Romance Scam - Kelvin Donald

I met Kelvin Donald on Match.com. He came across very friendly and said he couldn't believe his luck meeting a woman like me and confessed his love after a couple of chats with him. He said he was 49 and I am 59 but the age difference didn't worry him! He sent me photos of himself and his huge home. He said he lived in London however the address was actually an office block and had other addresses in Cheshire and Chester included in the London address. I know England very well and I know Chester is nowhere near London and everything he was telling me about England wasn't consistent. After a week of chatting with him and him asking me to come to England to join him, he said he had to go to Nigeria for a 2 week engineering job - said he was a civil engineer and taking his daughter, Lucy (19 years old) with him. He said he had to take all the funds for the job in cash and when he arrived at Lagos Airport they confiscated all the cash and he and his daughter had to stay in the immigration area - sleeping and eating. Before he left England (if that was where he really was) he gave me an English mobile number +447045754562 on which I phoned him a few times. If he ever rang me the number always showed up as private number or some other strange number which wasn't the number I rang on the mobile. Once he got to Lagos he then gave me another mobile number +2348039206792. Of course he said he had no money and hadn't taken his credit card and said he had absolutely no friends who could help him out in England. He needed money originally to get a lawyer to get his so called cash back and of course asked me for thousands to send for this.

He also told me he was a widower - his wife had died of breast cancer 7 years before and he'd never had another woman or relationship since this happened. The house photos he sent me were consistent with a large American home, not a typical English home and he told me it was 5 bedroomed, 3 kitchens!!

A couple of weeks in to chatting with him and him telling me more each day how much he loved me and wanted to marry me, he then said his daughter had come down with malaria and was admitted to hospital (later on checking, a Mr Kelvin Donald or Lucy Donald never entered immigration at Lagos Airport on the 3rd August 2010). Also checked with the White Chapel Clinic who said a Lucy Donald had never been admitted and it was only a clinic, not a hospital.

The next scenario was he just wanted some money sent over for food as they were starving and the airport provided a bed for them but the food was horrendous. Stupid me sent $500 for food which he wanted sent through Western Union. Of course that wasn't enough and after a week or so he only had about $100 left and had to get to the hospital every day to visit Lucy his daughter!

This has been going on for months now but he always has the money to get another phone card for his phone and said his daughter is fine now but the hospital wouldn't let her out til he paid a huge bill in the thousands of dollars (always wanted American dollars as well).

He eventually ended up asking for over $7,000 to pay the hospital bill and pay their air fares home to London (where they obviously didn't even live). He was going to meet me at London airport which probably was never true - I would have got there and just been stranded at the airport. I was coming from Australia.

I had a bad car accident a couple of months ago and have been in and out of hospital and every time my son contacted him and said I was in hospital he said I was lying, was using an excuse so I didn't have to send him money.

I have had his story checked out by a friend of mine who works for the embassy. Everything he has told me has been a complete lie and now I've put this all to him about him being a conman he's completely cut all contact with me. He even had the audacity to swear at me and call me a whore and the small amount of $500 I had previously sent was nothing when they were in dire straits there!

I do hope other women will be very cautious when they are in contact with these sort of men, especially from Match.com - they seem to be rife on that site. He also had a Spanish accent however said he had lived most of his life in England and Italy and both his parents were dead as well as his wife. I guess they prey on older, lonely, gullible women so please be very careful this doesn't happen to you.

I'm sorry to hear you were scammed. The scenario you are describing is textbook romance scam. The man behind it is a young, misogynistic African, probably in his late teens or 20's.

He may attempt further contact, or even harass you. If he does so, the best thing you can do is ignore him. Do not respond, even to argue with him, and in the end he will move on. He is also likely to approach you with a new fake identity, so you will need to be extra vigilant in your online relationships because you are now a target.

Thank you for this warning. I have had other contacts from other men but now I don't know whether it's him or actually genuine people although the writing is so similar.

When I've spoken to him on the phone though he definitely has a spanish accent so do you still think it's the young African who is saying he's Kelvin Donald?

He rang me again at 5.30am my time here and of course wanted me to ring him back. He was very hostile about the email I had sent him saying I'd been investigating him! He had the audacity to say everything I had found out was untrue and he still loved me and wanted me to send the money so he could get out of his predicament!

I guess as you say, I have to just ignore him and he'll eventually go away. They are really unbelievable these people!

he said he had to go to Nigeria for a 2 week engineering job

While I would have expected it to be an African scammer based on your post (the storyline is typical of an African romance scam, and the name chosen by the scammer is also typical of an African scammer), the line above means that this is definitely a Nigerian scammer--this is a typical setup to explain the Nigerian phone number and also to explain why you need to send money to Nigeria. Basically he is in Nigeria, and has been there all along. African accents can vary quite a bit.

FYI, numbers that start with 44-70 aren't real UK phone numbers. They are free premium redirect numbers that can be programmed to automatically forward to any phone in the world. They are used every day by scammers who are pretending to be in UK. In reality, if you called this number, it would appear to go through like a normal call, but it would automatically forward to his cellphone in Nigeria.

As far as the others go, if the writing is similar, I would be concerned. If you want help in identifying whether they are written by a scammer, you can post some of the letters here (or forward them to anyone on support staff) and we'd be happy to help you sort it.

In the meantime, if you can post some of "Kelvin's" letters here, it will likely help others to avoid being scammed. Scammers often use scripts - a series of emails/chats that are pre-written - in their scams, and even when they change names they frequently reuse the same scripts. Having those scripts posted can help others to recognize them even if the scammer is using a new name.

Yes you are completely correct about these phone numbers - and now this other person seems to be doing the same thing - has given me an English number +447024015818. This person is called Randall Wasserstrom and is supposed to be repairing an oil spill off Belfast. He says he's from North Carolina and has been living in the UK since November 09. The address he gave me is 35 Frances Avenue Ilford London 1G 1TS and there is a house there but don't know if that's correct. He is nearly impossible to contact on weekends and if I ring that number on weekends, it's nearly always engaged.

So far he hasn't asked for any money but I am so wary now about any of these people. He also has a strange American accent and his spelling and wording is practically the same as what Kelvin Donald used. Who knows, it may even be the same person. He says he has a 15 year old son who seems to be left at home by himself all the time because Randall goes off to Belfast to repair the oil spills! I guess this could be yet another scammer but there is no way I will send money to another person. If this person asks for money like Kelvin Donald did I will never reply to one of these Match.com sites again.

Do you know anything about American numbers as my friend has been communicating with a man from Irvine, Maryland and his number is +14436029716. Apparently he actually wants her to go there in December to meet him and the address he gave her - 143 Dr. Chadway Avenue, Irvine MD 21202 USA doesn't seem to exist - his name is Max Arthur!

What is going on with these guys?

Anyway, just thought I'd tell you about these other men.

If he's using a 4470 number then he's a scammer. There's no need to investigate further.

Having already paid money you are like jam to a wasp and if you use the same name or nick he'll approach you again or even get an accomplice to do it if he feels he needs someone more accomplished to handle you.

I'm not trying to frighten you but these scammers are ruthlessly persistent and don't take 'no' for an answer. They can hide behind a keyboard and use copied mails and appear normal but they're just like sharks swimming in among a shoal of fish. I wouldn't ever send anyone I just knew from the internet cash (not a cent) and I wouldn't ask for any either. If I ever needed money I'd use a bank.

Any time you get a request for cash from an internet acquaintance then the odds are it's a scammer. People who have jobs, bank accounts and relatives have people they should ask before they ask someone they've never met face to face.

Yes, I realise I have been a fool over this but will NEVER send money to anybody again and will stop contact with this other person now who has a 4407 number.

I hope women who use these dating sites read all these stories so they can avoid being scammed like I was and never believe that somebody could actually love you after chatting with them a couple of times on a computer!

I certainly have learnt my lesson and thanks to you guys telling me all about these phone numbers. I can't believe nearly every male that has contacted me through Match.com has used the same story and writes the same way. I guess they prey on older, lonely, more gullible females.

One person who had contacted me and I wouldn't send money to thought he was making me jealous by saying he had found the funds to leave Nigeria after wanting me to send him money to get out of there and after getting hostile, swearing at me and trying to make me feel it was my fault he was stranded there! He was at the airport on the way back to Marylands USA and met a young woman who fell in love with him instantly, took her back to the USA, married her and they were leaving for Rome. This was within 2 weeks of me stopping contact with him. He actually thought I was going to be jealous!! Does he honestly think I could believe such a story!

It's a pity Match.com don't list stories of people who have been scammed before people actually join up but then I guess they wouldn't get their fees that they charge! A male friend of mine joined and was getting up to 300 emails a day from Asian women - all wanting money!