eharmony match - "William D. Morrison"

Yes it's illegal to obtain money by deception in Africa just like anywhere else in the world. And No, these scammers seldom get caught. They operate out of anonymous internet cafes using fake names, fake personal details, fake everything and cover their tracks pretty effectively. The authorities are aware of the problem of course but the frustrating reality is that there isn't much they can do without knowing the real identity and location of the scammer.

And these scammers operate from all other the world, although it's true that west Africa has a large proportion of them. They can also be found in South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, Eastern Europe (where they tend to specialise in so-called 'love scams' like the one you have experienced). It's an international problem.

so, the IP that I traced... its in one of my above posts... they are registered under fictitious names and company details? The company listed is Ghana Telcom... I'm assuming that this is just the provider for the internet service... why cant they trace this stuff coming in and out of their servers? Sorry, I spent many years working on the internet side of a telcom... I know there are ways to find these things out.

Now a days, it's almost impossible to hide... i just find it interesting when easy security measures arent being utilized. Especially dating sites like eharmony... they could easily write a script that traces an email back to it's origin. Most things you sign up for now require you go through registration processes including "activation". (waiting for email, follow the link thats provided for approval) Right there you have the needed headers to at least raise a flag on some of these guys. I dont get why this isnt done.

@ Tdcz, yes, it's not a problem tracing a scammer to a particular place, firstly, as you know, you will get the ISP from the IP lookup, if you can't find a direct link to a cafe, you would then probably need a soupena to get that information from the ISP, the problem you then face is, if you trace him to a particular internet cafe, you would not be able to prove a particular scammer sent you whatever scam email from a certain computer terminal in that cafe, at a certain time.

There would be no way to prove anything, they are all faceless, fake everything, nothing to connect them to you, the only way you could possibly catch a scammer, is if the EFCC raided a cafe just as he was sending you an email, that's if he didn't manage to close his computer down before they got to it and move away from it, plus, there is so much corruption in Africa, the police take bribes from internet cafe owners and the scamemrs working in them, to leave them alone, same if they do arrest someone, chances are that someone will pay a bribe and they will be released.

There is a post somewhere on 419eater, it relates to a post on a Nigerian forum, made by a Nigerian internet cafe owner, he didn't want scamemrs using his services, so he called the police to remove them, the police turned up, had a word with the scamemrs, then arrested the cafe owner instead, leaving the scamemrs to carry on scamming whilst the owner was carted off

Those are the sort of problems you face in trying to get a scammer arrested in Africa.

Tdcz. This might interest you (the ending tells a lot).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fLn86Q4wSM

Even when the Nigerian authorities do crack down, you can see the massive problems that they face.

holy crap! I had no idea...

What you've got to remember about that video is that it is over a year old.
Since then, new areas have opened up to the scammers. Asia and South America are coming online and new scamming markets are opening up.

It's OK the guy in the video saying that the EFCC is cracking down and the cop at the end saying "We're winning" but none of the indicators point that way. If anything, the problem is getting worse. A lot of what is actually said is just propaganda for the cameras.

As for the video itself, there's a few telling things. Eg:

Reporter: Do people fall for this?
Cop (indicating scammer): If they didn't, he wouldn't be here would he?

And just to add an extra twist of the knife, scammers send their victims emails purporting to be from the EFCC/Police/Govt (often with very convincing forged documents) giving them the good good news that the scammer has been arrested and charged and the victim's money has been recovered. In order to get his/her money back all the victim has to do is send a processing fee ......

This so-called Recovery Scam is also very common.

I have just recently had attempts to be scammed from three different men claiming to be Americans in Africa. Two on business with their tales of woe. One caring for and eventually burying his mother. I caught on with the first two relatively quickly. The last one grabbed my heart for a minute. I understand your mother's sorrow. Because no matter how smart one is and how many red flags go up, hope springs eternal. As young girls we are all taught that some day our knight in shining armor is going to come and rescue us. But as adult women we have to realize that this is just a fairytale. And these men or women are not real. They are lowlife mean spirited opportunists that prey on decent people while they are trying to survive in the ghettos of Nigeria and the like. I hope your mother can realize this and consider this a lesson just as I have been forced to do. Those of us who fall victim to this scam whether it is financial or emotional must move ahead to a brighter forewarned future. LAK

I know that is has been more than a year since the past post, but this guy is still out there and using eharmony. I was match to him and the story was the same, but he was from La Puente CA. I traced his e-mail and when he asked for money, I reply No. He was quick to end the conversation and later sent a IM to which I replied I will never send anything. I have not heard from him.

Please be aware the he is still out there. I think the D for Don is real. Use this as a clue.

He is now using the alias David Lawson, on the Zoosk dating site, saying he is from Leland, NC, & he is a telecommunications engineer. He has 2 made-up websites.........www.lawsonsystemsintegration.com ([email protected]) & advance-it.com. I was too smart for hi ....he didn't get a dime! I used the free mail tracking system www.gotnotify.com to track his emails & get his ip address. BUSTED! he is on Facebook as Michael Nfodzo Adza-yawo, which is close to his real name, which is Michael Komla Nfodzo. Ghana, Africa.

Hi Haderat and Welcome to Scamwarners.

Thank you for posting this additional information, it will go a long way to helping others avoid being scammed.

Well done

If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask