Justin Lewis

So I was romance scammed. But figured it out before I sent money. I would like to find out though, who the real guy behind those photos is and warn him. Is there any way to do this? Btw, this is a great web site. I learned so much already especially checking the IP address from an email. Thank you.

So I was romance scammed. But figured it out before I sent money. I would like to find out though, who the real guy behind those photos is and warn him. Is there any way to do this? Btw, this is a great web site. I learned so much already especially checking the IP address from an email. Thank you.

Hello

Its good you found out it was a scam before you parted with any cash. As I understand the feelings that must be going through your mind,I hope your recovery will be swift.

It probably will be very unlikley you will ever find out who the real person is in the pictures, unless you happen to stumble upon them in your "travels" on the net. However i wouldnt` suggest you go looking for him as it will be a long task.

If I was to offer advice it would be to "draw a line" under this experience and remove any trace of the pictures and the scammer after you feel you have informed ppl to that effect. Be mindfull that you may be targeted further probably by the same scammer, so be mindfull.

You have been brave to share this experience and rember you are not alone.

Sagely

Thanks for replying. I'm doing fine. It sounded too good to be true, so I was always very cautious. Never gave him my home address. But what exactly am I supposed to do now? I can post his pictures on here and the passport he sent me. If that would help. How would he further target me? I would appreciate any info.

Welcome!

Posting the name, email address, photos, and copying and pasting text of the emails themselves will help (just remove your name (though when you review, you will probably find the scammer used your name very little, and instead used terms like baby, honey, angel, etc. )

The emails themselves help because these scammers are lazy. They want your money, but they don't want to work for it. So, they have a prepared series of scripted emails (often containing a lot of material copied from romantic sites like lovingyou.com)that they send to every victim. Some might add a few lines that are specific to you, while many don't even bother with that half the time. Even when they change names and photos, they often continue to use the same scripts. By posting those scripts, you may be providing evidence needed to help another victim to understand that they are being scammed.

As far as further targeting you goes, he may (a) come back and try to convince you he is real; (b) come back as a new character and approach you using a new name and set of details or (c) come back as phony law enforcement and try to convince you that you can help him to catch the scammer.

Even if we don't consider the time and effort to find the real person in the photos, we generally do not recommend trying to get in touch with them, even to warn them. Unfortunately, it would be like closing the barn door after the cows are already gone. Whether the person is a victim who sent photos to the scammer for another reason or simply someone who posted them online on facebook or some other site, the end result is the same. The scammer has saved copies of the photos, and nothing the owner does can get them back. The real person is very likely married, involved, or simply not interested, and will not necessarily appreciate someone tracking him down and invading his privacy, even if intentions are good. The real person in the photos is probably nothing like the character the scammer was playing. He may be a nice guy, but he may be an egomaniac or too. Plenty of women have been hurt even more when they located and approached the owners of photos used to scam them, when he turned out to be an egotistical jerk who treated the women like idiots who weren't good enough for him.

Thanks. Where should I post all that info?

I do have another question though
He gave me a british phone number

+44 70457 77959 is this one of those 070 numbers?

here is his phone number in Seattle

206 337 7815
There is an answering machine on this one. How the heck did he do this from Nigeria?

And I have his phone number in Nigeria, since he didn't make it 'private' the last few times
he called

234 806 848 4427

Can I do anything with this?

You can post the info in the thread here.

The first number is a redirect number. 44-70 is the same as 44-070.
The 206 number is likely a K7 number, as K7 uses a 206 area code. K7 numbers are free computer-based voicemail only numbers. They don't actually forward calls; they are voicemail only. The voicemail can be checked by computer from anywhere.
The Nigerian number will be a cellphone--not much you can do with it either.

However, posting the numbers as you did may help others as phone numbers are one of the things they are most likely to search for.

So these are the 4 pictures he sent me. And here is the passport.


If you look closely on the passport. He claims to be Swiss but his height is in feet and inches. We don't measure in feet and inches in Europe. Big mistake he made.

I LOVE YOU
From:
justin lewis <[email protected]>
View Contact
To:


Honey,

I just wanted to write you again and let you know how much I do love you and how close we have became in such a short period of time. We may not have known each other long but our love is strong and it means everything to me. You are the one who always makes me feel better about myself and makes me laugh.

I love you more than anything. You are my world, my life, my reason to live.

There's nothing in this world that can compare to you.

I LOVE YOU S0 MUCH!

Justin




I LOVE YOU
From:
justin lewis <[email protected]>
View Contact

Honey,

I care for you deeply and if it is a risk that i am taking,then i wanna take this risk cos i have never loved anyone like this before.

I love talking with you too and you are the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I am so happy you got a horse ride yesterday.I will like to watch you do it when am home.

I love you but God loves you more!

Justin


From: justin lewis <[email protected]>
To:
Sent: Tue, March 15, 2011 3:38:25 PM
Subject: Re:



Honey,

I have been online waiting to see if you will come online.I have a feeling you are not happy with me. It has not been easy with me since i started working here and whenever i get back from work,i am always exhausted but i have never taken u out of my mind,Never! I care deeply about you and i know that in couple of weeks time i will be home.

I want something that will last forever honey.I wanna support you,love you like no one else and i also want that in return. You really mean a lot to me and i want you in my life.Please dont get angry and spoil what we have that will keep us happy and together forever.

I have never felt like this in a long time honey.

You mean so much to me.

Justin


Ok, so these are some of his emails. He was very good though. Didn't just call me Baby or Honey in the chat. He did remember my real name. Also knew exactly how to pronounce it. This is why I believed him first, when he said that he's from Switzerland.
Something what bothered me in our chats though was that he always wrote because like becos. He was a very good speller. Hardly made mistakes. And he used the term 'In a weeks time'. He couldn't just say within a week or something like that.

Let me know, if there is anything else I could post.

hello i was just wondering how you realised it was a scam, i have a family member who has also been targeted by the same man! how did he go about asking for money?

I sent you a PM. But of course he had the same problem like a lot of them do, a family member gets hurt. In his case it was his daughter and he didn't have enough money to pay for a special seat in the airplane, since he had just put money from his Swiss bank account to his BOA account. Yeah, right, you don't have a credit card?

After posting my comments I decided that I will be better off if this isn't posted. I'm sorry

Welcome zinblanc,

I'm sorry you were scammed by this lowlife. As to how we know this scammer is in Nigeria (one of the most common locations for this type of scammer) you can see in pissedoff's post that he forgot to block caller ID when calling her from his Nigerian number--that places him squarely in Nigeria. The other two numbers he used or gave her are free numbers used by scammers to hide their locations.

Scamming is his "job" and he spends several hours at a time writing to victims. Some scammers can be very patient, and will keep a fake relationship going for a year or more if they think it will lead to a big payout. Although he looked dedicated, the truth is that many of the times you were on chat, he was most likely also chatting with other victims.

Stefan Justin Lewis friended me on FaceBook and began sending me exact copies of the emails I am reading here. He was using an address of justin [email protected]. He can be found on Facebook by searching stefanjustin. We began chatting May 15, 2011 until july 17, 2011 when he then asked me to Western Union him $1000, as he was in London< had tried to committ suicide because I was not willing to quit my job and move to Seattle to care for him and his daughter Anna. He said he was a Swiss national working as an engineer with the British Rail train. He gave me a international phone number of 447045777959. I saw a number someone else had listed that he gave her for his personal home in Seattle. He gave me that one too. I agree with other posts I've read that his written English was very good. I even commented to him that he seemd to know some slang terms that I felt a Swiss person would not know. He was even so bold as to speak to my Mother on the phone many times.
He stole my heart, but not my money.