Was recommended by 419 eater to post this here...

This is just copied from my 419eater post.

My mother has been an (attempted) victim of a scammer.

What should I do?

She met him on OK Cupid and within about 2 days he was "madly in love" with her and was sending her paragraphs worth of poetry in every message and calling her "My Love" and "Darling" that quickly.

He said he was very rich and that as soon as he got back from his job on an oil rig, he would come and see her and take her away on a wonderful vacation and buy a house for the two of them to live happily ever after in... and this was only about a week after meeting her.

Then he says that his daughter, who was training to be a professional ballroom dancer and would often go on trips around the world to competitions with her dancing school, had fallen and broken her leg while in Germany, and she didn't have the money for medical bills.

He said that he couldn't wire the daughter any money because he was on the oil rig, and that it would be really helpful if my mom could send something like $4,000 to a specified address, so she could get the medical bills paid, and then when he got off the oil rig and came to pick up my mom, he would pay her back double and then, as he promised before, whisk her away to paradise.

She believed every single word of it.

Luckily, she hasn't a penny to her name, so she couldn't send him anything. I told her that it was an obvious scam but she wouldn't believe me. She was practically ready to disown me because I "didn't want (her) to be happy".

Eventually, after she assured this guy that she didn't have the money to send, he pretended he didn't know her. He replied to her emails like "Who are you? What are you talking about? Love? I don't even know you! You've got the wrong guy!", but it was still the same email address. Then he blocked her email, blocked her on Facebook, deleted his OK Cupid account and blocked our phone number (and yes, she had called and texted him).

So she was distraught. She more or less had to believe what I and everyone else had been telling her since day 1, this guy was a con artist.

But then he sends he an email about a month later, saying that he didn't know what happened and that she must have been sending emails to the wrong person and that his phone was broken (which was all nonsense). Now he says that he's going to be coming into town in the next few days... and this time he needs her to wire him some money so he can rent a car to get to where we live. He assures her that he was coming in that weekend, and that, as before, he would pay her back and then whisk her off to paradise.

Well, she of course tells him that she has no money to give him, because she doesn't. He never shows up. He stops contacting her for about another month.

Then I find out that she's been taking to him online for the past few weeks and that he is, of course, playing lovey dovey with her, writing walls of poetry (that he obviously just copied and pasted from somewhere) and swearing that he's going to come and see her soon.

I'm sick and tired of it and I want this man stopped. Especially since my mom is eating up every bit of it and is once again screaming at me that I'm trying to ruin her life and that she wants to disown me and blah blah blah.

I have his name (probably a pseudonym), his apparent daughter's name (which probably doesn't exist), his apparent place of employment (which probably is fake) and his Email address. My mom also has his phone number but I'm sure she won't give me it.

What can I do?

Now I find out that he is asking her to go and buy a Vanilla Visa prepaid card to send her money.

A quick Google search tells me the Vanilla Visa is a huge ripoff and doesn't work 90% of the time. But is there any way for him to take advantage of this and somehow get money from her through this method?

Welcome

Sorry to read this please read the PM that I have sent you !

The Vanilla Visa Card is a Gift Card and is not intended or able to be used for person to person payments.

Also

Due to changes in applicable law, gift cards purchased after March 31, 2012 may not be used for international transactions or purchases.

and

Can I reload my gift Card?
The Card is not reloadable or returnable.

That means that no one can pay money on to a card or make a transfer on to it. Once it is purchased the value is fixed for ever more. The scammer is an idiot but he'll try to find a way to make use of any money loaded on to the card.

The problem is that a scammer will disrupt and destroy your life in his attempts to find a way to steal money. He may have an idea how to get money or goods from your mother, or get something and put the blame/cost on her, but he doesn't care what trouble or problems it gives his victim, even if it doesn't work.

The scammer principle is control, and just by getting a victim to do his bidding, he'll keep issuing demands until he finds the right tactic that will provide him with money. I've had the same scammer ring me 20 times a day for days on end and the intention is to exert mental pressure on a victim. I have an answerphone and I'm happy to hear them wasting their phone time and money on me rather than target a real victim.

The next step is that he'll want to take control of the card to enable him to use it at your mother's expense, of that there is no doubt.

If he really wanted to send your mother money he could use Western Union - a service all scammers are familiar with.

The problem isn't with the Vanilla Visa Card but that a scammer is trying to misuse it to perform a fraud on your mother.

I could fill the page with a list of financial services, cards and systems that scammers will attempt to use and abuse, usually knowing that many people don't know what they're for and how they work, often including themselves. The point is that they don't care because if they control their victim and can get them under their control, they know they can eventually get them to do something they can take advantage of.

A scammer knows everyone has money, even if its pension payments or state or federal relief and they won't bat an eye to take that, and they'll not hesitate to get a victim to take out loans. Your mother is at risk as long as she remains in contact with him.