Love Scam and 419 scam in one...

Hello there. I was made a widow last year and I about September I get befriended on Facebook by a man claiming to be a soldier in the Us army deployed aboard on a special mission. We talked and as you can guess it soon turned into something else...He claimed he loved me, sent me photos of himself and his son etc... I too sent him photos. I believed he was the man for me.... The first payment he asked for seemed to be real. He said that if we wanted to talk to each other on the phone we would need to pay a refundable $575 deposit to the US army...After 24 hours it would be refunded. I am a widow on a low income and this was too much for me with a disabled son to pay so he claimed he would pay most if I paid $175. Thinking that he was great to do this I paid the $175...But then a few days later I get an email from the military saying that they needed $250 more...I never did pay this. This payment went to some woman in the US and not in Nigeria where he was stationed. We continued to talk on Facebook and yahoo messager and I thought no more about it till he tells me that he wanted to spend his leave in the UK with me....But he cant get access to his wage till he has left Nigeria. He will have a check and can cash in in my bank account once he reaches the UK. He says it is hard to get their money in Nigeria. First he asks for $100 Of and I agree to help him then a day or so later it increases to $200 then $250. There was no warning either it was going up....He would ask can you still pay me that money? I would say yes and then he would say $200. I would say you said $100 and he would say yes but I need more...etc. He needs it to have his ticket changed to the UK....It was then I began to think something was odd when the person I sent the money too wasn't him...he said it was a dear friend...but I wanted to believe he was the man of my dreams so I kept putting those feelings into the back of my mind..... Again he asks for $100. I agree and then as the week progresses towards my weekly payday it gets more and more till one point it was $875.Then he asks for more money telling me that he needs the cash to top up the ticket because he will be travelling commercial. I cant pay him I don't earn that much money and he gets rather nasty telling me that I don't care about him and if I did care about him I would get the money together. I tell him I cant and that if he loves me he would not say these things....I was expecting him to give me the flight details on that night I gave him the cash He lowers it to $300 as he has borrowed the rest off his commanding officer. I pay what he asks for...all via Money Gram. Believing that he managed to get the rest. But then 2 days later he tells me there is a problem and that he needs an allowance before he can leave for the plane....He needed another $875 which as soon as he got to the UK he would pay it me back....Alarm bells rang in my head. Never heard about this before....
Then I read something online regarding love scams and was shocked. I didn't want to believe it....so I decided to play along in case he was real. But the more I chatted to him online the more he sounded just like the lover scammers I read about...I was upset of course but not broken hearted....Then when I questioned him about the love scam thing and he seemed very upset...he was good, and said he was real etc....infact he was going to prove it to me by trusting me with keeping hold of his late fathers estate worth about $1.5 m....He needed me to have it sent to me and look after it till he was home from Nigeria. So he told me of a barrister based in the UK who was to contact me......This fake barrister wanted a copy of my passport and to pay a fee of £550. These were the latest contacts I had.....I have sent copies of the fake documents to the courts and other interested parties. Very soon I will send to him all the proof I have that he is a scammer...let him try to talk his way out of that.
So remember this..if you think you are getting friendly with a US soldier 99.99% are fake online accounts. The army pay well so they will never need to ask for money. Also if they are deployed they will be flush because they cant spend the money....also they always have access to their money no matter where in the world they are....Also they army will transport them on all leave etc....even if not they can get a special loan...they will never just be left there....So please be aware.....Now if you want names I will post them....but for now that is my story....I have informed the fraud police for the US army and the anti fraud in the UK......Please be careful......

Welcome to Scamwarners Fatcateatsalot,

I am sorry that you are victim of this scammer. You said you reported it to Anti Fraud. Was it Action Fraud http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ ?

Yes, please post the email addresses and phone numbers used to scam you.

Also post a couple of emails from him, the fake barrister and anyone else who emailed you. Post the email where he wanted the money sent. Remove any of your personal information from them.