Scam? What can I do?

Hello, I have a feeling I have been scammed. It all started with someone contacting be suddenly on skype, a girl who I started to chat with. After a while we shared to webcam chat which turned out to be a scam since she showed me a video and not live cam. She convinced me that she would come and visit me, but she had she issues at the airport. Got fooled and help her out...
After a while I realized that it was scam since she asked me to send it to her country and not to the country where she was. When one send money with these payment services it like sending cash in a letter.
When I told her to return what I had sent to her, she "did" with westerunion.
But she didnt have the money for the transfer fee... which I happily sent to her....
...after a while I started to chat with the WU agent who she sent the money with, he wanted a "safety fee".... and then some more.... SIGH!

After a while I got tired of that and gave up since nothing came back, once when I "a copy of the reciept" it was a copy of my transfer to her.

About a year ago I got contacted on facebook by some one else who told me he got a case from westernunion to investigate... and I thought that sounded promissing.
Then it continued, transfers for this and that...

Does anyone know what I can do now?
I live in sweden, have reported this to the police. They didnt investigate it all, they only told me that it's very hard to do anything here in sweden. When it's far away like in my case, impossible!!

I still have contact with them, but not sending anything anymore!
Cause I dont have anything left, have been very naive and blueeyed...

The scammers are in Phillippines.

[AlanJones]

Money sent by Western Union is irretrievable and anyone who is telling you they will get you a refund is just scamming you further.

Write the money off as a learning experience as I'm afraid you won't be getting it back.

In future if anyone you meet on the Internet asks you to send money for anything, walk away as it is a scam.

Isnt there anyone investigating this cind's of cases, these people shouldn't be able to continue scamming people?
It's anying to be this helpless...

[AlanJones]

You sent the money by an irreversible anonymous method - it will have probably have been collected using a fake ID.

Unfortunately, the authorities in your country won't be interested in an international investigation for the amount you lost and the authorities in the country the money was sent to won't be interested as they know there is no chance of finding who collected the money.

All you can do is post the details of the scammers, so that there is less chance of them doing it to someone else.

You can try this site : http://econsumer.gov/

But I would not put a lot of hope into the situation. The laws regarding cross border complaints have not caught up to the information age yet.

Yes it is frustrating CRzz. Unfortunate to say but an actual investigation into the scammers will be unlikely to happen. The Swedish police will not be allowed to travel to the Philippines to investigate. Too much paperwork would be involved and the cost of such operations would be against it happening. It seems the only thing police do is file any reports that are made. The police at the scammers location are unlikely to start an investigation because they are too busy with more important issues like murders, rapes, robberies etc. Scammers do not rate highly on the police investigation scale. Education is a very powerful weapon against scam artists and posting any details you have would be a good start. Your report will help someone in the future.

I actually have sent some money to accounts at metro bank in PHP throu Worldremit.

Hillbilly: That site is for online purchase, that not it. Can I make a clame there anyway?

Are there no other options for me?

I am sorry to say it was an expensive lesson. There is NO way to retrieve your money (and anyone who says they can help you get your money back is a SCAM) and there is no way to find or prosecute these people. Thats why being educated about scams is best, because now it will not happen to you again. If in doubt ALWAYS ask us for help here.

Hillbilly: That site is for online purchase, that not it. Can I make a clame there anyway?

Are there no other options for me?

I looked through the site and it says http://www.econsumer.gov/english/report/overview.shtm

Please Note:
If your complaint is not against a foreign company, we recommend you contact a consumer protection agency in your country.

Then a link to the Swiss agency takes me to this page :
http://www.seco.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en

You can file a complaint, but you need to know the only thing it will do is provide #'s for the government to determine how much crime is going on in which places. It will not likely result in any government action against your scammer(s).
Like the others have said, your money is likely gone for good. Its an expensive lesson most of us have learned the hard way, but for many of us the broken heart hurts more than losing the money does.

[AlanJones]

Then a link to the Swiss agency takes me to this page :
http://www.seco.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en

Am I missing something? - I can't see anything in the thread to link the scam to Switzerland. I live in Switzerland, so I've got a few contacts that I can report scam to, but I can't see the connection for this thread.

Thanks Alan, My bust. I confused Sweden with Swiss.... Heck, they both start with an S, so my old age is showing....

I live in sweden, have reported this to the police. They didnt investigate it all, they only told me that it's very hard to do anything here in sweden. When it's far away like in my case, impossible!!

The swede link is here : http://www.konsumentverket.se/