by gotlucky
Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:24 pm
Hi everyone,
I have been chatting with a 'wonderful' (yes, I now admit, I ignored all my too-good-to-be-true instincts!!) man for over a month now, we became friends on Facebook. His name there is Johny Rossi. He claimed to be Italian-Russian, living in NYC. During our conversations, he won the biggest contract of his life, and flew to London, then by helicopter to an oil rig offshore. All was marvellous, until he was dying of temptation to come and see me, and pushed the equipment too hard, in his eagerness to finish up and commence his holidays (with me, he even emailed me the KLM flight confirmation)
Of course, this cost money to replace the damaged equipment, and I got the 'I am so sorry to ask, but you are all I have now' nonsense. I had become guarded the moment money came into our conversations, and was astonished that a 51yo man could not have anyone else he could borrow the money from. Hence my username .... I trusted my instincts, which were ringing Cathedral bells of warning in my ears, and sent not one cent to him. I didn't even let him get to how he wanted the money ... I told him only a fool (apologies to anyone who has suffered this scam, I know how much my heart wanted him to be true as well) would believe the story with so many holes in it, and even if I had the money to help him, it would have only been paid to the mining company upon receiving an invoice ...
I can honestly say that the lack of the money helped me to pause and consider whether it was a scam. I was so into him, I might have sent the money had I had it spare ...
Anyway, I now know this reads like a million other scams (having done my research this morning) ... but I haven't heard the next part before ...
Last night, after four days silence, he emailed me admitting it was a scam, I will post the text for others to be warned of ...
my dear beautiful and angelic (name removed), i want to start this email by telling you i am so sorry and i don't think you can ever forgive me again in this life but i want to clear my conscience....all i have ever done was because i had no choice...My real name is Kenneth and my original country of birth is Nigeria....you may have watched the news or seen online and heard of the killings and bomb blasts that happened in several states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria done by the Boko Haram sect...I was greatly affected as i lost my family to one of the bomb blasts in Kano state in Nigeria and after surviving this, i felt that there was nothing to live for until i met a certain british man by name Sir Howard powell and he said he was going to help me out of my country and provide me refuge and he helped me to get to into UK and i told myself i will remain indebted to this man but little did i know that he had other plans for me...Mr Howard runs an office with a few gentle men so i thought but i soon came to realize that what they actually did was fraud, they try to befriend women on social networks and after gaining their trust begin to extort money from
them...I did not bid for this kind of life but mr Howard threatened to hand me over to the UK immigrations if i don't work for him and send me back to Nigeria and whenever i remember Nigeria, i see poverty, pain, suffering and tears and i would die here in the UK than to go back to insecurity...and everything i have said, i have been threatened and forced so far to do it but with time, i have read your emails and observed closely and i truly realized that you are an angel and you don't deserve to be heart broken or scammed...and i must clarify that all the wonderful words and attributes i have given to you have been sincerely from my heart and i truly realized that i care and have a soft spot for you and you don't deserve in anyway to suffer....all the proofs you have asked for are about the most simple things for
Mr Howard to do and he has already provided them since but my heart could not make me send it cos you will believe and may succum to helping with money....I can't do this anymore....it is better i live and die a wretch and in pain in my country than soil my hands with evil....i know when Mr Howard finds out what i have just done, i will be thrown right back to my country...all i want you to know is that you are truly a wonderful person with a very big heart and i pray that your health is restored and you remain always happy because you truly deserve to be a happy...all i wish for is that you find it in your heart to forgive me and know that i had no choice but you have taught me that in life there is always a choice even if it means loosing all to become nothing....Thanks...Kenneth
Believe me, all his messages were AT LEAST this heartwarming and flattering ... last night I replied with sympathy for the loss of his family, and sincerely thanked him for being honest ...
Then I woke up this morning with a big hard reality slap, and realised that this was just priming me for scam part 2!!! So I wrote again and said no, Kenneth is hardly a typical Nigerian name, and given that he had already conned me, I was not going to believe, nor respond, to another word. I told him, that if this story was indeed true, then he didn't need my forgiveness .... a clear conscience would be his reward (and more than he was entitled to, in my opinion)
I felt mean writing this ... as I really had believed his message last night ... but my research on here and the warning that +4470.... phone numbers are redirected to internet cafes in Africa, confirmed my belief that this was still a hoax
So, I just wanted to sincerely thank you for that!
This is such a prey on human emotion, I am just so grateful I didn't send any money.
I have been wretched and heartsick over this, for his plight if it was true, and for myself if I was just being suckered! It's a cruel world, my sympathies to anyone who has been deprived of their savings. It is unfair and you did not deserve it.
For the record, his email was [email protected] and he also had [email protected]
The phone number, which we spoke on, was supposedly a phone on the rig ... +44-701-296-8858
I have reported his page on Facebook, then blocked it, and after that, when I searched his name again (with the same odd spelling of Johny with just one N) I found two other pages with photos of Australian actor Hugh Jackman.
I feel so foolish for being conned, but relieved that it is over now.
He has my full name, postal adress, date of birth and emails ... should I be worried now about further fraud??
Regards,
GOTLUCKY!!!
I have been chatting with a 'wonderful' (yes, I now admit, I ignored all my too-good-to-be-true instincts!!) man for over a month now, we became friends on Facebook. His name there is Johny Rossi. He claimed to be Italian-Russian, living in NYC. During our conversations, he won the biggest contract of his life, and flew to London, then by helicopter to an oil rig offshore. All was marvellous, until he was dying of temptation to come and see me, and pushed the equipment too hard, in his eagerness to finish up and commence his holidays (with me, he even emailed me the KLM flight confirmation)
Of course, this cost money to replace the damaged equipment, and I got the 'I am so sorry to ask, but you are all I have now' nonsense. I had become guarded the moment money came into our conversations, and was astonished that a 51yo man could not have anyone else he could borrow the money from. Hence my username .... I trusted my instincts, which were ringing Cathedral bells of warning in my ears, and sent not one cent to him. I didn't even let him get to how he wanted the money ... I told him only a fool (apologies to anyone who has suffered this scam, I know how much my heart wanted him to be true as well) would believe the story with so many holes in it, and even if I had the money to help him, it would have only been paid to the mining company upon receiving an invoice ...
I can honestly say that the lack of the money helped me to pause and consider whether it was a scam. I was so into him, I might have sent the money had I had it spare ...
Anyway, I now know this reads like a million other scams (having done my research this morning) ... but I haven't heard the next part before ...
Last night, after four days silence, he emailed me admitting it was a scam, I will post the text for others to be warned of ...
my dear beautiful and angelic (name removed), i want to start this email by telling you i am so sorry and i don't think you can ever forgive me again in this life but i want to clear my conscience....all i have ever done was because i had no choice...My real name is Kenneth and my original country of birth is Nigeria....you may have watched the news or seen online and heard of the killings and bomb blasts that happened in several states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria done by the Boko Haram sect...I was greatly affected as i lost my family to one of the bomb blasts in Kano state in Nigeria and after surviving this, i felt that there was nothing to live for until i met a certain british man by name Sir Howard powell and he said he was going to help me out of my country and provide me refuge and he helped me to get to into UK and i told myself i will remain indebted to this man but little did i know that he had other plans for me...Mr Howard runs an office with a few gentle men so i thought but i soon came to realize that what they actually did was fraud, they try to befriend women on social networks and after gaining their trust begin to extort money from
them...I did not bid for this kind of life but mr Howard threatened to hand me over to the UK immigrations if i don't work for him and send me back to Nigeria and whenever i remember Nigeria, i see poverty, pain, suffering and tears and i would die here in the UK than to go back to insecurity...and everything i have said, i have been threatened and forced so far to do it but with time, i have read your emails and observed closely and i truly realized that you are an angel and you don't deserve to be heart broken or scammed...and i must clarify that all the wonderful words and attributes i have given to you have been sincerely from my heart and i truly realized that i care and have a soft spot for you and you don't deserve in anyway to suffer....all the proofs you have asked for are about the most simple things for
Mr Howard to do and he has already provided them since but my heart could not make me send it cos you will believe and may succum to helping with money....I can't do this anymore....it is better i live and die a wretch and in pain in my country than soil my hands with evil....i know when Mr Howard finds out what i have just done, i will be thrown right back to my country...all i want you to know is that you are truly a wonderful person with a very big heart and i pray that your health is restored and you remain always happy because you truly deserve to be a happy...all i wish for is that you find it in your heart to forgive me and know that i had no choice but you have taught me that in life there is always a choice even if it means loosing all to become nothing....Thanks...Kenneth
Believe me, all his messages were AT LEAST this heartwarming and flattering ... last night I replied with sympathy for the loss of his family, and sincerely thanked him for being honest ...
Then I woke up this morning with a big hard reality slap, and realised that this was just priming me for scam part 2!!! So I wrote again and said no, Kenneth is hardly a typical Nigerian name, and given that he had already conned me, I was not going to believe, nor respond, to another word. I told him, that if this story was indeed true, then he didn't need my forgiveness .... a clear conscience would be his reward (and more than he was entitled to, in my opinion)
I felt mean writing this ... as I really had believed his message last night ... but my research on here and the warning that +4470.... phone numbers are redirected to internet cafes in Africa, confirmed my belief that this was still a hoax
So, I just wanted to sincerely thank you for that!
This is such a prey on human emotion, I am just so grateful I didn't send any money.
I have been wretched and heartsick over this, for his plight if it was true, and for myself if I was just being suckered! It's a cruel world, my sympathies to anyone who has been deprived of their savings. It is unfair and you did not deserve it.
For the record, his email was [email protected] and he also had [email protected]
The phone number, which we spoke on, was supposedly a phone on the rig ... +44-701-296-8858
I have reported his page on Facebook, then blocked it, and after that, when I searched his name again (with the same odd spelling of Johny with just one N) I found two other pages with photos of Australian actor Hugh Jackman.
I feel so foolish for being conned, but relieved that it is over now.
He has my full name, postal adress, date of birth and emails ... should I be worried now about further fraud??
Regards,
GOTLUCKY!!!