Nigerian Scammer

I was advised to do a posting here by 419Eaters to get some feedback on my situation. Here is my posting from that site:

I have been chatting with a man in Nigeria since 2002. He claims to be a pastor and back then, he told me he wanted to come over here and meet me because he felt that God had told him to marry me. Now, 6 years later, he is still saying this. I do want him to come over, because I would like to meet him. But now he has started asking for money and gifts. For instance, just today he asked me if I knew what a Rolex watch was. When I told him how expensive they were, he said that his father had asked for one and he had laughed at his father. He then went on to ask me to send his father a gift. When I pointed out to him (for the hundredth time) that I have no money, he said that when he comes over, the two of us can buy his father a gift. Then, just about an hour ago, he messaged me and told me that he'd been robbed by an armed robber. Here's the clincher - he said he had no money and no food, and he actually asked me to send him money. When I AGAIN told him that I have no money (I will have to borrow money myself just to get back and forth to work), he said that a friend of his would send ME a check and I could cash it over here and mail it to him. This sounds like a scam to me. Am I being overly cautious??? I know that I tend to be very suspicious of anyone who claims any type of interest in me, so I just want to make sure I'm not overreacting. When I told him that there was no point in having anyone send any checks to me, that he could cash the check himself right there, he accused me of turning my back on him and not loving him (I can't possibly love someone I've only talked to online for the last 6 years and have never met). I think I'm being scammed by a real con artist. What does anyone else think??

The majority of our communication has been via YIM. We originally met 6 years ago on a Christian singles site. After emailing each other on that site, we exchanged YIM id's and started chatting live. At first we chatted almost daily, but when I made it clear that I was not going to give him my phone number and that I was not interested in marrying him, he backed off and we only chatted once or twice a month. Until a couple months ago. We now chat almost daily again. The begging for money only started in the last month.

I'm fairly certain that this is a scam and that he's chatting from a cafe, even though he claims to be at his church. Most of the time, when I message him, I get a notice on YIM that he's using an older version of the program. But occasionally, I notice that he's using a newer version - I can tell because I am able to buzz him when he's using the newer version, and I don't get a message saying that he's using an older version. He also frequently disconnects and he says it's because the server is slow.

The ID he uses on YIM is S a m o b a 4 g o d. I have googled that as well as the 3 email addresses I have for him, and I have come up with nothing. That leads me to believe that he's using other ID's. I have also googled the name he gave me, Samuel Abiodun Oreoluwa - again, nothing came up. Apparently, he travels between Lagos and Johannesburg, as I have addresses for both places.

I have absolutely no intentions of sending him (or anyone else) any money. I also have made the decision that there is no way I want him to come to the US. We had discussed this, and he originally said that I would have to send him a letter of invitation and include my financial information with that letter. When I pointed out that I could find nowhere where it said I would have to provide HIM with my financial information and I demanded that he send me a direct link showing me this, he changed his story and said that it would be best if my church invite him over. Yea right - fat chance. He has been insistent that I help him get a VISA from Nigeria, and the latest is that he is going to travel to Barbados and get a VISA from there, and I am supposed to help him do that. (I'll try to stop laughing.)

Anyway, any comments/feedback is much appreciated.

Hi LostatLove

One word - SCAM!!!

It seems you're aware of this now but it has to be said again.

6 years is a long time for a love scammer to work on a single victim but if he thought you had no money he may purely have been grooming you until he thought you did.
Take out the long time period and his tactics are exactly what we have seen many, many times before.

Your next step is to cease all communication with this lowlife. Block him from your email addresses and delete him from your buddy list. Don't spend one more second on him. If you do, you can guarantee that he'll only try working to get you back on-board again. You may think that now you know he's a scammer, there's no harm done still speaking to him, but these guys can be very, very convincing so don't take a chance.

It's emotionally wrenching finding out that someone you may have trusted has turned out to be a liar and a thief, but believe me, it would have been much, much worse if you had actually fallen for the whole scam. The check that he would have sent you would probably have been for thousands of dollars and once you had sent the money to him, it would have bounced and you would have had to repay everything.

It may sound harsh but you need to forget this vermin, get him out of your life totally, brush yourself off and get on with your life.

@ChrisSmith

Thank you. Warning well taken. I know far too well what can happen when one falls for a love scam. I fell for one done by my childhood sweetheart - the only man I have ever truly loved. He worked me for a year, convinced me that God had told him to marry me, convinced me that he had accepted a call to the ministry, got me to quit my job, leave my friends and family, and move back to my home state. Five months later, on Valentine's Day, after he realized I wouldn't be able to pay his bills or his rent because I wasn't able to find a job that paid what I was earning before the move, he told me that he couldn't marry me. I gave up everything for this scammer. I now have nothing - absolutely nothing. What money I did have, he ate (literally - the man weighs almost 500 pounds and does nothing but eat and sleep - except for when he's trolling the internet looking for a new victim). Call me tainted, but I'm not trusting any man that is expressing an interest in me. So when Pastor Sam started hinting that he wanted me to send money, the alarms started going off.

There is no doubt in my mind that he would try to convince me that he has done nothing wrong - that he only has good intentions - to come to the US and marry the woman that God says is his wife. Been there, done that - no thank you.

Hi LostatLove! I'm glad to see that you made it here. Thanks for posting your story.

Welcome LostatLove!

You are blessed with good instincts! I'm glad you found us and shared your story. Perhaps someone else will find this post when their alarm bells go off.

It sounds like you already understand check scams, but if you're interested in learning more, check out the section here that discusses check scams, or www.fakechecks.org

I know all too well about check scams. I worked for Legal Aid - we saw victims in our office far too often. And a very good friend of mine who is mentally disabled fell for a Nigerian check scam to the tune of $20,000. Her only income is SSI. My friend is so disabled that a few weeks after this happened, she fell for yet another scam where she was told a distant relative had died - and you know the rest of the story. So, when my Nigerian suggested his friend mail me a check and I cash it, I was finished with him.

I did chat with him today to tell him to leave me alone. He denied having said any of those things. I cut and pasted the log and he still denies it. He insists that someone was using his ID - that he may have left his ID logged onto YIM. Even if that IS the case, it tells me that he's hanging around scammers and feels okay doing that.

Hi lost and welcome

I am pretty certain that he IS a scammer, I have done some research on the details you supplied but unfortunately found now proof.

OBL over there is doing some work on him I se so when she does we can get the proof we need over here to hopefully help others

Thank you for posting

I just wanted to update this information. I've been doing some snooping and baiting of my own. OBL never got a response from this guy and I'm guessing it's because he's using other email addresses now. He very rarely checks any of the email addresses that I have for him. However, he did continue to chat with me on YIM until last weekend when he chatted via webcam (mine is packed so I didn't have it to use ). It was obvious that he was chatting from a cafe although he told me he was in the church library. It was also apparent that he was chatting with at least 4 other people judging by his eye movement and in fact tried to call one of them - WHILE I WAS WATCHING HIM!!! When I mentioned it, he apologized and said he was chatting with 'church members.' He also appeared to be extremely nervous and finally had to get offline because "I'm being bothered by someone." (I knew it was him because he has sent me quite a few pictures - and they are REALLY HIM )

Anyway, I contacted agencies in South Africa and Nigeria in an attempt to determine whether the NGO he claims he has registered in both countries even exists. This is the response I received today:

Good day!



We have check on our NPO database for the organization in question; however, we were not successful in tracing it on our database. It could be due to the fact that the names that you provided us with are not the exact names registered on our database. Kindly request the Pastor for an NPO number for the organization so that we may be able to confirm if it is registered. Thanking you for your email.



Regards,



Ntwampe

I don't need to ask for any numbers. This is my confirmation that this really was a 6-year scam. I'm still amazed that he let me drag him along for 6 years. It also amazes me that he waited until I was in dire straits to start asking me for money and gifts. When I had a really good job and was making decent money, he wasn't asking me for anything. Also, I might add that he never asked me for anything again after I told him off about asking me for a Rolex and money.

I had asked him for a picture of him preaching and a recording of one of his sermons. I started sending him emails every day just to say hi and to remind him I am still waiting for these trophies. He was only checking the email once or twice a week and not responding to them. The last time that I saw him on YIM (he's running invisible), he pretended that he wasn't getting any of my responses to his messages. Haven't heard from him since.

I have three email addresses for him. Do I need to post them here?

I'm almost a little sad that my 6-year bait (even though I didn't realize I was baiting him until a few months ago) has come to an end.

Thanks for posting,

Yes, please do post the email addresses he uses, it may help somebody else.

Meanwhile dont be too upset that you have lost him, there are plenty more where he came from that would be happy to provide you with entertainment, the members from the romance section at Eater will give you any guidance you need.

Remember that any time a scammer spends communicating with a baiter is time that he is not spending to convince a real victim,

it does make a difference and we at scamwarners appreciate any effort to waste their time so well done

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He apparently is using other email addresses these days as these are not being checked more than once or twice a week. The cacrftem one hasn't been checked in almost a month.

I'm working on making my hit man turn into a love bait so I don't really have time for another love scammer these days hehehehe. It's a pleasure to waste their time

Losta, I am glad that you posted his email addresses. If anyone searches those email addresses, they can be led to your story and hopefully be saved from financial loss and heartbreak.

Thank you for making this contribution to Scamwarners!