrival point as a result of not meeting
the expected person at the airport.


In respect of this law, the said amount
will be inspected at the aiprort check point
before the traveler gets onboard.
Failure to satisfy the said requirement at the
airport the traveler will be denied the flight.


This law is sealed and signed
according to Act 723 of the 1992
Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.




............................
there's a ghanian immigration stamp
at the bottom with the airport road address...
and over printed on the stamp is the name
EDWARD W. NEWMAN

it's also got the ghanaian colours printed on it..
jah rasta


i've added the colour to their spelling mistakes
uk spells traveler with 2 ll's.


...i'm wondering is the scam....

she said her route will be from
accra to amsterdam/sciphol and then to uk...
is she going to claim she's stuck at immigration
and needs him to wire her 2,000 dollars
to pass through immigration.. ?

and then she's ofski

Hello elvisswings!

Well one thing is certain your friend is dealing with a romance scammer. Most of the time the scammer is male. He may have a girlfriend or sister play his character on the phone but all the email/chat is actualy a black man from Ghana. The fact he is in Ghana is the only true thing.

If the scammer has had money deposited in your freinds account it is very possible he is being usesd as amoney mule. The scammer has other victims pay money into your friends account and then tells the mule to send the money via Western Union. If he got 25,000 pounds he may have your friend break up the payments in smaller amounts as to not raise suspicion. The scammers do this for a couple reasons. One because sending money to a bank in the UK is much less suspicious to a potential victim than sending it Western Union to Ghana. Two it leads the money trail to the mule and not the scammer himself if law enforcement investigates a crime.

This is a very serious situation and your freind could be in serious legal trouble if the scammer did in fact have stollen money deposited in his account. Basically he is unknowingly participating in money laundering.

It is not safe to play along with the scammer if he has your freinds real details. He must stop all communication with the scammer imeadietly. There is no point in confronting the scammer he is not going to admit he is a scammer.


Justin

thank you.

ther'e an old wise saying...
"don't kill the messenger"

i shall get no thanks for pointing out to him the potential trouble he could be in...

another phrase is...
"there's no fool like an old fool"


i will let you know what happens.



curiously i happened to get a spam email the other day ..
standard stuff send me details etc millions in the bank kinda thing


what was strange was where it came from....
vietnam...

is that the new nigeria?

Hi elvisswings

You have a private message.

To answer your question although there is a lot of scans originating from west Africa scammers are everywhere. The formats might be a little different from place to place but advanced fee fraud scammers operate all over the globe.

Justin

thank you for the pm ....

i am embarrassed that i have a friend as stupid as this...

he rang last night to tell me this...



...................
he has spoken to his"honey" and they had along chat
about some of the things he is suspicous of,

his honey has assurred him and he is now 100% certain she is genuine !

she told him her passport was british but has expired
and so she had to get a ghanaian passport but now she
doesn't need to pay or have 2,000 dollars for immigration everything is sorted.


she says she has a ticket booked and will be
arriving in the uk on the 2nd february 2012......


for the next bit you probably need a sit down and a stiff drink .....

she has explained that .....
her father before he died was a gold bullion dealer
(stop laughing -i haven't finished yet)

her father died and left her and her mother 12 kilos of gold.they shared it.
when she arrives in the uk she is bringing with her 6 (SIX) kilos of pure gold


he rang me to tll me this and that he had checked the
price of gold and was going to help her sell it here in the uk for £180,000 .


At this point i held the phone away from me so as to stifle a laugh....

i never realised how greedy and stupid he was..

he is counting pound signs in front of his eyes....

i asked him did she send the photo of her and the teddy bears...

he replied not yet but she is sorting it...



...
he also said he has been contacted by another african lady from the oasis web site...
and is now chatting to her , but she comes not from ghana but from gambia...



i told him someone was knocking at my door and i had to go...
there's a point when suffering a fool becomes indulging their nonsense

his greed has passed his naivette, he won't be told
and i'm certainly not going to tell him anything else...


this guy is usually a normal switched on fella...
it just goes to show how gullible people can be
when money and lust rears its head...

i shall continue this tale when he tells me more.

If you can get the photos "she" (it's actually more likely a male sending those emails, even if he has a female handling phone calls) sent, you might want to run them through tineye and google image search to see if you can find out who the real person is.

Scammers posing as females usually use internet porn models/actresses or models with swimsuit or lingerie photos. While they may steal photos from anywhere, one of their favorite sites when not using porn models is focushawaii.com, which doesn't usually show up in search results--so you might want to look through the models posted there to see if you can see the photos.

As far as the passport story goes, that explanation is totally ridiculous. You certainly don't become a citizen of another country just because the passport from your home country expired. In reality, if a citizen's passport expires while they are in another country and they can't get it sorted, they will be deported BACK to their home country. So if "she" were a British citizen in Ghana, and her passport expired, the Ghanaian authorities would send her back to UK, not give her a Ghanaian passport!

Often, in a situation like this one, the mentality of the victim is about more than greed and even lust--it's being fed a romantic storyline and wanting to believe that you are part of it. Because he has never met her (and never will, of course) - "she" and the whole relationship seem perfect, compared to the many failed relationships he has had in the past. He doesn't want to give up that fairytale.

these links hopefully will take you to the photo of mates "friend"


As you can see,they are clearly studio shots... (but he won't be told !)


anyone recognise her ?


re: the fairy tale ...quite right .

NOTSURE WHICH LINK YOU NEED.

photo 1.
http://scamwarners.com/main//guestupload/42126scam.jpg



<a href="http://scamwarners.com/main/v.php?id=42126scam.jpg"><img src="http://scamwarners.com/main//guestupload/42126scam.jpg" border="0" /></a>







.................
photo 2

http://scamwarners.com/main//guestupload/10992scam2.jpg

cant find the delete....feel free to delete thanks.

(i did wonder about postings..if they the scammers had half a brain they'd be looking and learning).




thanks for all your info/knowledge.

Besides the fact that form is obviously fake the pictures of the girl are actually a porn star. She goes by "Hardcore Mandy" I found the exact picture used on a site. I will not post the details here for obvious reasons but if you google the name you will see what I am talking about.

Although what you did with the form pointing out the mistakes is great to show your mate we do not want that posted here. We do not want the mistakes pointed out incase a scammer reads the post. We do not want them to improve the form and the way they scam.

I sent you a PM with a little more info.

...

thank you.

Blimey ..she's tasty


they are the exact same photos...


her web site crashed my comp..twice...!!


ive just spoken to him etc etc ...

he's not happy, but then he wouldn't be told...
cost him a £100 hard drive, a new mobile phone and two teddy bears (ahh shucks)


...
he has given them his home address, phone bank etc etc ....
he's a clown and this time it serves him right ....

however ..i've told him to go along with it,
don't tell her that you know etc .....
and tell her that you have been blagging her...
tell her they are not your details but a friend you used to know ,
back out of it as best you can etc.....


however i can GUARANTEE he is now on the phone to her saying...

"hey you're really a porn star called mandy"


he just doesn't get it...

Although scammers are really only after easy money and not to steal people's identity I would suggest he go to his bank and let them know his account has been comprimised.


The best course of action is for him to stop all communication. The scammer is only going to tell more lies. He (the scammer remember it's a guy) will eventually give up and move on.

...
remember i said i was embarrassed to have friend so stupid....

even i didn't think this was next....



i work late, just in an hour ago....
he text me.....


"Hiya mate, I asked her about the porn.
She came clean with me and said it was
her past and she was going to tell me when she got here
she's still coming on the 2nd feb so let's see,she has her own money"





some may think i was harsh on my mate vut now you see why....
he's hounded to check up
on her and everytime i tell him something he goes straight back to her
and asks her and then tells me her explanation
as if i'm the dozy dick thats being ripped off by a scammer.


so i txt/sent back..its a scam she's laughing at you.


his reply...
"She hasnt asked me for anything so i asked her and we'll see when she turns up"





my reply...(at this point i'm cooking and he's inteferring with my sausages..(cumberland) )


I sent...
"So if she's in ghana,
how come she's doing live webcam sex with her mate on a pay perview american website"



his reply...
"I dunno , i'll ask her that tomorrow"



i text him back....
"i'm out of it mate ..i've checked ,it's a scam.




.....
every word of this is true.
I shall keep you informed.

Your friend is obviously wanting to hold on to the fantasy. I think with men it can almost be harder than women to accept the truth because its also our pride. It's accepting the fact you were duped and more than likely by a man. It's easier to keep believing the lie.

Can you get the scammers email address? It may or may turn up search results. It's worth a shot.

Rather your friend knows it now or not your doing him a favor. It may take a while for him to realize it but your doing the right thing.