General Marcus Stanley Banks - Romance scam

Yep, I already know this is a scam, but it's not me that is being scammed but my friend's mother. So far, this is what I know:

* The scammer contacted her on match.com although she did not have a picture or any profile info (besides gender, age and name).
* He claims to be a General stationed in Afghanistan.
* He says he wants to come to Norway to marry her.
* He should've come to Norway twice the past 5 weeks, but something has stopped him every time. I am unsure wether or not she has sent him money for the flight ticket.
* They have tried skyping, but every time his camera fails, so they end up chatting instead (via skype).
* He wants her to invest several million NOK ( a total of 600K USD or so) in some sort of secret project. Something to do with automisation of agriculture. She won't tell her own daughter more about it, cause it's very hush-hush
* He also requested that she send him an iPhone. Not sure if she has done this yet.
* She has the money. She's good for it, and is ready to send it. Anyone who questions the legitimacy of this scam is getting yelled at. She just now (15 mins ago) threatened never to speak to her own daughter again.

Of course this is a scam, but what do we do? How do we prevent her from screwing herself over? We even contacted the lokal economics crime dept. and they immidiately set up an appointment to try and convince her it is a scam, but I doubt she will turn up.

So I am looking at other options.
a) Does anyone know of a documented scam where the same name has been used, or 10 scams that are so similar if presented together they might convince her?
b) Is it possible to track the IP of a skype chat to see if he's really where he claims to be? (and what do we say when he claims his IP is redirected cause he's military)
c) Any other options? Get him to send a picture, then find out who is really on that picture?

Thanks for any help in advance.

I should probably get more info, like what name he uses on his match profile (which apparently is deleted now), his skype-nick etc, but she is really aggresive and secretive about stuff. Will try and figure out more every hour, but I fear we're short on time here.

PS: Sorry for the bad formatting, but my workplace's firewall is blocking all button icons, so I have no idea what they do.

Allright, an update.

The daughter managed to guess her mother's password. She found his contact e-mail wich matches some known scams. She's afraid her mother will see that she is online and change passwords, so she is afraid to "linger" in her e-mail and logged out. So what should she look for, what's the most important thing to know?

His contact info (sic)
Mrcus Stanley Banks <[email protected]>

[AlanJones]

It is a definite scam and you will find many similar ones in the Romance scams section.

The fact is that US soldiers serving overseas (especially high ranking ones) do not spend their time on the Internet contacting random strangers - only scammers looking for potential victims do that.

A search of the email address [email protected] shows a number of hits on anti-scam websites going back to 2013.

No doubt the iPhone that he wants her to buy him (I'm surprised that someone with hundreds of thousands of $ to invest can't afford a few hundred for a phone, but has to rely on a stranger to buy it for him) will have to be sent to West Africa and similar with any money she sends.

[AlanJones]

A few things for her to look for and download:

Any photos he has sent - these can be reverse searched on Goolge and TinEye.
Grab his early emails to her - these will be scripted and searching key phrases in them will often show other uses of the same script or the sites they were stolen from. If you can post them here, we can also show you where the language used is not that of a true American (even educated Africans have a particular way of writing English that gives them away).
Links to any social networking sites.

If you give us the email address and clips from the emails he sent we can prove that most of it comes from a script, also that the pictures he is using are stolen (in reality he is an african boy) I am hoping so much you can reach her before its too late,

^^^Thank you for assistance. Alan Jones has made correct post to the Op. I also believe the email address was posted.

Please do not re-direct victims off this site.

[AlanJones]

Romance Scammer Marcus S Banks - [email protected]
Tel. No.: +16183900179

From: Mrcus S Banks - [email protected]

Hello my beloved XXX,

Now, I want you to read carefully. But I am doing this because of the love and Trust I have for you:

This happened few weeks back. We had a report in our camp that a woman is kidnapped. It was very serious. No one was willing to help search for the woman because it is dangerous here with such issues. The kidnappers asked the son of the woman to pay an amount of 12 million USD before they release the woman. Whiles the son was coming from Canada with the money, I decided to help. I decided to search for her. I started a search with five of my best men. we were able to rescue the woman. She was alive. We arrested the kidnappers. It was very dangerous. I will tell you more about it when I come home.

A week ago, The woman and her billionaire son who owns Gold refinery factory came to my office. The son has a Refinery Factory in Canada. He was very happy, he thanked me for the rescue of his mother.

He then gave me a briefcase. I didn't want to accept it. To my surprise, When I opened the briefcase, it contained pure Gold and Diamonds. Very expensive Gold and diamond. He gave it to me as an appreciation for the rescue of his mother. I didn't want to accept it but the mother and her son insisted.I had no other option than to accept it.

That is all about the package. I have already spoken with Frank Cody. He will contact you very soon.

This is my number you asked for. You can text me any time you want to talk with me because I might be busy on patrol.

This is my number: +1 618-390-0179

It is international Roaming number, I can use it here and also in USA and any where I go in the World. I only contact the network and they will switch to the Country I am in.

Note that, I will never do anything to hurt you. I truly love and trust you with all my heart.

millions of kisses

Your Marcus