Information on romance scams and scammers.
by Bubbleman Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:20 pm
Hi i have been in contact with a 'soldier' stationed with the MFO in Egypt (which does exist). I met him on a dating website in february and we chat at least once a week, sometimes more. He claims to be in love with me, from about week 3. I have checked all his photos and they come back with about 10 different names, all the same surname though. I have asked him for a photo of him, holding up a card with my name on it, there is always an excuse why it cant be done right now, but he says he will do it. I've checked the ip address of his emails and they seem to come from California? I have heard it is easy to fake this so am skeptical on this location anyway. I have asked to speak to him on the phone, and he's told me i have to pay around £300 to be connected to him. I know this isn't true as i've checked with various websites, and on here, and i know about the AKO, and that MWR can also help soldiers abroad contact people. I now have the email address of the 'telecom company' to ask to be connected to him, so am going to email that and see what the reponse is. I know not to pay any money to anyone, but am actually enjoying the contact, he is either being honest and very romantic, or he (or they?) is a very clever scammer,as apart from the odd badly phrased line, he speaks very normal american english.
His name is Elvis Carney, he is 41 from Atlanta, Georgia ( d.o.b 24.09.71). He is divorced, no kids. His rank is E6. His email is [email protected]. The email for the telecom scam is [email protected]. Here is a sample of one of his emails....

I love you I love you I love you I love you I need you i need you i need you i need you i adore you i adore you i adore you
Thinking about you my love
Thinking about you my love
Repeating myself because I can never say it enough that I love you I need you i adore you.
You're my forever ,I look forward to our life together but when we finally meet i don't want to let you go i want to kiss you... Kiss your sweet lips and where ever you let me i want to be safe in your arms i want to lay so close to you that I hear your heartbeat baby I want you i want to feel your body next to me sigh... I just want you so much, to make love all night. I'm crazy in love with you God knows you're the best for me, my one and only love I pray to God that he keeps you safe. God knows that we have plans a future with each other...
I pray that he keeps you safe for me. I thank God for blessing me with an amazing woman, whom I love with all my heart soul and being..
I can't live without you, baby love
Morning noon and night and every second of the day I think about you.Muah
Hugs and a million kisses + 1

Love you so much

Muah

It was nice chatting with you last night.

831 always and forever



So you see it is all quite plausible? Anyway, please let me know what you think? I will email the telecom address but will tell him i cant afford whatever fee they ask for...
Last edited by Bubbles on Thu Apr 04, 2013 1:31 am, edited 1 time in total. Reason: Quotations added for clarity.
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by Bubbles Thu Apr 04, 2013 1:36 am
Welcome to ScamWarners Bubbleman, it is a scam. The military personnel have specific email addresses that are furnished by the government. It is also very common for scammers to be "in love you" within a short time of email you. Don't worry, they are in love with everyone they exchange emails with.

Just stop communicating with them and they will go away.

Bubbles, former Scamwarners moderator.

Rest in Peace 24 June 2015.

Gone, but never forgotten.
by Bubbleman Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:34 am
An update on this topic, here is the email i received back from the telecom company....guess what, payment by western union, but this one is to Tohatchi, New Mexico!

Dear Sam,


Thank you for the inquiry, our service is to provide phoning and Satellite facilities for civilian and Military Personnel. Centertel, Polkomtel, Michelin Poland, BMW -Bayerische Motoren Werke, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota Marki, IBM - International Business Machines Corporation, HP - Hewlett-Packard, Manitowoc Crane Group,Carrefour, Colgate-Palmolive, Comarch, PBG S.A., Prochem S.A., Holowczyc Management, NG2 - New Gate Group, LPP S.A., Big Star Limited, Bank BPH, PKO TFI S.A., PGNiG - Polish Petroleum and Gas Mining, Drill-Lab, MEGAGAZ S.A., SCHMIDT Holding, White&Case, Sun Microsystems, PMM - Polish Medical Mission, UPS - United Parcel Service, Polish Medical Air Rescue and SkyTaxi.Especially for US Army soldiers we ship VSAT equipment within /5-7 days/ in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.We also provide Thuraya Satellite Phones for the Military personnel.Thuraya products give you the freedom of movement and the ability to stay connected in more than
110 countries in Europe, North,West, Central Africa and large parts of Southern Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia . This means total coverage whether you are in a village, on a mountain or by the coast.Basic advantages of the Thuraya satellite telephony we provides for the Military are: Possibility of communicating freely in 110 countries in Europe, North and Central Africa, Asia, and Middle East Satellite and GSM connectivity in one telephone Possibility of calling Inmarsat A/B/Mini/ Iridium networks

No prepaid cards needed Free Thuraya - SG-2520 Handset - Satellite/GSM Free limited calls for Military Personnel after the (290 GBP) registration fee(s)have been remitted.

We need you to provide us with this details:

FULL NAME :

AGE :

DATE OF BIRTH :

FULL ADDRESS :

PHONE NUMBER :

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DEPLOYED OFFICER :

NAME OF DEPLOYED OFFICER :

RANK :


You are to make the payment to the financal receiver's agent information below:


Name : Jolene Manuelito

City : Tohatchi

State : New Mexico

Zip code :87325

Country : USA

Note:

You are to make the payment in any Western Union outlet and get back to us with the details such as(Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN),Senders Full Name and Address)



Regards.




Is there any more information that may help? I have not heard of this scam before, its normally a payment to Cameroon?

Thanks
by Bratek79 Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:17 am
Hi Bubbleman,

this is most defenitely a scam. Please check this site:
http://www.419scam.org/419-fastservice-com.htm

The other thing is that some of the polish organizations mentioned in the letter are not familiar with such provider as Fastservice - checked that already (I am from Poland) :)

Greetings
Bratek79
by TerranceBoyce Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:04 am
He wouldn't need a satellite phone to contact you from Egypt and if he doesn't have the money to buy a cell phone then he's a penniless bum and not in the army.

Only scammers believe that saying 'I love you' entitles them to hand you a wish list of goodies for you to buy them.

It's insulting that he considers you to be as shallow as he is. The only thing he deserves is your contempt.

CAR ADVERTS - If a car seller mentions escrow - he's scamming you Never ever for any reason pay anything until you have seen and inspected the vehicle
by Bubbleman Fri Apr 05, 2013 2:41 am
Thanks everyone, i have reported the fake email to the abuse email for fastservice.com.
I didn't really believe it all, but it is easy to get sucked into it, even when you know they are fake!!
by neverland Fri Jul 12, 2013 7:33 pm
Bubbleman,
Looks like Elvis Carney has got it down. The love letters he wrote to you, he also wrote to me. Yes, it is easy to get sucked in. The 831... love you forever... Did he use "you're my family now?" Write you poems? Make you feel like he was the one? :roll: After he asked the 2nd time for money (he asked at first - about 3wks into the relationship along with all the remarks about how much he loved me - I blew my top and called him a scammer, then forgave him :oops: ). (Don't know why I kept talking to him after the 1st request). When he asked the 2nd time I told him if that was what he was looking for he should move on. He did... He wasn't rude or anything.
I found another link too - http://www.justanswer.com/fraud-examine ... since.html
Poor lady - Thank God she was smart about it. Looks like he got a little rude with her.
It doesn't look like he has much preference. Anyone is eligible to be scammed by him. I should have reported him to someone other than the military (they seemed to protect him) and may be you all wouldn't have been contacted. My "imaginary" relationship with him ended last fall.
I just thought I'd drop you a line and let you know. You're not alone!
by Bubbleman Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:04 pm
Hi Neverland, thanks for your post, he was very good wasn't he....in fact, when i 'outed him' as a scammer, i got him to keep talking to me by asking why he did all this and who he really was....he is a Nigerian called Jonny, 34,apparently unmarried and doing this to help pay his bills (there's a surprise!!). His ' nick name is Koreals Papooze (kpapooze on yahoo). I thought i would string him along for a bit and see how far he would take it as himself! He told me he was relieved to talk to me as himself, sent me some pictures of himself and his friends...we even had a very short video phone chat!! He was still maintaining he loved me, but i told him as he had lied so much i couldn't return his feelings but was prepared to be friends! After a couple of weeks he was getting possessive...so i told him i was talking to a lad from Malawi too (i work with him but Jonny didn't know that) and i haven't heard from him since!!
All in all a very enlightening exercise, and i can spot a scammer a mile off now, just by the way they phrase questions and statements.
by Dotti Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:28 pm
Often when a scammer "confesses" it is because he thinks he has a chance to use a new angle to get your money. The confession is typically almost as full of lies as the original claims. Many times the claim that they really fell in love is the beginning of the next setup, which usually turns into a claim along the lines of "I'm starving here, and unless you send me money I will have to go back to scamming to feed myself."

As for the nice romantic poetry he "wrote" for you--you can rest assured that he did not. He just copied it from a website like lovingyou.com, which is a favorite haunt of scammers. If you google parts of some of the poems, chances are you will soon find them.

@neverland:

I should have reported him to someone other than the military (they seemed to protect him) and may be you all wouldn't have been contacted.


Just to be clear--the military is not protecting him. The scammer behind this is NOT a soldier (he is not even American), and has absolutely no connection to the US military. The US military has no authority over the scammer, and is unable to take any action against him.

The only thing the US military will protect is the right to privacy of the real soldier in the photos, whose only mistake was most likely to post them for friends and family, not realizing they would be stolen. And that soldier can and should have the right to be free from unwanted contact from victims of the scammer.

The correct place to report this is IC3--but in reality, they will most likely only log the report. International investigations are extremely expensive, and will only be launched when an extremely large sum of money is involved and there is a reasonable chance for success. They do not report or delete profiles (neither do we if they are free, because we'd rather the scammer continue under the same information so the warnings can be found. If you close down a scammer's profile or email, he will just open new ones, and in a matter of minutes they will be up and running under a new name and/or email address.)

Need to post photos? http://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219
Are you a victim of a romance scam? Read here for advice and FAQ's.
by neverland Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:24 pm
Good to hear from you Bubbleman. Yes we definitely can spot a scammer!
Dotti, thank you for all the information. I truly appreciate it.
by neverland Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:46 pm
Looks like I got "another" person (this time)called Jordan Lingo on Facebook trying to connect with me. For some reason my gut tells me its probably "Elvis" again. The Facebook page shows no history just like Elvis's did and when you do a internet search, he doesn't exist. https://www.facebook.com/lingo.jordan.56 funny, he's friend with a Saundra Bullock too. Just a heads up - I told this "person" to not contact me again.

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