Erica Campbell, love scammer with an authentic looking scrip

I found some details of a scammer some time ago who uses scripts that are very good, so good in fact that I will not post the email in it's entirety, I will however provide some key phrases and information to allow any potential victims to search on as well as provide an insight as to how hard it can be to spot a scam simply by the emails

The scammer will contact you from one of many dating sites, no doubt using a variety of different names, one such user ID is Erica Cambell <ericcambell2009 and this particular information was sent to one of our visitors from passionhunt.com.

As mentioned, I will only provide small parts of the message to allow some searches to pick it up

first the opening line

Hi, this will let you know a lot more about me. Then after you respond, I will ask you a hundred questions. Just kidding: I will ask questions but I like conversation to just flow and we can follow where ever it takes us

now the first sentence of the next few parragraphs, notice the almost perfect spelling and grammar

Edit,

For some reason the post here has been corrupted so I will post the details again and come back to tidy it up when I have time, for the moment I have edited out a lot of the script

Hi, this will let you know a lot more about me. Then after you respond, I will ask you a hundred questions. Just kidding: I will ask questions but I like conversation to just flow and we can follow where ever it takes us...
As it is obvious by my profile, I am a Christian. I have been asked many times to describe, explain, or define how I use the label “Christian”.

After hearing those stories, you will understand that I owe Him much more than I can ever repay. However, I don’t stand on the corner with a sign around my neck that reads REPENT. I, of all people, probably should but I don’t. I don’t hand out tracks.

I hope you are still with me and haven’t just deleted this message.
I have had only a few serious relationships in my life: I never have been big on dating around or the dreaded bar scene. Met some interesting people there, (in the bars), but there is always where I left them.

That is sad! Ok, enough about sex: I think you can get the picture. Just one note though: Don’t think that I’m all Mr. Control. I have blood in my veins and I have a “very active sex drive.” Hey its fun, and I like it.

Wow: I went straight from God to sex! That’s weird, guess that shows where my priorities are ....lol.

I am a “very affectionate person”: I love “to touch and be touched.” I love to “Hold hands” while walking, and at times while driving. I don’t like being smothered though;

And I like to wrestle play laugh and cut up run and swing just have a good time no matter where I'm at.

I am very protective. When out in public I will physically place my body between the one I’m with and anything, person or object that I don’t like the looks of.

Independence is great, and like I said: I don’t like to smother anyone, but “personally when I am in love” that is the only man I care about except dad, well, and my daughter,

I usually have to go out and get something else, because I can’t wait and want him to have it so bad, I give it to him early. So sometimes, I am a last minute shopper.

Ok, now I’m just rambling. I am looking for a man who is not afraid to Love.

Well as for what i do for a living, i sell antiques and i have been to several countries where i buy and sell his antiques.i have been to countries like Europe, and especially UK, so I guess you know that traveling is one of is hobbies. I do love it, hunny.So I will stop here, if none of this has scared you off; then send a reply To my box or add me on yahoo messenger ericcambell2009 k so we can chat o.k.......and tell me more about yourself hunnie....I will send you some pics, if you want more, later o...k.
Erica

I found this website because I googled the name "Erica Campbell" because my mother-in-law has recently fell victim to his scam. After over a month of many many emails, and several phone conversations (which were brief) he announced that he was leaving for Africa for a business trip. Last week, he told her about how he has no money there, they wouldn't let him use a credit card or something, and asked her to wire him money. For some reason, she bit the bait, and sent him $100. I found out when I happened to look at her email. The money was sent to a man in Lagos, Nigeria--yep, a Nigerian bank scam. Surprise! The name also was NOT "Erica Campbell", the money was to be sent to a neighbour there because he claimed that he could not go to western union to get the money, only a citizen of the country can do it. NOT TRUE. Yesterday he emailed her asking for more money..my wife and I put a stop to THAT.

Ralph, did Erica pretend to be a female when you corresponded with him? ? The first time she told me about him, I told her that Erica was a girl's name. He was claiming to be a man, and she said sounded like a man over the phone. He claimed to be a 60 year old from Philadelphia. We realize now that the reason their phone conversations were so brief is because he was calling from Nigeria, NOT Philly!

Hello,

how could you fall victim of this scam from someone who uses the popular name of Erica Campbell ???
Erica Campbell is a very famous playmate of 2000's !!!
Hope you didn't believe any word of this cheater.

Cheers,

scam_hunter.

Scamwatcher - Well done for catching on so fast and making sure that the consequences were relatively small. Please keep an eye on your mother in law.

There are a few things that need to be done. Firstly make sure she hasn't given out bank or credit card details. If you has, you would do best to change them.
Secondly, she needs to be educated about the possobility of follow up scams. She will see an increase in the spam she gets, she may also be sent personalised scam letters or recieve an unexpected cheque in the mail. These can be quite easy to fall for.
Lastly, can you please check to see if she has any email addresses, phone numbers, etc that Ralph hasn't posted.

Scam_Hunter - Not everyone knows every playmates' name. Having a popular name doesn't make you a scammer, nor does it prove some is running a scam. The asking for money bit is the biggest clue. These people are professional liars, it is easy to be fooled.

From the very first email, my wife and I as well as a close friend of the family all told her the guy sounded crazy. When I was single I joined a few dating websites--the first msg is always something short and simple, like "hi, your profile sounded interesting, would like to get to know you better, etc"...but this guy sent her a loooooong email. He also started saying things like "i love you" and "I can't wait to make you my wife" very quickly. We WARNED her about this, told her the guy was insane. They had never even spoken on the phone by this point..he had given her a phone number but didn't answer it the first of many times she tried calling. He had her number and didn't call her until weeks afterwards--bizarre for someone who is supposedly in love with someone, dont ya think? We think now that the reason why he even called her at all is because she kept insisting on it, and he realized he wouldn't get any money without doing so.

I sent her a bunch of links regarding internet scams..she's new to the internet and just isn't aware of this. Still, I think she should have used COMMON SENSE, and taken what her family told her into consideration.

I'm just glad I caught this right away. I'm worried for my mother in law who is now very hurt and disappointed. She met him on singlesnet, btw. He claims to have a young daughter named Ally. Also claims that he is half hispanic, half Italian (I've still never known a man to be named Erica, and I am Sicilian). The name he wanted her to wire money to in Lagos, Nigeria was something like Omolola Giwa.

I don't want to sound preachy or interferring, so if it comes across that way, it's not intended.

As you said, your mother in law is hurt right now, not only has she lost some money, but she also been betrayed by someone she thought she liked and who was a good guy. Please don't say "I told you he was a bad egg" or anything similar. It doesn't help, it will just make her feel more stupid and upset than she does already.
It doesn't matter that everyone warned her, lots of people have to touch the stove to realise it's hot. Now she's been burned she might listen to you, so tell her you know it sucks that this happened, but that she should count it as a lesson for the future. There are plenty of wonderful single guys out there and if she keeps looking, she will find one. She will also find douche bags and scammers aplenty. Link her here, or find some articles that show you how to spot scammers.

The main thing is, if they ask for money, then it' a scam.

Hi Scamwatcher,

Welcome to Scamwarners.

The email I recieved was forwarded by a visitor to the site, I will go through and see if I can find it when I have a little more time.

I thought I had posted more detail from the email, but I guess that doesn't matter now.

The scammer in that case was pretending to be a woman but it is not common for scammers to use the same email address for scamming men and women using the same name.

I have a copy of the entire email stashed away, I will pull it out and PM it to you, it is very likely that parts of the email are the same as your mother recieved

Newdonym has already given you most of the good advice so I will leave it there for the moment but expect a PM shortly

I received the same email from Edwin William...from Kansasa, word for word. Now he is telling me that he has a charity and that he wants to sign me up and that I most make a donation. His email address is : [email protected].
There is a picture of a handsome young man, but what caught my eye was that after his perfect writting on all these emails when it's time to chat He can't even spell.

Welcome bella,

I am glad you found out about the scammer early, the sudden change in writing skills is what tipped of the original person who gave me the details, the emails were in almost perfect english but in chat he was very hard to understand.

Thank you for posting the additional information, hopefully it will prevent somebody else from being scammed.

If possible, could you post, email or PM the headers from his email, using the header we can most likely find where he does his scamming from but we may also be able to link this scam with others he is trying.

If you are unsure about headers the below information will help to firstly get the headers but it will also teach you how to find information for yourself about scammers using the header analysis tool included.

The headers must be from the original email and not a forwarded copy, if you have any questions or if your email providor is not on the list please let us know

How do I find an IP address?

Finding an IP address.

Hotmail
On ther upper right hand side of the screen you'll see "Options". Click on it, then go to "Mail Display Settings". Where it says "Message Headers", change the option to "Advanced". Once that's done, click on "OK" and you'll see the headers of all the emails you get sent.

Hushmail.com
Click on the email you want the header for
Click on the arrow beside "more options" on the right hand side
Click on "show actual message"

Yahoo
Open your email. Scroll to the bottom of it and click on "Full headers". There they are. Nice and simple.

Gmail
Open your email. Look for "More Options" next to the date the email was received. In the new set of options that pop up, look for "Show Original" and click on it. Your email will open up in a new page complete with headers.

Fastmail
On the same line as the subject, to the right of the screen you'll see "Show full header". Click it.

Using an external program to send and receive emails will send your IP address to the scammer as well. Only do this if you have emails already sent to you and you need to retrieve them for posting on the forum. NEVER USE THEM TO BAIT.

Outlook Express
I don't use OE myself, so if someone can confirm the method at http://www.wurd.com/cl_email_msie_headers.php works, please let me know.

Thunderbird
Open your email, hold down the Ctrl key and (while still holding it down) press U. Up pops a window with the headers.

MSN 7.5
Open the Inbox e-mail. Press Alt and Enter together presto there's the info.

Windows Live
Open up your inbox, right click on the email you want to check, then click on "View source".

If you have the new Yahoo, then this is how you check headers. Open the email and, where you see "compact header", left click and it'll give you the option to show the full headers in a window.


What to do with the headers
Now you have them, what do you need to look for? First up, check if The Bat! is there. It's a very sophisticated email program that lets you use multiple email accounts easily. That's why scammers love it so much. It's a legitimate piece of software designed for businesses that the scammers have latched onto. Make a note of the version number and post it in your report. Now, how to find that pesky IP address we keep talking about. Go to

http://headertool.apelord.com/headers

All you need to do with this site is copy the entire header and post it into the box. Be aware that some scammers forge the headers by using proxy servers, so you're not always going to get the result you expected. If that's the case, then try Googling it to see what other results you can find.

WHEN YOU POST THE HEADERS MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE YOUR OWN DETAILS OUT OF IT OR YOU'LL BE TARGETTED BY EVEN MORE SPAMMERS AND SCAMMERS!!

I have been scammed over the last three or four months by a guy calling himself David Berg. Since registering on this site today (the local police gave me the website www.419eater.com which linked to this site) I was horrified to see so many similar phrases and background details. He sent me a final email this week (after we had been on MSN the same day) saying by my response he knew I had found him out (I just had very strong suspicions). The email said that he was an unwilling participant run by a Nigerian gang: he was in fact black (the dating website showed him as an attractive 42 year old white man), said he had refused to get any more money from me and as a consequence had been 'tortured'. He was now 'running for the border'. Very surprisingly, after I had received that email, later the same evening he called me to say how sorry he was: he had been coerced by his 'masters' and had refused to do any more as he had 'fallen' for me and consequently was on the run! His email address is [email protected].

Hi lostitall and welcome. I am sorry for your loss, both emotionally and financially.
I am glad to know that you are now aware of the scam and have come here to tell your story. Thank you for sharing, it may help others.

Your story is a perfect example of how the scammers will try any tactic to continue a scam. This scammer is weaving a whole new lie to you, to try to continue to steal from you. I'm glad you know the truth and have stopped contact! Please let us know if you have any questions or need advice and support. We're glad to help.

Hi, Lostitall, welcome to Scamwarners.

I'm sorry you lost money to this scammer. As Jillian said, these scammers will do anything to try to keep you on their hook. He is banking (literally) on your sympathy and compassion.

I am glad the police directed you to a website where you could get some advice, and where you found the link to this site.

Whatever you do, don't blame yourself for what happened. You are a good person, with a good heart, and it's terrible that there are people who will prey on good people.

Hi Lostitall,

I am glad to see that you now know the truth about the person who has been stealing from you, love scammers are certainly the lowest of the low when it comes to scamming.

Please hang around and read through some of the other accounts of scammers and learn the warning signs and how to do some searching to find the truth if you ever have doubts.

As they others have suggested, please feel free to ask any questions you may have both now and in the future.

If you were given any details that are not posted here please post them for others to find