by tdcz
Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:27 pm
Scammer: "William D. Morrison" email: [email protected]
mom meets a nice looking, very well educated man on eharmony. He is apparently from Indiana and is a Civil Engineer contractor. His name is apparently William D. Morrison. they talk consistently every day about everything! Every aspect of life is questioned, talked about candidly. He was very knowledgeable about his profession, his past and his future plans. The "fall in love"... meaning he got her to a point of being able to open up emotionally. the "i love you's" were flowing frequently. They make plans for meeting. He bought them tickets to go on a vacation. Most likely they were photoshopped.
One month into the "relationship" he very suddenly had to go to Africa to do a project for his company. Mind you, he is a Civil Engineer... this isnt completely out of the ordinary. Plans for trip are canceled until a later time. He now plans to come to austin when his project is over. Now calling from an african number... they still talk every day! he apparently made a friend who lets him use his phone as his doesnt work there. neither does his laptop and now has to go to the library eery night to chat with her.
one month later, one phone call in particular... he calls to say he has flipped his car driving home from the library after chatting with her. he is ok, and they continue on having regular conversations for about a week. in this time they have a few arguments because she questions some things... who wouldnt? but he can prove anything she questions... and the relationship moves on.
one week before his supposed contract is up and he is supposed to be coming to austin to visit her... She receives a phone call from a William Morrison from IN saying that his identity was stolen. He received a post card from my mom (that she had sent over a month ago when her "William Morrision" was still apparently in IN), and that he (the William Morrison she knew) was in fact not. She is devastated and heart broken to say the least. That same day coincidently, "William" calls to say he has bad news. he reminds her of his "accident" and that the car was totaled. He has to pay the car rental out of pocket and doesnt want to involve his company. His assets are apparently frozen and asks her for help financially. She immediately stops any and all contact with him.
The weird thing is... he spent 3 months, devoting at least 2 hours a day in communication with my mom. He sent her presents with hand written cards. When he asked for money, it was only $2000. From what I've read, scammers usually ask for a lot more a lot sooner than that. Never the less, I am outraged that this happened to such a wonderful, caring, intelligent and very insight full person as my mom. He wasnt able to steal her money, but he killed her spirit! To her this experience is like the love of her life just died suddenly... and then she remembers that he was never real to begin with. It's a total mind f***.
In my vengeful rage... i did everything i knew how to track this jerk down. What would i really do if i found him? probably nothing, however I need him to understand what he did to her emotionally. not like it would matter. I traced all his emails, his phone records... searched for his photos. No photos anywhere to be found on the scammer sites. His IN phone number is one of a block of VOIP land line numbers bought by some fictitious company. All his emails (EVEN THE VERY FIRST ONES) are traceable to Ghana, Africa. I found contact info on the african WHOIS database. I searched for the names I found there and they are all linked to SCAMS.
Not a typical scam from what I can tell. I am not an expert at these things what so ever. I figure this was his first attempt to pull my mom into a money laundering situation and thank god she didnt take the bait. But too bad she met and had the unfortunate mishap of falling in love with someone who never even existed. Now she is just left with hurt and mistrust of anyone new who may come in to her life. eharmony could have very easily traced users email address like i did. It should be in their intial set up process. It's very easy and takes only minutes... and it's free!
These people may not be physically injuring anyone, but they are killing people emotionally. Sometimes, I dont know which is worse.
_________________
... just want to help heal the heart of someone who got scammed.
mom meets a nice looking, very well educated man on eharmony. He is apparently from Indiana and is a Civil Engineer contractor. His name is apparently William D. Morrison. they talk consistently every day about everything! Every aspect of life is questioned, talked about candidly. He was very knowledgeable about his profession, his past and his future plans. The "fall in love"... meaning he got her to a point of being able to open up emotionally. the "i love you's" were flowing frequently. They make plans for meeting. He bought them tickets to go on a vacation. Most likely they were photoshopped.
One month into the "relationship" he very suddenly had to go to Africa to do a project for his company. Mind you, he is a Civil Engineer... this isnt completely out of the ordinary. Plans for trip are canceled until a later time. He now plans to come to austin when his project is over. Now calling from an african number... they still talk every day! he apparently made a friend who lets him use his phone as his doesnt work there. neither does his laptop and now has to go to the library eery night to chat with her.
one month later, one phone call in particular... he calls to say he has flipped his car driving home from the library after chatting with her. he is ok, and they continue on having regular conversations for about a week. in this time they have a few arguments because she questions some things... who wouldnt? but he can prove anything she questions... and the relationship moves on.
one week before his supposed contract is up and he is supposed to be coming to austin to visit her... She receives a phone call from a William Morrison from IN saying that his identity was stolen. He received a post card from my mom (that she had sent over a month ago when her "William Morrision" was still apparently in IN), and that he (the William Morrison she knew) was in fact not. She is devastated and heart broken to say the least. That same day coincidently, "William" calls to say he has bad news. he reminds her of his "accident" and that the car was totaled. He has to pay the car rental out of pocket and doesnt want to involve his company. His assets are apparently frozen and asks her for help financially. She immediately stops any and all contact with him.
The weird thing is... he spent 3 months, devoting at least 2 hours a day in communication with my mom. He sent her presents with hand written cards. When he asked for money, it was only $2000. From what I've read, scammers usually ask for a lot more a lot sooner than that. Never the less, I am outraged that this happened to such a wonderful, caring, intelligent and very insight full person as my mom. He wasnt able to steal her money, but he killed her spirit! To her this experience is like the love of her life just died suddenly... and then she remembers that he was never real to begin with. It's a total mind f***.
In my vengeful rage... i did everything i knew how to track this jerk down. What would i really do if i found him? probably nothing, however I need him to understand what he did to her emotionally. not like it would matter. I traced all his emails, his phone records... searched for his photos. No photos anywhere to be found on the scammer sites. His IN phone number is one of a block of VOIP land line numbers bought by some fictitious company. All his emails (EVEN THE VERY FIRST ONES) are traceable to Ghana, Africa. I found contact info on the african WHOIS database. I searched for the names I found there and they are all linked to SCAMS.
Not a typical scam from what I can tell. I am not an expert at these things what so ever. I figure this was his first attempt to pull my mom into a money laundering situation and thank god she didnt take the bait. But too bad she met and had the unfortunate mishap of falling in love with someone who never even existed. Now she is just left with hurt and mistrust of anyone new who may come in to her life. eharmony could have very easily traced users email address like i did. It should be in their intial set up process. It's very easy and takes only minutes... and it's free!
These people may not be physically injuring anyone, but they are killing people emotionally. Sometimes, I dont know which is worse.
_________________
... just want to help heal the heart of someone who got scammed.
