by emme
Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:51 pm
I was scammed by Steven Lan Powell as well. I met him in Match.com, his nickname was blossomgreen. He used the Oil Rig story, telling me he was a Pretrochemical Engineer, graduated from Oxford. He spoke with me over the phone for more than a month. He had me call him at his cell number, with area code 650, while, supposedly, he e was working at an offshore oil rig in Northern Ireland. Told me he was 53 years old. He said he is Irish, and that he lives in SFO, on Page Street . [when I asked him for the exact address, he went mad. acting as if I h ad offended him by asking such things, as if I were not trusting him... Exactly right, that is why I was asking him for the address! ]
He said he has a daughter named Ashley Powell [who also sent me loving emails where she calls me 'mum' , sounding very protective of her dad , seeking someone to accept them and love them. Sweet, right? well I went for it. ]. With this, the old champ managed to extract from me several thousand dollars, [I wired money to this loving, lying 19 yr. old daughter, [the lil' scum bag] to save her as she was stranded in India in a hotel because, accidentally, she had broken a TV and the hotel management wasn't letting her leave, holding her passport.]. He begged me to help him save 'his baby' . since he was stranded at the rig, unable to access his personal bank account, Ashley was the only family he had left. All this, and of course the fact that claimed me as his one and only love, his soul mate, his most precious treasure, his Boo ... etc, etc, he sounded so madly in love with me madly. At that time, he had me totally taken, I promise you this guy is Great at what He Does, so .... I wired them my savings. He sounds as a mature man with a strong Irish/English accent. I couldn't understand half of the stuff he was saying, but did I care? no ... all I cared is that every know and then he murmured sweet loving words. He sounded so sweet and what he said was believable. We talked on the phone daily ... blegh ... sucks it was a lie! In reality his entire story was lame, lame !!! absurd, claiming that a 6.3, 53 yr. old man, Oxford engineer is stranded at an oil rig, and couldn't get out because he has problems accessing money to help his daughter vacationing in Indian, or that he couldn't finance replacing a broken part [which he described as a warehead .. what the heck is that? I googled warehear and nothing logical comes out. he said that he couldn't leave the rig until the idiotic broken warehead was replaced. Hee needed to buy it himself, because as a contractor he was responsible for replacing it. SO, I am suppose to believe that, HE HAS BEEN STAYING AT THAT RIG FOR MORE THAN TWO MONTHS NOW, HIDING FROM THE RIG SUPERVISORS, HE SAYS HE CAN LOOSE HIS LICENSE, { sure, people can hide at a rig, enjoying FREE ROOM AND BOARD, able to ACCESS DOCTORS, and of course laundry facilities, and who knows what else! according to him no one has noticed that he is there, hiding in his cabin. He is depressed, sick, sad, --of course missing me : / ... A LIE-- he is unable to finance replacing the part, or to buy an airline ticket to get off the rig! that is what he said to me. WHATEVER!!! He gave me information about his bank [a phony website that is set up to steal any private information you enter, called pishing], He wanted me to, supposedly, access his bank account that reports he having almost a million dollars in savings. The entire site is fake, all part of an elaborated scam. he wanted me to make me believe that he had money to make me trust him and to go ahead with lending him what he needed. Well, I sent him the money!! >: { He did promise he was going to pay me back though! Oh Steven !!!! he still says he loves me, but now he says his mother died while he is still trapped at that oil rig. Now, the doctor has diagnosed that he has high blood pressure, he needs my help. He needs more money to evacuate the rig. I not just wired money but also he had me buying him Visa Gift Cards, because, he said he needed to make long distance calls to contact vendors to have them ship to the rig the broken 'warehead'. Sad ... looking back all the story was lame. How I fell for it? I was lonely, thrustful, and he was such a great artist, to the point that when I look back I get excited just remembering the incredible things he said. He used the entire armament, did not stop at anything to make me feel as I never felt before, words that one can only dream, and that accent of his. Oh men! He made me feel so special, what a compelling act. I am his Boo, he said, and he is still calling me trying to extract money from me. I haven't told him that i know he is a scammer. A part of me wishes he were not a thief, a scammer, a rotten free loader, a horrible human being. I guess I learned how far some people will go to take advantage of people. Steven, (if that is his real name) still texts me. But he is short and dry now; he is upset with me because I refuse to send him money.
Thanks God for sites lie this one!!! through them I was able to find out about the"oil rig scam." Regrettably after it'd already happened.
I reported the unfortunate incident to IC3, Internet Crime Complaint Center which is run by the FBI.
I leaned that Steven was courting a lot of other women at the same time he was promising me forever love-- during May and June of this year--.
Ladies, beware! He doesn't stop at anything. Crying, one time he told me that his mother had just died, that he wanted to die on the rig, all because I hadn't sent him more money so he could take action and solve the situation, not even to save our love. --So sad, right? : ( -- By the way, just before I met Steven Lan Powell, I met Armando Blancon, both in Match and both oil rig scammer... colleagues I guess .... Lucky me !
Well, Armando, or Arman as he preferred to be called, had no game at all, he was lousy scamming. he made several mistakes, sent me emails addressing me with another woman's name. He lacked of experience, copying other people's emails I guess and bad editing, {he said so himself, cause his english was bad. so idiotic. he ruined it for himself. maybe he would have gotten my money before Steven did.) His apologies and excuses were lame. I finally googled his name and I found it as part of a list of reported dating sites scammers. Please be careful. Ask the men you meet in the internet to skype, to meet with you. Google their names and any information they give you. i.e., their phone numbers and email address. There are all type of predators out there, not just the ones that are scamming for money, there are many more ways this type of people seek to take advantage of women. Sorry this is long, I am so frustrated, this guy sucked up all my good intentions to go on dating after my divorce. Oh well, hopefully I learned enough from the experience. two more names Brandt Westengard, and Patrick Moore one in Match and the latter one in Chemistry.com. [they get on during the free weekend trials and leave before they have to pay for subscription, watch for that as well! ] I am sure they are scammer too. They were giving me the same spew of the cheated man, or the widow with child looking for .... well you know the rest.... Is there a school for scammer, one would think they would try changing the story once in a while.
