My Story

My scam started in Nov, 2007, my husband had passes away over a year ago and people were telling me to get a life so I went on Match.com, and the first man who contacted me was a scammer, I didn't know anything about them then, was going good for a month, then he was coming here, and he and son get into car accident on way to airport, some Dr. calls me and wants 5K deposit to save the son who is 13, I have a grandson that age so I sent the money, then son was in coma, wanted 15K from me to fly boy to the states in a private plane, told him no, then son comes home all well, strange!!! tells me he will send me 100K cashier's check so he can get back here, well a Nigerian newspaper comes instead, said his co. made a mistake, we go on for another month, now I already know he is a scammer found him on another scam site, been at it for 4 years, so I string him along, yesterday he sends me by fedex a cashier's check for 10,600, I'm supposed to send him 5K, I take it to my bank manager, tells me it's phony which I had thought, the fedex comes from some girl in TX, and the cashier's check is written on a bank in Boonville, KY, I contacted that bank and fax them everything I had they told me that this has happen to their bank before from scammers in Nigeria, and they were going to turn it over to the FBI, I have wasted 4 months with this idiot, I have block all contact with him now, now I just want to go after all of them, the hurt you feel that you are so stupid in the start, but now I know what to look for, he goes by Henry Cole, Martin Hills, Peter Johnson, Michael Moore, stays on Match.com pretty much, has 13 yr. old son name Max, uses Chicago, Il, pictures look like a real person, not the model ones, he is very smoothe, of course he has been at it for a long time, please everyone do not deposit any checks or money orders they send you as you will liable for the amount. if you need picutres and emial addrss let me know, he also uses Yahoo Messenger as hille_henrycole

Hi Honeybee, welcome to Scam Warners,

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your husband and the scam you fell for, please don't feel stupid, you weren't to know, and as you say, these romance scammers can be smooth operators.

You are right to drop this scammer now, it is not safe for you to play games with them when they know all of your personal details, although he is in Nigeria, their are many Nigerian scammers based in the US, and if you start playing games and wasting their money, they might not take kindly to it.

If you want to bait scammers, you need to do so safely and anonymously, we always use fake names and email addresses made with fake details, so that the scammer has no way to trace us, never bait scammers with your real details, they can be dangerous people, you might want to read the scambaiting forums our sister site, here:

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/index.php

You will see we have a section on love and dating scams, here:

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=44

Please read the sticky topics at the tops of that forum page, they contain important information, as do the sticky topics on "safe baiting" in the rest of the forum.

Please do post on here again giving the scammers email adresses and any photos that he used, thanks for posting.

For reference, here is a Google link for the name hille_henrycole:

Google Results For: hille_henrycole

Honeybee.

I'm so sorry you got scammed. Love scammers are one of the worst kind - not only do they steal your money, but they hurt you emotionally too. You can only shake your head in wonder at how someone could do something like this to another human being.

It sounds like this is pretty fresh and so it must still hurt right now. There's probably not a lot I can tell you that will make you feel better. But believe me, you will pick yourself up from this. You'll probably always feel a burn but time will heal a helluva lot. I know it's hard as hell but don't let hatred get the better of you. If you do, the scammer gets another victory. Give it a little time, then pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get on with your life. He may have stolen your money and your love for now but don't let him steal your future.

And you haven't been stupid. This sort of scammer spends a lot of time perfecting his technique and if it didn't work, he wouldn't be scamming. I know it might not be a consolation but the scam that he's used on you is the way that a lot of love scammers operate and they use it because it's very convincing.

Thank-you so much for sharing your story. It must have been hard to write that. But in doing so, you've given people a valuable insight into just how these cowardly vermin work.

thank you for being so nice, and yes it still hurts, what I think hurts the most is that I was so stupid, I have blocked him from everythng so he leaves me alone, his yahoo email is [email protected], that's is for when he uses the name of Henry Cole, he also goes by Martin Hills, Steve Moller, Peter Johnson, and Michael Moore, uses about 5 pictures for all of these, but pretty near the same one, friends are Andrew Owen, Ben Gage, Frank Scott and of course Dr. Wilson at Royan General Hosp. in Lagos Nigeria, how do I post all of his pictures? From the start I have printed out all of our on line talks and his emails, I have 2 folders of stuff on this guy[/img]

Hi Honeybee, this is how you can post images here:

1) Download the document/passport/ID that was sent to you via email form the suspected scammer, and save the image to your computer.

2) Go to this image hosting website http://imageshack.us and click the choose button on that page.

3) A pop up box will then open, showing the directories/files on your computer, click once on the saved image file name in the directory that you saved the image to, click the open button on the box that popped up, the box will now close.

4) Now click the host it button on the image hosting page, when the image has finished uploading, the page will reload giving you several different urls to choose from, at the top of the page, choose the link titled, Thumbnail for forums (1), now copy the image url code in the box next to those words.

5) Come back to this forum, make your new post and paste the url image code in to the posting box, your image will then be displayed as a thumbnail image.

It sounds more complicated when it's written down like this, but it takes about 30 seconds in reality.

Hi Honeybee and welcome,

Sorry to hear that you have lost money to this scammer.

I know there are a few over at 419eater who specialize in love scams who would be more than happy to dish out some pain to this scammer for you.

Please make sure that if you do go there and sign up that you use a name that you have not used anywhere else.

You can get a mentor who can teach you how to safely bait them as well.

Very friendly bunch over there and they will be happy to help you.

They cant bring back your money and they cant replace the time you lost but they may be able to help you feel much better about this as well as teach you the warning signs of scammers on the internet.

I am not sure if anybody has mentioned this to you yet, but you need to be aware of a recovery scam, this is where somebody will contact you claiming to be from a government department and telling you they can catch the scammer and return your money. They will then tell you that you will need to pay more money to get your money back, of course this is just another way these heartless criminals steal money from their victims.

As pointed out by scam patroller there is a very usefull information sticky compiled by the romance baiters of that site which will teach you how they operate, of course you have seen this first hand allready but it may help for you to read up on it.

Honeybee,

I can't tell you how much we all appreciate your posting your story here. You should be aware of all the good you are doing by being brave enough to tell your story. Your posting may very well save someone else from being scammed by this very same person, or someone like him. You are helping to educate people about how these types of scams work. In addition, you are helping other people who have already been victimized, by letting them see that they are not alone.

Which is an important message for you: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. You'd be stunned at how many people are victimized by these criminals. Trust me that many people will read your story and see themselves, and while they may not feel up to posting their own stories, they will hopefully be able to take comfort knowing that they are not the only ones it happened to. So you have already helped.

I know that's little compensation for what you've lost, but it's something.

Please don't beat yourself up. These scammers are masters at what they do, and they prey on people who are in a vulnerable place, as you were.

Again, thank you so much for being willing to share your story. Believe me when I tell you that you have already made a difference.

My heart goes out to you for your losses. {{{hugs}}}

Honeybee

First, thank you for having the courage to share your story. It will help many readers to realize they are not alone, and also prevent some for falling into this trap.

Second, I'm very sorry to hear about your loss --- both financially and emotionally. This guys are very, very good at what they do. You are not alone. I've seen them take people for $500,000.

I wish I had read this information on this website before I was scammed by this same guy, as I was recently scammed by this guy. Said his name was Steve Philip and was from Oklahoma, and had a son. I was suspicious as he was in Nigeria, and had heard about all the love scams going on there. He was able to make me believe him, and like you he made false claims that his son was in the hospital with Malaria which were all lies. I did send some money by Western union to him but by no means I am not out what you are as I was always leary. He had the money sent to Frank Scott, and I asked him why? He gave the story he could not get the money right away as he was an American. He used the email address as [email protected]. It would be nice if they could catch this guy..


Mistake1

Hi, Mistake1, and welcome to ScamWarners. I just with it was under better circumstances.

I'm very sorry to hear that you got taken by this scum. Love scammers are VERY good at what they do, and will spend months "building a relationship" with their victim before asking for money. They are some of the lowest of all scammers, as they will take both your heart and your money if given half a chance. The "American/ European stuck in Nigeria" routine is a surefire tip off that you are talking to a scammer. The child who gets sick/injured is very common, and is just another way to pluck your heartstrings.

Feel free to post as much info as you have on here. Unfortunately, the chances of him getting arrested are damned near nil, due to jurisdictional issues and the corruption of the Nigerian police. The best we can do is get the word out by posting as much information on how the scam works, and what addies/pics/formats the scammers are using.

Hi Mistake,

I have posted details in the romance section of scammers using that same story line, it is very common and lures many people to paying.

Thanks for telling us about it, as mentioned posting some of the early emails as well as email address, phone numbers or any other information you have on them will help prevent others from going through the same as you.

We have many dedicated and experienced people here and we are all ready to help where we can, please read up on the various scams, tell your family and friends, spread the word, that is the est way to stop them.

Hi to both Honeybee and Mistake1.

As you can see, you were not alone in falling for this scumbag's patter. He probably has many more falling for his "charms".

Coming here and telling your stories was probably not an easy thing to do, but it is the start of coming to terms with it.

We all wish there was an easy way to deal with these criminals, to get them locked away, but its an unfortunate fact of life that they can get away with it for the most part.

We do what we can, whether it be baiting over at our other site (419eater) or by offering support on this site.

You are both welcome to ask any questions you want and we will answer them as best we can and offer whatever advice we can. And remember, by posting here you have already made a contribution to the fight.

And never think of yourselves as Stupid. You are not. You were just unaware of some of the harsher facts of life.

I also joined a dating website for Greek people and it was free and got contacted by a Allen Haynes who said he was Greek living in London but American and he sent me this hunky gorgeous photo of himself and I thought he was real. When chatting on Yahoo messenger chat, he kept sending me a link and words in Vietnamese to a website to download something but I think just going to the website causes one to get a virus. I went to the website but want to know what was the benefit of sending me a virus? Can he then look up my computer and where i've been surfing and my bank details incase I logged in online? I think my pc got the virus, not sure.

Vietnam does seem to have more than it's fair share of hackers and virus senders.

First things first, do a full virus check. The online scanner here is very good:
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

You may also want to download a free copy of this and run it:

http://spysearchdestroy.com/?gclid=CMLO ... 1QodB0jZLg

It's doubtful that you actually picked up a virus just by visiting the site but there are some sites that may download scripts to your PC. If possible, I would format your Hard-drive to make sure that anything nasty on your PC is destroyed. I would also change your browser from Internet Explorer to Firefox in the near future. Firefox has a no-script add on and as most scripts are aimed at Explorer it's a much safer way to surf the net.

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

It's important that you take these precautions as soon as possible. Although, as I've said, it's doubtful that you downloaded a virus just by visiting a website, you need to make sure that your PC and it's contents are secure.

If you're still worried, you may want to contact your bank to give them a heads up and in the meantime, don't use internet banking until you've got your PC formatted.

Another site to help you. Go to this URL and read the instructions. It will have you download a small program and run it. That will list all processes and a lot of other info about your computer. You save the log then post it on the second link. Soon someone skilled in removing malicious software will assist you in getting your computer cleaned up.


Instructions and link to HJT.
http://www.malwareremoval.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32084

Forum to post your HJT logfile.
http://www.malwareremoval.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=e49a4af7df52f6d390562bb35b1daeb6