Father getting scammed, what do I do?

Hi everyone,
So I have a situation here where my father is getting scammed by a "woman" from Africa. Ghana I believe is where she is from. Here is the situation:
1. My dad starts talking to a woman from Ghana, claiming that she wants to leave the country, and come to Canada. (I immediately tell my dad that this sounds very fishy and it's probably a scam).
2. My dad sends pays for a ticket for her to come to Canada, so that they can meet, and maybe get married.
3. The woman tells my dad that her grandmother gave her something to give to him (he won't tell me what it is), and that because she didn't have the appropriate paperwork for it she has been detained in Dubai.
4. Now apparently because of whatever it was that she has, my dad has to now go over there and pay a ridiculous amount of money so that she can come with him back to Canada.

Normally I would just let my dad get scammed, because quite frankly it is his own fault for not bloody seeing how sketchy this whole situation is.
The real problem is that he has spent all his money on this woman, and is now trying to borrow money all over the place for this woman. Now he is probably going to skip his only daughters wedding so he can go and save this woman in Dubai (so she claims).

He won't listen to me at all, he is in such horrible denial. How do I stop him from being such a fool.

I am sorry for your dad and you too.
I really really doubt this is nothing but a big scam, its dangerous for your father to go there, people have been killed before when they have gone to meet the person they think is a a girlfriend.Please try to talk to him, get him to read all about those scams.
Its so typical the way they do scams.
He is blind of love right now..he will se it later, and see the signs too.
Has he seen this woman on Skype, in a real communication ? I doubt that . But some of the scammers even come on webcam too, they are not afraid of anything.They never use their real name.
They use false names, all is false , even webcam can be faked.
BUT, when you are to pay something, its a scam !!!! Especially when its people in Ghana/Nigeria.
The story about the last money she neeed , is not true.Its a big lie.
I dont think she/he want your father to go to Dubai, all they want is the money .
He will never meet her, she wont be there, or something terrible can happen to your father.
I am so sorry, its very hard to convince your father, I know, because to him this is real, its his dream .
The scammers are experts in manipulating with peoples hearts , he is just a victim in a fraud here, like all others in here.
Wish you best of luck with your father , remember , this is tough on him .
His world will fall apart when he realise he is been scammed .

Welcome to ScamWarners DownDaughter. I recommend that you search the email address the scammer is using. Quite possibly it has been reported as a scam here or on other scam fighting sites.

Your dad is blinded by the story the scammer has told him. You can also search the story line the scammer is using, since scammers are lazy and often use the same story as different characters.

I have also moved this topic to our Help topic so you can get more advice.

As you probably know, there is no gift from grandma, there is no young lady coming to Canada. It is absolutely a scam. Scammers do not care that they take every last penny from their victims. They will encourage a paying victim to borrow money to keep paying them for their lies.

DownDaughter. Oh I wish it were hello under better circumstances. Your post describes a classic scam scenario and there is no other way to describe. How long have they been writing? Did they become known to each other by a so called dating site or social type page? Adding to what the other members have said, it would be unadvisable to Father upon travelling to Dubai. The 'lady' in question will not be able to simply travel back to Canada with him I would have thought? Has he wondered how all that will work? I do not wish to be a wet towel but scammers love it when the target follows the script. It makes the scam so much easier to commit. The scammer does not love, like or have feelings for him whatsoever. He is simply seen as a source of revenue by the trickster.
I've also sent you a private message. Please read it.
Good luck to you.

Thank you for all the feedback. I also asked my mother what she thinks, because quite frankly my dad and I don't have the best relationship to begin with but I just don't want to see him get hurt again. Not to mention I am just really upset that he would choose to get scammed over going to his daughters wedding. Of course I know that is not his intent...but I just want to scream it's so frustrating.

What my mother suggested is writing him a letter saying that I think he is being scammed, and that the RCMP can check into her without her knowing. If I am wrong then no harm done, but if I am right it would stop her from doing it to someone else. I plan to give it to him when he goes back to his house.

I've been telling him it's a scam from the get go..but of course he wants to think it's because I am not a trusting person and that I don't understand what it is like to be lonely...he thinks that his children don't have the ability for those sorts of emotions...it's totally ridiculous and even more frustrating.

I've warned my brother not to lend him any money for this chick.

I've been searching into what I do know about her...but of course he is being extremely secretive about her information. All I know is that the name she uses is Flora, she is white with brown hair and claims to be 34 years old.

I'm going to go search the web for the pictures of her that i've seen and see if I can connect them to any known scammers.

Just a brief comment DownDaughter.

Undoubtedly the scammer is a male, though they'll enlist a family member or friend to handle calls if necessary. If a scam is lucrative it'll often be handled by several scammers who will pool resources and organise themselves to get as much as they can from the victim.

Travelling to meet a scammer is always a dangerous step and particularly to countries off the beaten track. Dubai may not be an under developed country but it has a very different legal system and local customs where help may not be so easy for a foreigner to access.

If he appears serious about travelling then I'd feel it sensible to notify the RCMP so that at least they are aware of the situation.

The more information you can get from him, the better. If you can get some more information on the scam, we can also have a warner contact your father by email and/or phone, if you would like to go that route.

In the meantime, though:

-Run ALL the photos you can get through tineye and google image search. Scammers often use photos of porn actresses or models. If you don't get any hits, check focushawaii.com, as that is one commonly used model site that is not indexed for photo searching.
-Look at the emails themselves. Pick random phrases and google them, in quotes. Often you can find the exact same scripts used in previous scams.
-Look to see if there is a Canadian embassy in Dubai. If so, contact them, and see if they will help by confirming that she is not there (of course "she" is not, but hearing it from the embassy may help.)

Sometimes, in order to get him to show you the correspondence, the best thing you can do is take the opposite approach--tell him that though you have your doubts, because you care about him and have faith in him, you want to get to know her better and understand the relationship. Then while he is "showing" you how it is real, you have the opportunity to discover these things.

We really need the email address if you can get nothing else. It can unlock many doors to a scammer. If you get extra like a profile name and website it is used on we will probably have as much as we need. The regulars here, and admins, and mods are all very experienced and we all pull together to help and gather as much as possible. It is another strange matter to say Dad may know it is not real. He is sucked into an illusion, knows it is fake and can not escape. The cobra has bewitched him, caught his eye, and is poised ready to strike and inject the final dose of poison.

Update:
So my dad finally told me what was going on. Here's the scoop.
-This chick claims that she was carrying 50kilos of unrefined gold without the proper paperwork, and thus needs someone to pay the taxes on the gold to release it from customs...blah blah blah.
-He says that he's not stupid and is going to go over there and see if the customs agents that she named even exist and about the situation that occured. He claims that if there is no customs agents or anything that know about this then he is going to get right on a plane and come home.
-I asked him if he would let the fraud department with the RCMP look into it before he even decides to go over there, so that they can save him the trip and the stress...the dumbass that is my father said that all police agencies are corrupt and don't have the ability to work with world police agencies......

I found out he has already sent 15k bucks to a "lawyer in london" by the name of Charles.

SO 99thousand percent sure it's a scam...

I really don't know why he has to go over there...
he says he knows that it seems like a scam..but the dumb butt says "what if it isn't"...
*facepalm*

If he goes there, he may be mugged, robbed, or even killed. That has happened to people who traveled to meet scammers.

Does the "lawyer in London" have a website or a phone number? Does anyone else of the scammer's side? If so, could you post them? There's a kind of phone number that is commonly used by scammers pretending to be in England.

He may be kidnapped and held to ransome. Of course if the ransome is not paid he can come home in parts, an ear here, a finger there. These people are hardened criminals or even fanatical Muslim terrorists raising money, and removal of a head means nothing. Why does he not pick up a phone and ring the customs office where it is supposed to be? Look it up in a phone book on Internet. Of course it's a scam but is he unaware of the dangers ? He must not travel anywhere that has anything to do with this or any scam.

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68055

If and when your dad gets on the plane it won't be the end of the matter.

The report mentioned above from this year is standard practice among scammers, as long as nothing goes wrong, which is always possible. The criminals willl be scared and ruthless and any resistance or threat by your dad will put his life in danger. After they've stripped him of cash and valuables then you'll get phone calls and threats demanding more cash. What your father does will impact your whole family very seriously.

If you can't get him to give up the photos, etc. so that you can identify the porn model the scammer is using:

See if you can convince your father to contact the Canadian embassy in dubai.
http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/uae-eau/offices-bureaux/consulate-consulat.aspx?lang=eng&view=d

Also, if he doesn't trust his own police, maybe he will believe a warning put out by the US embassy in Ghana specifically referencing the "young woman in Ghana" scam.
http://ghana.usembassy.gov/romance_scam.html

As already stated: Traveling there is EXTREMELY dangerous. The scammer does not have access to the person in the photos. If your father travels he will not meet the person in the photos, so the scammer can't get money that way. Therefore, if he wants to get your father to Dubai, he WILL be planning to get money from him some other way, and the most likely way is violence.

I am well aware that he could be seriously injured, or even killed if he goes over there. I told him that myself. He seems to think that this "girl" is being coerced by scammers...even though the whole world knows that this girl doesn't even exist.

I've tried telling him I can help him, I've tried telling him that he can do all this stuff without having to leave the country..

At this point all I can do to protect myself is to cut my losses and move on. If he isn't willing to be rational about the situation, then there is nothing that I can do to help him or to change his mind about it all.

Thank you all for your great feedback.

He must only meet this person or people in very public places and go no where and be nowhere on his own with them. No reason why it should not be the office of the customs to meet up.
I hope he is not taking the part of the Great Detective and going to play a master stroke and the police will roll up and arrest everybody. Then like in all good stories he is the hero and gets the girl. They vanish into the sunset with a box of gold.
Sadly, if he finds himself in a situation on his own, where he has a 9mm pistol stuck up his nose, he won't be doing a lot of bargaining as he hands over his cards and PIN number and all his money. As the post script says "Dead men tell no tales."