by AlanJones
Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:20 am
Alan Grant ([email protected]), claims to be a British soldier stationed in Ghana and will use many lies to steal money from his victims. One of his common scams is to claim that he has caught trying to smuggle gold from Ghana into Europe and was arrested and put in custody. He also uses an email claiming to be the "Customs Ofice" ([email protected]) who are acting as his representative and mediator.
The scammer will also claim that there are taxes and other fees accumulating on the gold that he stole and ask his victims to pay those for him.
The scammer uses a phone with a +233 country code (Ghana) and the fake "Customs Office" uses a phone with a +4470 prefix.
There are a number of immediate indicators of a scam in the above.
A reverse image search of that image shows a number of hits, for scam reports and fake social networking profiles.
Scam Reports
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&p=73474 a report on this forum from November 2011 for the email address [email protected],
where the scammer claims to be a British soldier called Charles Degen, stationed in Afghanistan.
http://www.male-scammers.com/the-scammers.asp?id=1029 a report from a victim in December 2013, again using the name Charles Degen, but AKA John Chambers and Alan Grant. With the email addresses [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] and the phone number 233232645574.
If you were in contact with this person in the late part of 2013 and your name is not Helga from Germany, ask yourself why the man who is madly in love with you (and has possibly proposed to you) was also communicating with other women at the same time.
Social Media Profiles
There have been a number of Facebook profiles, but these appear to have been deleted, but there are 2 fake LinkedIn profiles still in existence.
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/john-chambers/64/817/a9b - claims to be John Chambers a member of the British Army.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-chambers/52/744/7b9 - claims to be either in HR or a charity worker at mo gold ltd (a search on the official UK Companies register at companies house shows that no such company exists) and previously a member of the armed forces.
There is also a third profile on LinkedIn with the same photograph, which I believe to be the real person in the photograph, who has no connection to the British military (or the scam - an innocent victim who made the mistake of putting his picture on his profile).
The scammer will also claim that there are taxes and other fees accumulating on the gold that he stole and ask his victims to pay those for him.
The scammer uses a phone with a +233 country code (Ghana) and the fake "Customs Office" uses a phone with a +4470 prefix.
There are a number of immediate indicators of a scam in the above.
- If someone had been arrested for a serious crime, such as gold smuggling, they would not be spending time contacting random people via Facebook or email begging for money - they would either be locked up in a cell and only able to contact their lawyers or if they had been released on bail, they would be spending their time with their lawyers working on a defence (if they can't afford their own lawyer then one would be allocated to them).
- A British person in London would not be communicating on the phone using a phone with a 233 country code - the roaming charges would cost them a fortune and it is easy to get a Pay As You Go phone, which would cost a lot less.
- The "Customs Office" (who ever they are - the name does not exist except in the scammers fantasy world) would not be using a free Yahoo email address - they would be a Government department and would have a official .gov.uk email address (with nothing after the .gov.uk).
- An official UK Government department, such as th "Customs Office", would not be using a phone number starting +4470 - these are personal redirect numbers. They are UK numbers, but can be redirected anywhere in the world. The only people who use numbers such as these are people (such as scammers) that want to give the impression of being in the UK when in fact they have probably never been to the country.
- The non-existent gold is stolen - it does not belong to "Alan Grant" and there would be no fees or taxes to be paid.
A reverse image search of that image shows a number of hits, for scam reports and fake social networking profiles.
Scam Reports
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&p=73474 a report on this forum from November 2011 for the email address [email protected],
where the scammer claims to be a British soldier called Charles Degen, stationed in Afghanistan.
http://www.male-scammers.com/the-scammers.asp?id=1029 a report from a victim in December 2013, again using the name Charles Degen, but AKA John Chambers and Alan Grant. With the email addresses [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] and the phone number 233232645574.
If you were in contact with this person in the late part of 2013 and your name is not Helga from Germany, ask yourself why the man who is madly in love with you (and has possibly proposed to you) was also communicating with other women at the same time.
Social Media Profiles
There have been a number of Facebook profiles, but these appear to have been deleted, but there are 2 fake LinkedIn profiles still in existence.
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/john-chambers/64/817/a9b - claims to be John Chambers a member of the British Army.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-chambers/52/744/7b9 - claims to be either in HR or a charity worker at mo gold ltd (a search on the official UK Companies register at companies house shows that no such company exists) and previously a member of the armed forces.
There is also a third profile on LinkedIn with the same photograph, which I believe to be the real person in the photograph, who has no connection to the British military (or the scam - an innocent victim who made the mistake of putting his picture on his profile).
Please do not tell scammers that they are listed here - it will take them seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be listed for any future victims to find.
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