by TheDaughter
Thu May 30, 2013 6:17 am
Hi!
I'm new to this site, I'm a Danish citizen and I'm not even directly related to the US, however I'm in need of your help since these scammers have no boundaires..
Here's my mother's story:
My mom is a 59 year old widow - her late husbond died from cancer in 2011 - and she's been on a couple of Danish dating sites for about 6 months, I think.
In early January she met a man online, connected with him - also IRL - and of course developed feelings for ham, she's a very vulnerable person. Successful in her professional life but I'm afraid she feels lonely in her personal life without a man. Anyway, this man called off the relationsship shortly after it began and she was rather upset about it, understandably, but shortly after this happened I noticed she was texting all the time so I thought she'd probably already 'met' a new man online and was writing with ham. No harm in that.
Though I felt a bit concerned and I remember thinking that I hoped she was aware of all the scammers and criminals out there. I was afraid she wouldn't think of or know all the hazards you can put yourself in..
In April my oldest son (he's 6 years old) tells me that grandmother has a new boyfriend. And he's American.
The part about a new 'boyfriend' didn't surprise me since I knew she's already texting a lot and so on.
My husbond and I then asks her if she has met a man and what's the story - we're curiously hoping she'd found a good man - not yet knowing what's going on.
And here comes the scam..
He's an American building constructor working i Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He claims to have lived in Denmark when they met online (late February and early March) and that he has an adress here and that he'll be coming back when the building project is finished.
This man has of course told her how much he loves her, that he's a widower (of course..), wants to marry her and live in Denmark with her and yeah, promised her the moon, but it didn't take long before he had to 'borrow' money to pay some taxes, later it was materials that were stolen from the construction site where he's employed and now he's asking for $1500 for cab fees to get the materials to the construction site! It's insane that she believes him!
She's tried to ask questions regarding the materials, were they not insured and so on, but he manages to convince that it's not normal procedure to insure a construction site. The crazy part is that her son, my younger brother, is a carpenter, she asked him about stolen materials and insurance and she KNOWS that insurance is necessary.
His English varies a lot. From an English with proper spelling and grammar to something that's so obviously not written by a US citizen. My mother speaks English almost fluently, like a second language, so it's not that she can't see it because of a language barrier, but she concludes that the bad spelling is because he's tired, stressed out, frustrated and so on.
Sometimes his English is perfect but very formal or looks like it's a (love) text he's copy-pasted. It's only when he talks about 'infinite love and forever and ever' his English has just a bit of punctuation and grammar.
He's even managed to send her the same lovetext twice within a few days.. She must be so blind!?
How do I know all this!?
I must admit that I've read a lot of their email correspondance, I hate that and I feel like I've 'broken into her privacy' however I didn't know what else to do and I needed to be sure that it in fact is a scam.
I've contacted the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur, they're very helpfull and have provided me with links to other sites and they've offered to verify his ID if we can get him to email a copy of his passport. Or at least the name and adress of his hotel. However they also believe this is a scam.
I've also contacted her bank today and they also want to help so I'm calling them later today. All the money she has given him is transferred via Western Union.
I hope that some of you can help me. I'm afraid my mom is so 'lovestruck' that she'll be unable to resist his pressure for more and more money and I need solid proof before I can confront her with my knowledge.
His name is Robert Johnson and his email is: [email protected]
I also have his phonenumber and I have seen a slip from a postoffice where he's stated as Robert Ting.
Can you help me in some way? I'll provide further info if needed - also pictures.
Thank you for your time.
I'm new to this site, I'm a Danish citizen and I'm not even directly related to the US, however I'm in need of your help since these scammers have no boundaires..
Here's my mother's story:
My mom is a 59 year old widow - her late husbond died from cancer in 2011 - and she's been on a couple of Danish dating sites for about 6 months, I think.
In early January she met a man online, connected with him - also IRL - and of course developed feelings for ham, she's a very vulnerable person. Successful in her professional life but I'm afraid she feels lonely in her personal life without a man. Anyway, this man called off the relationsship shortly after it began and she was rather upset about it, understandably, but shortly after this happened I noticed she was texting all the time so I thought she'd probably already 'met' a new man online and was writing with ham. No harm in that.
Though I felt a bit concerned and I remember thinking that I hoped she was aware of all the scammers and criminals out there. I was afraid she wouldn't think of or know all the hazards you can put yourself in..
In April my oldest son (he's 6 years old) tells me that grandmother has a new boyfriend. And he's American.
The part about a new 'boyfriend' didn't surprise me since I knew she's already texting a lot and so on.
My husbond and I then asks her if she has met a man and what's the story - we're curiously hoping she'd found a good man - not yet knowing what's going on.
And here comes the scam..
He's an American building constructor working i Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He claims to have lived in Denmark when they met online (late February and early March) and that he has an adress here and that he'll be coming back when the building project is finished.
This man has of course told her how much he loves her, that he's a widower (of course..), wants to marry her and live in Denmark with her and yeah, promised her the moon, but it didn't take long before he had to 'borrow' money to pay some taxes, later it was materials that were stolen from the construction site where he's employed and now he's asking for $1500 for cab fees to get the materials to the construction site! It's insane that she believes him!
She's tried to ask questions regarding the materials, were they not insured and so on, but he manages to convince that it's not normal procedure to insure a construction site. The crazy part is that her son, my younger brother, is a carpenter, she asked him about stolen materials and insurance and she KNOWS that insurance is necessary.
His English varies a lot. From an English with proper spelling and grammar to something that's so obviously not written by a US citizen. My mother speaks English almost fluently, like a second language, so it's not that she can't see it because of a language barrier, but she concludes that the bad spelling is because he's tired, stressed out, frustrated and so on.
Sometimes his English is perfect but very formal or looks like it's a (love) text he's copy-pasted. It's only when he talks about 'infinite love and forever and ever' his English has just a bit of punctuation and grammar.
He's even managed to send her the same lovetext twice within a few days.. She must be so blind!?
How do I know all this!?
I must admit that I've read a lot of their email correspondance, I hate that and I feel like I've 'broken into her privacy' however I didn't know what else to do and I needed to be sure that it in fact is a scam.
I've contacted the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur, they're very helpfull and have provided me with links to other sites and they've offered to verify his ID if we can get him to email a copy of his passport. Or at least the name and adress of his hotel. However they also believe this is a scam.
I've also contacted her bank today and they also want to help so I'm calling them later today. All the money she has given him is transferred via Western Union.
I hope that some of you can help me. I'm afraid my mom is so 'lovestruck' that she'll be unable to resist his pressure for more and more money and I need solid proof before I can confront her with my knowledge.
His name is Robert Johnson and his email is: [email protected]
I also have his phonenumber and I have seen a slip from a postoffice where he's stated as Robert Ting.
Can you help me in some way? I'll provide further info if needed - also pictures.
Thank you for your time.
