Fred Spoon

A good friend of mine (I'll call her "Anne") nearly lost some money to this guy before we noticed something was up. He contacted her through Facebook. His profile said he was widowed, originally from "Pollanden, Bayern, Germany." He claimed to have a six year old son named Kelvin and posted several pictures of them together- one in Los Angeles (I could see the "Hollywood" sign in the distance.)

"Fred" and Anne had only been in contact for a month before he "proposed" online via chat. Then of course he's stuck in Nigeria on a civil engineering contract and needs a couple thousand dollars. Scumbag.

One of my other friends created a fake profile and contacted him fliratiously to see if he'd take the bait. He did. His response:

My is Fred spoon,I am a Civil Engineer,the job takes me places because it is based on contracts.I am originally German but i live in the U.K.

When i saw your profile,i was thrilled,every thing about you interests me,you look honest and caring.

I want to have a communication with you and see where it leads us,do not mind the age difference as its only a number while distance can be countered with a good communication,because it is just a flight ticket away.

I hope i didn't bore you to death with my mail,please write back to me if i made an impression to you.

Fred

Of course Anne is devastated but I'm pretty sure she never sent him money, so at least that bullet is dodged. His Facebook profile has disappeared. I saved the pictures from his profile though, so if I can ever figure out how to post them on here I'll do so.

Welcome scammainslamma,
thank you for posting. Do you have any email addresses this scammer is using? They would help a lot if other victims do a Google search.

And I'm sending you a PM.

EDIT: As for posting pictures: Did you see this guide:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219

Hi thank you for this information . my sister has been contacted by this guy with the same MO on face book aswell . he has given her the sob story .He also has told her he isnt on facebook anymore due to trouble he had ?? I need a picture of this guy if anyone has one . The details are very very alike .I also have an address for him which i am on checking out now . Any help would be much appreciated . we need to stop this guy !! new to this site so i dont no how it works . please contact me if you can help .

Welcome neil! I'm sorry we meet under these circumstances. If you want us to try and find out more please submit the information you have got:

- the scammer's email address
- one of his emails complete with headers (a guide to headers is here: http://www.abika.com/Reports/Samples/em ... rguide.htm); be sure to delete your sister's details before posting
- his phone number
-his account on social networking sites (even the deleted ones)

If you have pictures, please upload them so we can check them. (a guide to uploading is here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219)

I hope your sister has ceased to communicate with this criminal by now?

thanks for the reply . well i was too late to stop it going to far and she was talked in to sending him a lump of money , the penny dropped with her when he asked for more !!!! . we are contacting the police ,but can they do anything ?? thanks for the support . i will get her to contact you . thanks again . please any one talking to this creep BEWARE !

I'm so sorry about the money your sister lost; I suppose it was sent with Western Union or MoneyGram? Then it is lost. If it was a bank transfer, you have a slim chance of getting it back.
Print out the whole email correspondence your sister had and show it to the bank, they might be able to recall the transfer.

I hope your sister will soon be able to recover from this ugly experience. It might help her to feel better if she posts information about this criminal here. That way, other ladies will find this information and be able to avoid being scammed.

The police will not be able to arrest this scammer. He is operating from an internet café most likely in West Africa, and he is completely anonymous. But your report will help to make authorities aware of the magnitude of this phenomenon.

hi , she has contacted the police and they said they carnt do anything . the money went to china and was collected . This guy has had the cheek to ask for more money again today ! . pleased to say that it will not be happening . He has also used a name of benedict wallace so please look out for this aswell .

Scammers can be very persistent. They have made the experience that in some cases they can win their victims back if they tell them more lies. But eventually they will realise they will get no more money and will go away.

You need to warn your sister: The scammer may have passed on her email address to other scammers, and she might get scam emails of a different type in future. She is welcome any time if she wants us to look at a suspicious email.

It really does help if we can have an email address. Even profile names help as I often turn them around into email addresses and see what comes up