I am not sure, is it scam?

Hi!
Just a few lines to introduce myself. I am 46 years old, female, for Germany and quite internet affine.
My relationship ended at the beginning of May, after 12 years. I have a FB account, as well as a Twitter account to keep in touch with my friends, family, a.s.o.

Few weeks ago I have decided to open an account at finya.de, a german dating website. About one week after being online I have received the following messages over a period of two days, than we switched to email:

Him:
Hi,
I just went through your profile and I like what you had to say.You seem to have a very interesting personality and I sure do like to get to know more about you.Your pics are also interesting...

Me:
Hi xxx,

as a matter of fact, I've only placed on pic in my profile....
And unfortunately your profile is less significant...

So tell me something about yourself.

Regards,
S.

Him:
I was not expecting to hear back from you by the way. Thanks for taking out
time to write me.

I am a single man. I work as an Interior Decorator. It is a very lucrative
job and I do like it a lot. Quite challenging but also interesting. I do
love challenges.am from Norway i just relocated to Germany this is my 3rd month
here.

I am looking for a serious relationship with a woman that knows what she
wants. We are not created to live alone. I need that
special friend at this point in my life. Someone I can share my fears,
hopes and ambitions with. In a relationship I love to feel wanted, simple
things, like a touch, a certain knowing look between two people, romantic
gestures.

For fun, well.......the smell of a new country as you step off the plane,
being so engrossed in a lovely evening that you don't notice that you are
the last ones to leave the restaurant, laughing until it hurts, a pair of
new shoes, getting caught in the rain with my special woman, watching an
old Hitchcock movie, flirting with my beautiful woman, driving through
London's twinkly lights whilst singing and dancing to music in my car, snow
on my eyelashes, ........WAKE UP ..Hope that didn't bore you?!! LOL What do
you do fo fun as well?

Looking to hear back from you..

Me:
Hi,
well, at least it is part of my education to answer once. Depending on the conversation I may continue or I may break it off

So how does it come that you work as an Interior Decorator in Germany, but comming from Norway.

As my last relationship has ended only a few weeks ago, after 13 years, I do not really agree with you that we are not created to live alone. At present I am rather suspicious and I would love to enjoy my personal freedom. But unfortunately 3 weeks ago I had an operation of my backbones and therefore I am not allowed to drive my car during the next 9 weeks and even worse I am forced to live with my ex-partner for the forthcomming weeks....

Having fun is slowed down since a while due to my two old horses which I own and which claim quite a lot of my personal time. But we had wonderful times together during competitions all over Germany, so I will stick to them until their very end.

But I would love to stroll along the beach or dive into Londons nightlife.

You must know, when I was a child my parents and I have moved to Abjidan located at the Ivory Coast in Westafrica. The laggon which parted the city from the other parts had a special sent. Sometimes when our rivers (Elbe and Alster) are having low tide it smells absoloutly the same and memories catch me unprepared.

So here you are with some more information about my person
Looking forward to your reply.


Him:
Hi xxx, Sorry about your backbone operations i wish you a quick recovery if i may ask suspicious of what i don't really get that,am sorry but i still don't agree with you we are not created to live a lone Love is a beautiful when you are with the right partner so don't judge the past to the future,my job take's me traveling a lot sometime i do go to westafrica too to buy woods because of my clients wants special woods to be used for there interior then i don't have any choice but to delivery to there taste this is my website (xxx.com/home )you can check it out for yourself am in germany for work and to seek my soul mate traveling in part of education...you can also write me on my private email [email protected] hope to hear from you there ..


So one day later I have used the email adress he has given to me during the last post on finya.de
Since then we have exchanged 1 to 4 E-Mails per day.

Up to now I do not want to mention his profil name nor his email adress, as I am not 100 percent sure if he's a real scammer...
In contrast to all stories I have read so far, he neither asked me for money nor anything else
The pictures which I have received during the past 10 days show a very handsome guy, matching to the description of his finya.de profile. He told me last week that he had to do business in Switzerland. He gave me a phone number and asked me to give him a call (what I haven't done by now) The number is defintively Switzerland and it's the code for Geneva. He even mailed a picture with his "business-partners" in front of a building...
Anyhow, neither Google nor the other website for identifying pictures have found a match. I have googled his name, his company name, nothing found.

I made a Whois request and I have received the following:

Registration Service Provided By: WEBPLAY DOMAINS
Domain Name: xxx.COM
Registration Date: 11-Apr-2013
Expiration Date: 11-Apr-2014
Status:LOCKED
Note: This Domain Name is currently Locked.
This feature is provided to protect against fraudulent acquisition of the domain name,
as in this status the domain name cannot be transferred or modified.
Name Servers:
ns1.webplayng.net
ns2.webplayng.net
Registrant Contact Details:
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin ([email protected])
ID#10760, PO Box 16
Note - Visit PrivacyProtect.org to contact the domain owner/operator
Nobby Beach
Queensland,QLD 4218
AU
Tel. +45.36946676

As a matter of fact, I am quite astonished that a "firewall" like PrivacyProtec.org is allowed.
The Name Servers are located somewhere in Africa.

Then last week after his arrival to Switzerland, I have received his "vision" about our first date:

In my dreams, I saw you on the pier. The wind was blowing through your hair, and your eyes held the fading sunlight. I was speechless as I watched you leaning against the rail. You are beautiful, I thought as I saw you, a vision that I could never find in anyone else.....

I thought: gee, how romantic - hollywoodlike - not easy to cope...

After three days I have received it again but starting with "in my dreams"...
After a while I thouhgt, how come that this vision is grammatically well and free of spelling errors and the rest of his mails with significant errors. So I copied and pasted the first sentence into google and then I thought I was struck by a lightning... (about 1.260.000 results (0,18 seconds) )

Anyhow, I have been reading through the postings of this website and a german counterpart until 3 a.m. this morning and I haven't found a story which is similar, except for the poem (vision) used.

So any advice from your side? My heart is not broken and my bank account shows no spare amount to spend to an unknown person

Regards from Germany,
S.

The style of English used by the writer indicates that you are dealing with a West African scammer.

This exact same passage can be found here

http://pl.fdating.com/profile?id=684896

I am looking for a serious relationship with a woman that knows what she wants. We are not created to live alone. I need that special friend at this point in my life. Someone I can share my fears, hopes and ambitions with. In a relationship I love to feel wanted, simple things, like a touch, a certain knowing look between two people, romantic gestures.

It doesn't mean that it's the same person as scammers will copy from real people and other scammers.

The least that you should expect is that a person takes the trouble to use their own words and not just copy and paste the words of someone else. If the person is trying to appear romantic and serious, the fact that he is merely copying the words of someone else suggests that he is trying to dupe you.

Scammers will expect to have to work before they make requests for money and they can wait several weeks before they give you a story making it appear that you must pay expenses for their imaginary calamity. If you can be strong enough to ignore requests for money, scammers can't do you any harm. Just be sure not to disclose too much personal information.

It looks like he has already planted the seed in your mind that a payment to West Africa would be viable when he's stuck out there.

i found a profile on Badoo http://badoo.com/0295602839/

well i am Smith Hoff and i am 49 years old.... <snipped>...It is a very lucrative job and I do like it a lot. Quite challenging but also interesting. I do love challenges most especially when i get contracts.

I need that special woman at this point in my life. Someone I can share my fears, hopes and ambitions with. In a relationship I love to feel wanted, simple things, like a touch, a certain knowing look between two people, romantic gestures. A woman that i will again

Many thanks for your reply.
I will keep my eyes open to what will happen next.
When he starts to exaggerate, I'll report his profile to finya.de

THX!!

As scammers frequently do he's copying his romantic lines from a website that is frequently used by scammers as a source for their romantic lines.

http://archive.lovingyou.com/content/inspiration/loveletters-content.php?ID=871

Last night, in my dreams, I saw you on the pier. The wind was blowing through your hair, and your eyes held the fading sunlight. I was speechless as I watched you leaning against the rail. You are beautiful, I thought as I saw you, a vision that I could never find in anyone else. I slowly began to walk toward you, and when you finally turned to me, I noticed that others had been watching you as well...........

Men don't speak like this unless they've suffered brain damage. To speak like this to someone he barely knows and has only met online is ridiculous and insulting. Why is he writing to you in English ? He is Norwegian and claims to be working in Germany and therefore must be able to speak and write in German. If he had any thought of forming a worthwhile relationship he would be prepared to demonstrate his ability to communicate in German.

He could at least copy and paste his romantic lines from a German source.

What a wonderful sence of humor you have

I have no idea, about his intention in writing only in english
I made one attempt to check if he's able to speak german, but without success.
I have a detailed profile at finya.de where I have answered a whole bunch of the 100 questions, but in german.
So I was quite astonished, when he said, that he liked my profile...

Wait and see, until now I haven't received another email by now

+45.36946676 And is that a phone number for Denmark? Certainly not a Queensland number. The address is infamous for hosting too many suspect sites.

my job take's me traveling a lot sometime i do go to westafrica too to buy woods .

I'm taking an educated guess he or his friend will get mugged or have a serious accident/fall ill whilst he is there and will need money quick.

The number mentioned in the whois query "0045" is definitively the country code from Denmark.
The number he gave to me due to his business trip to Switzerland is +41225180368, +41 is Switzerland (0) 22 is the area code of Geneva.

I have read in the german version of the scam warner blog, that these scammers also have profiles in the so called high-class dating websites like e.g. parship.de or elitepartner.de. And due to the internationality it seems to be common that people try to contact you in english. Eventhough I am not a native speaker it took me not more that two mails to realize somethings going wrong.

However, what I'd like to know is, who is the man in the pictures, which I have received... Can I upload them somewhere??

419 romance scammers mostly speak English because of their heritage as originating from countries that were once a part of the British Empire and, if he spoke to you in German, he'd sound like an elephant trying to ballet dance and you'd recognise that he isn't of Norwegian origin, because you can recognise small linguistic differences that give away a person's heritage if he tried to speak to you in German..

The fact is that most Nigerians, when they speak English use a form known as 'Pidgin', which sounds almost like a foreign language to the English ear and spelling and grammar are very poor.

It's much more difficult for you, not being of English heritage, to recognise these linguistic signs. It does fascinate and interest me but Americans and Australians speak English differently to someone of English origin, and you can tell a lot from how someone uses language, spells and punctuates. This is often why scammers copy and paste a lot of what they write to someone they intend to be their victim. For this reason a foreign language speaker who understands English is a perfect target.

We don't like to give grammar help to scammers who read can read these posts but a simple example is that he is misusing the word 'woods'. In the sense he appears to be trying to use it, as a commodity, he should use the collective noun in the singular form 'wood', whereas using it in the plural form 'woods' it means 'forests' and it's unlikely he's buying forests.

The way he speaks English makes it very obvious that he is of West African origin.

Another interesting point is that I have a symbol on my keyboard you don't have - £, and a German person or a Norwegian will also have unique symbols and punctuation on theirs and, if he's Norwegian he'll have and use those symbols. He can copy and paste them if you use them, but a born Norwegian will find it difficult to stop using symbols and punctuation he has used all his life.

These are the pictures that Stefanie_GER sent to me of the scammer

Several countries in the West African scam belt, which stretches from Senegal to Cameroon, have French as an official language. I've seen a scammer make the same kinds of errors in French as they do in English. I've also baited someone in Côte d'Ivoire who was using a translator to write in (mangled) Spanish. When he brought in the banker character, I wrote in French — although he was in a French-speaking country, he didn't speak French. (French is my second native language.) I guess he was a Nigerian expat.

I think "woods" is correct if he means several kinds of wood, but there are several other errors just in that sentence that make it clear that he is West African. I'm not sure if it's the way they teach English over there or the result of a native speaker of a basal Niger-Congo language (Bantu starts in or near Cameroon) trying to learn English without schooling. I think it's the latter.

As I have mentioned in my inital post I have lived with my parents at the Ivory Coast when I was a young girl.
There I went to the International American School of Abidjan. The two houseboys we had were from the Senegal and from Mali. My relatives live in Ireland for more than 35 years which I have visited quite often in the past.
So I think I am able to sort out dialects and pronunciation quite well.

But anyhow until today we haven't talked to each other on the phone. And it took me, even though I was very, very impressed (!!) by the pictures,only 12 days to get suspicious.

Here are last details: He calls himself Ben Zalsman from Norway, his email is [email protected], his profile name at finya.de is benforlove, and he prentends to be born around April 1966. And one thing which is rather clever in his profile, he pretends to be located in the middle of nowhere. So if you enter in your search a big city and add e.g. 100 kilometers (62.14 miles) he would never be listed. Another point showing he is not European, he can't mention his size in meter, respectively centimeters. He states it in hands.

You've had a very interesting and varied experience of life Stefanie_GER and I should have realised this from your own use of English. Any person who has not had such experience is always likely to be more vulnerable and I would have thought that by speaking to him on the phone you could easily find him out as I'm sure that your knowledge of Norway is much better than his knowledge.

Good morning from Germany,

just a few lines to give you an update.
My last email contact was on Monday without receiving a reply I guess my answer was too slushy

As a matter of fact his profile was cancelled either yesterday or today.

Stefanie