Benin (West Africa) Wedding Scam

This scam involves a pretty Asian girl, supposedly named Bola Mica, that I met online through a dating website. Yes, I do confess that I was a fool to fall for this. She first introduced herself to me and said that she could travel to the USA on a tourist visa, but she need $645 to obtain a passport and get the necessary documentation This was the first hit that I gave into, but not the last of many. Then next thing that I gave into was $3,000.00 for her to get married to me legally in the Country of Benin since she would need be married to travel to the USA and be with me. After this, her pastor called me and told me that her father had left her a $5 million inheritance and we should listen to the lawyers, I told him that I was not interested in that just having Bola come to the USA and be with me. The day she was supposed to leave the country, I receive a phone call supposedly from the Benin Government that said she had to have $8,000.00 before they would release her passport for travel and this was not on top of $2,500.00 for air tickets. I had transferred so much money to various people in her church since she had no passport, that Western Union blacklisted me since they could see this scam, but I could not. She never did leave the country of Benin, since the next scam came and this was the final one that took everything from me, which was that she need $200,000.00 to release the $5 Million from the Insurance Company, but I argued that I did not have that kind of money. At this point she introduces a friend from church, Stephen Daniels (Phone No. 607-241-2203) and he has a plan how to make this happen (I did not know at the time, but this guy has scammed a lot of women in the past.). Mr. Stephen Daniels was given my personal information since I gave this to Bola..who by now was supposedly my wife and whom I could trust. Mr. Daniels first transferred money to two of my credit card accounts to pay them off, after that I was to transfer the full amount to a Bank Account in the USA. For example, if you have a $15,000 cash advance on a card, Stephen pays a $5,000 balance let's say and then has you send the whole $15,0000.00. After this Mr. Stephen Daniels had me go to Best Buy or online and buy a lot of electronic items like Flat Screen TVs, cell phones w/o SIM cards and laptop computers & ship all of this by Fed Ex Priority to a Mr. Samuel Joshua at 11 Ronneth Road Teshie, Accra, Ghana (Telephone No. +233-241-886417). The overall impact of this was now at over $60,000.00 and that was when both deposits made by Mr. Stephen Daniels bounced and this was his response via email:

From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To:
Sent: Fri, March 11, 2011 4:08:51 PM
Subject: Investigation and will be sorted soon
Mr B,

I received all your emails and already spoke with my bank about this.. I also forwarded copy of your email to them to have a clear picture of what is going on and they told me they will set up an investigation as to why those payments where not honoured because they from Citibank allowed the withdrawal and confirm to me that Amex and BOA could have returned the funds themselves..

I will be hearing from Mr Valdez as to the outcome of the investigation on wednesday and i have told him they should clear it with the other banks so the cards can be back in its proper position.

Sorry to hear about your Dieing father.. We all owe that debt and must be paid until christ is here.. It is our prayer that we make the most of our life here on earth living for Christ and affecting the lives of those around us and many more.

Stay Blessed and email me the tracking details later

Sincerely

Stephen Daniels
607-241-2203

Stephen Daniels after getting all of the money has disappeared and Bola Mica has vanished leaving me with about $100,000.00 in debt that I am struggling each day to pay off. My credit cards have been cancelled and they have for now stopped hounding me since they know I am paying this off as best as I can.

I am posting this since this woman approached me as a Christian under the guise of love and I do not want anyone to suffer like I am doing right now. Yes, I have reported this to authorities, but they are swamped and cannot help round these criminals up...so it is up to websites like this one to be the beacons of hope for people that I pray will never get scammed as bad as me.

Hi breezejo!
I'm extremely sorry to hear how badly you've been scammed.
Thanks for posting all this info. Hopefully another potential victim will find this with google.

Hi breezejo! I just want to say I am so sorry for you, and you are not an idiot because you fell for this. I've been there myself so I understand how you feel. I am a single mother of four children and I have been cheated of $ 18,000 plus a little more, it is not close to what you have lost. I understand that you are suffering but it is good that you go out with information so that others will be warned about this scammer. Wish you all the best hugs from Anki

I am so sorry this happened to you! I hope this person gets what they deserve and I hope you keep a sain mind while trying to pay off all your debt.

I am sorry to hear that. If it is any help at all I want you to know that this site and your posting saved me from the same scam.
Bola is still going strong using the same old stuff. I dont think they are very bright as they use the same names etc.
Using your info I headed her off and told her it was easier for me to visit Benin than have her come to9 the States.
If I could only meet them face to face, I am sure that this could be stopped. Funny after my suggestion that I was arriving soon she had to go very quickly.
Has anyone traced the IP, I had it coming from CA not Benin. I will continue to work on this as CA is a lot more appealing that Benin.
Thanks again

Hi MI6,

I'm glad to hear that you foung out before you were scammed. I'm guessing that the result of your trace was either Sunnyvale or Mountain View? Those would be the servers of the mail providers (yahoo/google) and not the actual location of the scammer.

We strongly advise against actually meeting with scammers. Don't forget, they are criminals. There are stories about victims who traveled to africa, were kidnapped and even murdered. It is best to stop all communication, and to ignore them completely.

Dear Breezejo,

Sorry to read about you and the money lost, but this kind of people, all, will pay soon or later, all the damage caused to inocent people like you. I know that my words do not solve your economic situation, but remember, at the end of the tunnel you will see the light, that light after the loses, will light your efforts to sort this terrible situation.