If you have been scammed, please post here and share your experience; it may help others avoid the same situation!
by levni Sat May 14, 2011 5:22 pm
Hi everyone, I am new on this forum, I wanted to share my concerns and problems with you in the hope that you might advise me.
The story is a bit complicated so please bare with me, plus I am Dutch so I may make some spelling faults.. :wink:

To begin with my dad passed away a year ago, my mum was a bit lost a you might imagine, though looking for a new love quite soon. My mum's older brother who has been in contact with a young girl from Accra Ghana told her that this girl might have a friend, her bodyguard, who might be interested in a relationship with my mum.

My mum's older brother, my uncle, has already sent 80.000 Euros to this girl who claims she is the heir of a goldmine and being purchased by "bandits" who want to have her killed. That is the reason she has a bodyguard.
My mum showed me pictures of the girl my uncle had been in touch with and I looked them up on the internet. All the pictures of the girl are in fact pictures of Raven Riley.
I told my mum and uncle but they have this incredible explanation that in fact Raven Riley is using this girl's face :roll:
They are realy unconvincable, unbelievable!!!

Then the contact started between my mum and the girl's bodyguard. His name is William Rahl Carter, an American General working for the Ghanese army, stationed in the army compound in Accra.
He started by mailing my mum loads of texts and poems, I looked them up on the internet and they are commonly used by scammers. Again I told my mum, this time she was convinced he was a scammer, thank god!
I adviced her NOT to tell this William or Bill as she calls him, she was on to him and she agreed.

Two weeks later I spoke to my mum and she told me that she again was in contact with Bill, she had just asked him about the texts he had used. He had answered that he was so insecure and shy that he had taken some texts from te internet and that he was so sorry. I told my mum "of course what else did you expect him to say...." But she said he had responded to her question right away and very sincerely and that he was an honest and sincere man.

Since then the strangest things have happened. Once while my mum was on the phone with him a fruit basket got delivered at his door. He told my mum that the basket had been delivered and asked her if she had sent it to him. "No" my mum replied "I don't know your adress...". The phone conversation continued and he explicetely told my mum during the conversation that he was eating from the fruitbasket. Then whilst talking he said he wasn't feeling too well, he said he felt so bad that he would have to contact the GP.
A day later he called my mum from the military hospital and said someone had tried to poison him.
He stayed in IC but he could chat on Yahoo :o

A couple of weeks ago he was taken to hospital once again and taken on life support all because of the poisoning of the other time. He contacted my mum from IC again and said it was too bad that he was admitted to hospital because he had just booked a ticket to France, where we live.
My mum was very upset and believed the whole story.

Now he has convinced my mum to move back to her country of origine, Holland. He says he wants to go there with his daughter, who is 19 and calling my mother 'mummy" :x .*
But because he has an american passport he would have to marry my mum to stay, and he is bringing his daughter.

He says he is 53 years old from Kentucky, an American General, who has been trained in Italy and has served in Iraque. He was married to a Ghanese woman who tried to poison him, from her he has a daughter named Hershey.
He cannot install a webcam it is impossible for him!!! He can call my mum, he does send pics of him and his daughter.
He is not on facebook, he does not want any contact on the MSN chat because he says it is not available in Ghana. He only wants to chat on the YAhoo.
My mum is 62.

Dear people the contact between me and my mum has gone from best friends to a point where we can't have a normal conversation. I just lost my dad and now I feel I am losing my mum and grandmother to my two kids of 7 and 4 years old.

If you want I can give you the email adresses he uses and the pics...???

Thank you for your attention, because I feel pretty lost and angry at the moment,
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by Helen Halper Sat May 14, 2011 9:12 pm
Hi levni!
Welcome to Scamwarners.
I'm so sorry to hear that your Mum is being scammed. Having your relationship with her going bad over this must hurt a lot.
Yes, please post the email addresses and photos that the scammer is using.
Try to get your Mum to read this post: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3607

by Bubbles Sun May 15, 2011 12:26 am
Welcome levni Helen has given you great advice. Posting up the scammer's name and email address is one of the best things you can do.

I am sure your mum isn't listening to reason at this time. It doesn't stand to reason that an Army General would bee too afraid to write in his own words. If your mum keeps asking him to explain himself he will give her some story to try to keep her on the hook to try to get money from her too.

This scammer probably had many victims he is scamming while he is scamming your mum. The deal with having your mum move back may be to get her away from you. These criminals love to prey on widows and other vulnerable people.

Please do post his email address and the name he uses, he needs to be exposed here.

Your mum is lucky to have you looking out for her. :D

Bubbles, former Scamwarners moderator.

Rest in Peace 24 June 2015.

Gone, but never forgotten.
by levni Sun May 15, 2011 4:44 am
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http://www.4freeimagehost.com/show.php? ... 077cb8.jpg


http://www.4freeimagehost.com/show.php? ... 41627f.jpg

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http://www.4freeimagehost.com/show.php? ... 8d1a8a.jpg

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The email adresses he uses are,

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

He says he is 6.8 feet tall.

Thank you so much for replying to my post, I hope I did well on uploading the images....
by levni Sun May 15, 2011 4:47 am
Helen and Bubbles just wanted to thank you again for your warm words, I must say I feel a lot better today, just knowing I am not all alone in this.
by levni Sun May 15, 2011 7:23 am
Thank you, this couldn't mean he is actually for real....right ?

He has even got me doubting the whole thing sometimes but when I think of the whole story, that can't be right...

Someone telling all these things about true love after one email, and wanting to get married without even having seen my mum, the poisonings, being 6.8 feet and not looking it in the pictures...

I just keep thinking what if he is real, my mum wouldn(t forgive me for taking these steps...
by Arnold Sun May 15, 2011 9:11 am
Absolutely not. There is no possibility whatsoever of it being genuine.
who claims she is the heir of a goldmine and being purchased by "bandits" who want to have her killed. That is the reason she has a bodyguard.

Typical advance fee fraud. There are no heiresses who offer a share of a fortune to total strangers on the Internet. It's a typical romance too even if their wasn't a link to the first scam.
One thing you could do is to ask the US Army if there is a William Rahl Carter stationed in Ghana. It might help convince your mother.

by levni Sun May 15, 2011 9:40 am
I just verified in all my mum's mails and he says in fact, that he served in the US military, was stationed in Italy, also served in Iraque but then went to Ghana. It is in Ghana that he was promoted to General in the Ghanese military.
So he claims to be an Amercican who is a general but for the Ghanese army, not the US. He says there are a lot of American military working for the Ghanese army.

I have been thinking of calling the army compound in Ghana but I don't how far the corruption has spread there... Maybe they will confirm his info, because they are in on it as well.
by Helen Halper Sun May 15, 2011 1:22 pm
Hi levni!
Thanks for posting the photos and addresses. Are there any more photos? One in his army uniform perhaps?
I'm wondering why the scammer had your Mum move back to Holland? What were his reasons?
Your Mum is really in deep denial right now. I'm so glad that she has you to look out for her and I'm hoping that she will soon see the truth.

by levni Sun May 15, 2011 6:05 pm
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Here are some more pictures, in the one picture where he is sitting at the small coffeetable I can see coffeemugs with a con-way.com label on them....So the real guy in the picture, innocent ofcourse, might be working for that company.

Further I noticed in the picture where he is standing next to the statue of the former president, it is quite obvious he is not 6.8 feet tall, or the statue is taller than 6.8 feet....

I can't find any picture in uniform of him in my mum's mail.

And to get back to your question, I think the reason he wants her in Holland is definately to escape from my influence, and maybe it it is easier for him to marry her when she's there.
Because he keeps telling her they have to get married if they want to be together plus his daughter will come and live with them...
by Dotti Sun May 15, 2011 8:10 pm
Countries are kind of funny about who they let into their military. They don't typically accept citizens of other countries!

If he wants her to go to Holland, it's not because he wants to marry her. He is a young, black, African man. There is no way he can ever meet her in person and fool her, as he can't possibly pass for the man in the photos. It is very possibly the same scammer involved with both your mother and your uncle.

Chances are pretty good that he really doesn't care if she goes to Holland. Changing the location just gave him an easy reason to delay meeting and come up with more reasons for money. He may expect some benefit if she travels, though--if she goes there alone, she will be more vulnerable and easier to steal from without family in the background telling her he is a scammer.

Need to post photos? http://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219
Are you a victim of a romance scam? Read here for advice and FAQ's.
by levni Mon May 16, 2011 2:50 am
That the strange thing about it all, she SAYS he has never asked her for any money.
If that is true what else could he want ? Or how long does it usually take a scammer to start asking for money ?
He has been in contact with my mum since february.

Though I have to add that lately she has not been asking my help in banking matters anymore so I can't see what's happening in her financial situation. I do know she shares every bit of information about herself with him, she trusts him 100 %.

But question is can there be another scam besides the money thing.....
Identity theft, or something.

My husband got very angry because she has sent pictures of me and the children to him. I don't feel very good about that as well.

I am just hoping that someone will recognise the pictures.....

In the picture of him sitting with his cup of coffee, you can see a newspaper called METRO, and an article about a courtcase. I tried looking it up and it seems it is about a courtcase from 2009. So it seems the picture is from 2009. And he told my mum he just made that picture in february 2011.
by Dotti Mon May 16, 2011 8:37 am
This type of scammer is not typically sophisticated enough for true identity theft (though they will use credit cards and bank accounts if they get the information out of their victims). Some scammers are very patient and wait weeks to months to ask for money, and some are very good at hinting that they need money without directly asking, so it is very possible that he hasn't officially "asked" for money.

Some victims who don't want to give up the fantasy will flat-out lie about money requests, knowing that family members will use this as evidence of scamming. Victims in denial are also very good at justifying things. For example, if "the doctor" or "customs" asked for money, in her mind the scammer hasn't asked for money, because she sees them as distinctly different people (even though we know they are in fact the same person).

Have you checked all of the photos on tineye?

Need to post photos? http://scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3219
Are you a victim of a romance scam? Read here for advice and FAQ's.
by Helen Halper Mon May 16, 2011 11:24 am
^^^

I checked the original 3 photos and nothing came up on tineye.
Levni, would it be possible for you to talk with someone at your Mum's bank to give them a heads up on what is going on?

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