Internet Drug Mule Racket?/Internet Scammer

Hi,
I've been corresponding with a really nice man from USA who was in Australia just recently but returned home after finishing up a contract here. He has offered me plane ticket to fly to London to meet up with him when he is on his way through there while undertaking his next contract. I told my daughter and she emailed me a story from the Herald Sun in NZ about a lady who was offered a ticket to London to meet her mystery internet man. At the last minute he asked her to divert to another country (Algeria) to pick up something for his contract and he made the change to the ticket for her. She went and did it and now she is under arrest for trafficking $5M in cocaine, whilst the man has disappeared and is being investigated by Interpol. My man told me his wife was killed in a car accident three years ago, his parents are dead, he is an only child, and he doesnt have many friends because he travels so much for work. After reading about this site and the things I've seen on here I'm scared its a scam. His photos are gorgeous. He seems so nice - I am really hooked, have been crying all afternoon since my daughter sent the newspaper article. Can you check it out for me. He has two email addresses and of course he has my private email address. His email addresses are [email protected] and [email protected] for live messaging. He told me his name is Michael Peterson.

I have moved your post to the romance scams forum, as it is the most appropriate place.

The good news is, this probably has nothing to do with drugs.
The bad news is, what you have posted so far (gorgeous photos, tragically widowed, traveling on international contracts, falling in love quickly, wanting to meet but but conveniently not in your country, multiple email addresses, has nobody else in the world [which is why when things go terribly wrong, you will be the only person he can turn to]) are all typical signs of an African romance scammer. Romance scammers change their assumed names and email addresses frequently, so we have to look at other things.

Could you post the first few emails he sent you, and the photos he is using? That will enable us to better determine whether he is indeed a romance scammer, and whether the English tells us he is African.

Also, if you look back at some of your other emails and chats with him, look to see if you find:
-Sends lots of romantic poems/highly romantic letters
-simple mistakes in English, and widely varying quality of English (i.e. poems and highly romantic letters are perfect English, then other things contain a lot of small mistakes that you might have ignored as possible typos)
-calling you by nicknames/terms of endearment (e.g. baby, hun, my queen, etc.) a lot
-not often using your name
-talk of marriage/a long term future within a few weeks of "meeting"
-If he is on contract, is he: engineer, building roads/bridges/major buildings, architect, or working for oil companies? (While there are others, these are the top "professions" for this type of scammer.)

Hi Dotti, Thanks for replying so quickly. I suspected he was too good to be true, but ignored my intuition, why I don't know. Stupid, I guess!! Attached is another email. Cant work out how to get his photos in here, sorry. Will keep tryng though.

From: [email protected] ([email protected])
Sent: Tuesday, 12 July 2011 5:22:33 AM

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Hello, I am glad I got the right address. I got back home to the States after a long horrible flight. To Australia? Who knows? I might come and get you.. lol. I import and export raw materials and agricultural implements.. Drugs? No, I would never do something that would hurt another person. So tell me: How long have you been on the single site? Have you met anyone from there? What do you do for fun? do you have a favorite color? Ok, I have been on the site for a couple of days.. I guess! and no I haven't met anyone from there in person. For fun, I golf, I shoot pool, I swim, I go to the cinema and I travel. Do you do any of these? My favorite color is blue. Blue because it is peaceful and because I love the waters (Ocean, lakes, rivers). I am attaching a couple of pictures on here for you. Might still look like the model thing.. lol. I see you have hotmail. Can you instant message from there? I will try to setup one.. if you can and I have a web cam so you can catch a glimpse of me.. You have a wonderful time. Smiles, Michael.

Unfortunately, it is looking more and more like a romance scammer. There are some mistakes in there that are consistent with a non-English speaker (instead of being a typo) and there is a mistake in word choice that makes it unlikely he is American--but it is the type of mistake that is typical of an African who doesn't recognize the subtle differences between British and American English--one common mistake of African scammers is using common British terminology when playing an American, and vice-versa.

Could you post some additional emails?

Ok, here are two more.
No 1.
........ Dear, Your message! every single bit of it, still echoes within me. It is as if every single word has been examined to perfectly fit into each other. You could be such a fine writer if you decide to write books.. lol. Thank you so much for your photos. I love your green eyes. Do you know that I have green eyes too? Well, It was a beautiful morning here today. The sunrise was a sight to see with a few clouds to the east. The trees swayed in the cool delta breeze.. It was perfect for an quiet, early morning walk and some how I wished your presence was a witness to my joy. I am smiling deeply thinking about the limitless things we could do in my hearts joy and may be some day.. who knows? lol. Pete in my id name is for Peterson my last name. Relationships? Well, I actually never thought I was going to be able to get into one. See; I was married for 9 years and we were together for 13 years. I lost my wife 3 years ago and thought my world has come to an end but here I am.. ready again to venture into the wild and now believing that everything do happens for a reason. Do you? I have not been in a relationship since then.. not even the short one night stand. I have a secret though! lol. I will tell you some day if you convince me. I saw that you appeared on my messenger. I will look up for you. Alright, it is morning there now (9:37am on Thursday) and over here it is still Wednesday 4:39 pm. How interesting.. lol. Okay, I wish you a great and wonderful day knowing that you will be smiling for me is just enough. Do miss me a little though and know that you are on my mind. Warm hugs to you. Smiles, Michael..

and No. 2
My Dear .........., Thank you for your mail. I woke up earlier today with you on my mind. I am glad I was able to chat with you. I already miss chatting with you and now I am here just smiling. I hope you are doing great and that you are smiling for me? What you wanted in a man for the first and foremost is to be tall! Really? Lol! is 6 feet tall enough? I hope so because I don't want you to feel really really big! Lol.. Okay what I want in a woman is someone who understands that a relationship is a lot like life, that it's a journey and the perfection is in the small things. That the road might be easy some days and really tough at times. Someone who can simply be in a moment of time with me and accept that moment for what it is or what it brings and some basics of course, such as love, loyalty, gentleness, compassion. Is that too much to ask? Okay, I will like that we can chat later today but if not then know you are on my mind. You have a great time and keep smiling for me. Hugs, Michael.

I have been dealing with romance scammers for a long time now, and I can tell you that I am now certain he is an African scammer.

His writing is actually better than many scammers, but he made a few mistakes that are a dead giveaway. Because he is better at writing than many scammers, it is good to have as many of his letters as possible posted, as he may reuse those letters on other victims--so the more we have posted, the better chance other victims of this scammer (whether he is using this name or another) will realize before it is too late. If you are willing to post more, it would be great. He may be smart enough to hide behind a proxy, but I would love to see his headers, both from when he was supposedly in Australia, and from when he claimed to have gone back to the US. Also, what site did you meet him on? Where in the US does he claim to live?

There are instructions in my signature line for posting photos. There is also information for romance scam victims that may be worth reading, though luckily you were alerted before he started asking for money.

Please cut off all contact with this scammer. Do not continue to talk to him, and do not confront him with being a scammer (then he will change his information and be harder to identify the next time). Filter his emails to your trash folder. If he has your ear, he will continue to pretend to be innocent, he will declare his love for you, and he will try to make you feel guilty for doubting him. He may do this so vehemently and for so long that he makes you start to think that maybe he really is real, because you'll feel that he wouldn't try so hard unless he really cared. This is actually typical of a scammer, and it most certainly isn't because they care. They are willing to continue to do this because they know from experience that they can sometimes get a victim back in their hooks this way--and a victim who is feeling guilty for his/her doubt is actually likely to part with even more money!

I met this guy on the datingagency.com/au site. I checked last night and even though he has told me he is not in Australia his profile is still posted on the site. Also he offered me his email address without asking for mine which made me think he was somehow genuine. These are his latest two emails.
No 1.
.............. Dear, I am so sorry I couldn't get to chat with you yesterday. I was on line but I left to work on a new contract I am trying to secure. Sometimes my work can be very time consuming and you may think I am a workaholic but I have lots of time for that special someone and I share almost all my time with her. Unless She insist She wants some time for herself.. lol. I believe somehow that some day soon we would meet in person. My believe is so strong that I see it clearly. I am thinking if you would be able to meet me in London, I would send you tickets but it would have to be after this contract. Just let me know what you think. Tomorrow, which will be my Saturday and your Sunday, I think I will go golfing. Someday if you like we can golf together. ............, I don't know why but I am here just thinking about you and visualizing you teaching me to cook and I am staring at the pictures you emailed me; I am smiling and I hope to get to talk to you soon. Okay then may your day today bring upon you many blessings and remember always that I am thinking of you here and wishing you were in my arms now. Hugs, Michael.

No 2.
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16/07/2011
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From: Michael Peterson ([email protected])
Sent: Saturday, 16 July 2011 11:13:50 PM
To: ..............


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My Dearest .........., It is another morning here and I just realized that I was missing something.. it turned out to be you... lol... I can't think of anything now that dominates my thoughts more than you do and yet its difficult tracing the rationale behind how things happen, a special one like ours. I only think nature has its own mind and that man is yet to cope with. Time will surely play a role in this but undoubtedly a meager one since it hasn't got the ability to hold us back because I believe in the 'pursuit' of anything valuable like ours. Do you? Okay Baby, Yes London and yes I am serious and it is all real and I want you to help us by believing in all this. This is one of my secrets. You know when I want something, I just believe in it and I visualize having it. No, it doesn't snow here all winter. I am still thinking of the bears question you asked me yesterday.. it's kind of funny.. lol.. and I am smiling for you. I have a house I bought here 8 month ago and I live at 1214 west on the 10th avenue. I am not sure how long it will take to secure this contract but it won't be for long before I know. I will let you know ahead when the time comes. The contract is not going to be in London but I will transit through there. I am glad to know you have your passport. You should have invited me to the shower though.. lol. I am proud of what you do for work. It's a life saving work. Kiss for that. You can call me Mike, I think it sounds interesting.. lol. I see you have a lot of Michaels in your family.. how nice to know. About talking on the phone, I like the idea. The pictures I sent you was current not more than a month ago. It was the setting from the camera, I guess. I will send you some more of me and from December last year when I was in Sunset beach, Jamaica. Thank you for your picture. I like them as usual. I have attached a music on here for you too. You will understand why when you listen to it. It is us in its words. Well, I hope you had a great night sleep and that you are smiling for me and doing great... Almost forgot about me golfing today but I will wait and talk to you on line before. Hugs and Smiles to you wherever you want them. Kisses, Michael. ____________________________________________________________Get Free Email with Video Mail & Video Chat!http://www.juno.com/freeemail?refcd=JUTAGOUT1FREM0210

Hi Dotti
Attached I have 6 copies of the scammers photos for everyone to view.







Hope this is the right way to do it.

He's setting up to "travel" to Africa or Malaysia, where some terrible problem will come up--he will be robbed, in an accident, something will happen on the job, etc. Whatever the problem is, it will take money to fix it, and because he has no family or close friends to help him, you will be the only person who can get him out of his predicament (by sending money to someone.)

You can see that the same photos have been used by scammers before:
http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=32292&start=30

THIS MAGGOT IS HERE. No name seems to be the same but ages are similar. He also claims to be a builder among other jobs he says
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5460707408
Williams J, 50
Cadillac, MI

FROM http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewto ... 2&p=220491 A MONTH AGO
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5459959888

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
http://www.flirtbox.com/robnay

About me
I'm a happy person. Not "laugh all day long like an idiot" happy, it's more of a "philosophical" happiness. My favorite type of woman is the type who makes me laugh because they're the best kind. I'm healthy, and I want to stay that way. I think I'm pretty smart... smart enough to know the advantage of being close to an intelligent woman. Generally speaking, I like being around happy, healthy, smart people... especially those who can teach me something I don't yet know about these things. I'm very intuitive. I like a dinner date because I'm going to eat anyway, and there's no better way to check out a woman's table manners! I only love women who love me, isn't that sensible? I'm looking for an attractive woman who is friendly, capable, thoughtful, an affectionate. A good cook is a definite plus. Do you believe in love,if you do lets make it happen. I miss being in love. Do you miss it too?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Lyman-Jo ... 0744838717
http://www.chatgratuit.com/profil/fredy30
http://us-en.sonico.com/u/66061024/Michael-Cole
HE THINKS HE IS SMART!

smart enough to know the advantage of being close to an intelligent woman. Generally speaking, I like being around happy, healthy, smart people

http://www.mingles.com/jolarry/
http://www.lavaplace.com/robtay48/
Littleton, Colorado, United States
http://www.getyourcoat.co.uk/search/sho ... =robwils47
Location: West London, London
http://london.flirtbox.co.uk/jammith
Area USA, Maryland, Baltimore
Town 5809 HIGHGATE DR
http://matchmate.ca/dating/davies

Never look down on anyone ,no matter the race,gender,religion,age or background.I'm a happy person. Not "laugh all day long like an idiot" happy, it's more of a "philosophical" happiness. My favorite type of woman is the type who makes me

http://britishcolumbia.flirtbox.ca/5F6FD5downtown DELETED.Was KELVIN70. 43 from downtown | manager
http://www.canadianpassions.com/seeme/laughline.html HERE HE IS BLACK.
LOCATION Orlando, Florida USA
http://site4dating.com/member.php?id=6102 robwils47
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Location: Annapolis,Maryland, USA