Is this a scam? (Probably.)

I was referred here by 419 Eater. Here's the message I posted there:

Hello, I'm new here, in case my post count doesn't clue you in. I hope this is the right place to post this.

I am 95% sure I am being scammed, but I'm not 100% sure, so I figured I'd post here to get your opinions.

I've been communicating with this girl (?) on eHarmony for a few weeks. She is very, very pretty, but there are several red flags based on her profile and e-mails. She doesn't appear to be speak/type English as her first language, although the implication from her e-mails is that she grew up in the United States. Additionally, she doesn't appear to be comprehending my e-mails all that well - she doesn't really answer my questions. Which may be just an English language issue.

Additionally, she has the bad personal history - standard for scammers, I guess, but what really surprised me was how quickly "she" brought it up, in considerable detail. My first impulse was to run for my fucking life not because of the scamming but because of the stuff in her past. Why would a scammer want to scare off potential marks...or is that all part of the scheme?

I guess the biggest red flag was that she mentioned she was an art dealer, and she was planning a trip to Nigeria soon, to try and purchase some artwork which would be very marketable in the States. It's possible that she's an art dealer, but c'mon.

She also sent me a large batch of pictures. I did my diligence and searched for all of them at TinEye - I was able to find one, and it appears to have been taken by a photographer living in California, which does jive with her story. It doesn't appear to be off a professional modeling site, I think it's from someone who was taking pictures of her friends. So like I said, I'm not 100% sure.

So, how should I continue? Like I said 95% sure, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to be completely sure. She sure as hell isn't getting any personal information until I can confirm that she exists, in any case.

I was advised to come here and see if I could confirm the scam. There have been only a few e-mails, so I will post the first one.

How are you doing today, thanks for the message, its really nice hearing from you and hope work is good to. I am into buying and selling of artworks and also marketing, More about me I am Originally born in Louisiana, then I move to California when I was 4 and I lived there all my life with families. I moved to Georgia after I broke up with my ex , because I can't handle the situation again. My ex slept with my cousin and my best friend and ended up getting married to my cousin, I guess that is not enough. He came back asking me to marry him and wanted to raped me, but thank God for a friend that saved me and called the cops on him. I decides to move and get my life together and start a new life, about my family, it a nice and loving family but it so painful that I lost my parent when I was 19yrs old, and am left with my uncle and his wife. They are all I have now and their kids, I love my uncle family so much because they are so nice to me and want the best for me. Some of the things I do for fun are cooking, bowling, hiking, going to gym, taking a walk, watch movie, listen to music, going out for a music concert, spending time with my partner and showing him how much I love and care for him. I am conservative , I love to dance, I listen to almost every music and watch any movies too. I have pet and love all pet put I only have the one I can afford to take care of now. I have a dog and love my dog and I enjoy playing around with my dog. Basically I am totally new to this Online dating thing, I have been out of a relationship for 2yrs now,I was hurt real bad and I almost gave up on love but I realized that there might still be someone out there for me and that was why I decided to try e-harmony because I know that e-harmony matches people up base on their personality and what they are looking for...I suffered heartbreak from my ex, it takes me years before I knew he was sleeping with my best friend and my cousin cause I travel some times for an art exhibition or to fews places and country to get art works. But now I feel I should try to meet that special someone out there who could really be the one for me, I want a man that knows a woman worth and know what he want. Some that is independent that can handle all situation and we can grow up our families together. spending time with that special someone and more like my work line which gives me an opportunity to do a lot of things will make me happy, I want someone that will be sincere to me as I hate being lied to. I love my job because I really appreciate been independent and have my own time to plan my life and my family. My Job is to buy and sell artworks mostly Paintings and sculpts, sometimes I travel just to get suitable artworks to sell and I sometimes take break to create some of my jobs and I get private painting jobs also,and on rare cases I travel out of the US like right now I am currently in England UK but I heard there are really good artworks in Nigeria which is in Africa and I plan on going there to see ,but will be there for just 3 or 4days and then head back home, I know that they would be well marketed in the states,I am looking forward to getting my own certified art company so I can employ people and they can travel and get some of the Jobs done. I am Use to stay in California with my Uncle before moving down to Georgia and now I stay alone....I am pretty much new to the area also. And am looking to meet someone that is sincere,caring,understanding,romantic and fun to be with.I have attached some of my pictures...I hope you like them.Why don't you tell me more about yourself and send me some pictures too...

Bye for now

So...yeah. This is a little embarrassing, and I'm going to feel like a shithead if this is real, but I'm really leery about continuing any of this. "She" has not gotten any money from me or personal information other than my e-mail address.

Well, I can tell you now that your suspicions are right. 100% scammer.

As you said, the English is poor, and it was clear this wasn't written by an American--but more important is the fact that there are many mistakes that are typical of an African author.

Your email looks like the scammer copied and pasted from multiple scripts, so a little random searching proves that is the case.

Check out the post by NotSoSavy in this thread on romancescam here:
http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewto ... 4&start=15

Look familiar? It should, because there is a portion of the same script.

Because this scammer appears to have a slightly different script, it would be very helpful if you could post some of "her" other letters as well as the email address she is doing and any phone numbers that have been provided (if any). Also, if you can get the headers from one of the earlier emails and the scammer is not hiding behind a proxy, we may be able to show that "she" was in Africa all along. (Actually "she" is most likely a young African male.)

The e-mail address is [email protected]. Emailfinder.com says that the address is owned by someone in Sunnyvale, CA, but I'm guessing that could be fake.

I did some IP address work...the ones I've ran suggested the e-mails were sent by someone in London (which of course, is where "she" claimed to be at first). I don't really know how to find out anything more than that.

Second e-mail:

Thanks for the message, its really nice hearing from you and learning more about you. Indeed you are a cool guy and it nice to know you have a great family and love them all, I use to be very close to my family and my parent before they died and am really close to my uncle now that lives in California and he is all I have now. He is just like a father to me and I like him a lot cos he is always there whenever I needed him, you had a great career and a nice life. I have never try the online dating thing but have heard a lot of testimonies which is why am give it a try and want to work it out. After my relationship with my ex, I decides to stay away from guy a little bit but now am given it a try because I want to be happy again. I agreed with you on what you are looking for in a partner and how relationship should be, my past has made me a strong woman and I really appreciate the learning life thought me, nice to know you have a lovely family, am sorry to hear about your mom too. You sound like a nice man and am not scared to give you a chance, I am happy you opened up and tell me more about you and your past because learning more about each other and the past will make the future better. Because we all learned from our mistakes and know what to do better when next we are in a relationship, But basically what am looking for is kinda of simple and straight, I am looking for a man that knows a woman worth. A man that will care about me, make me happy and will always be there for me. A man that we can share our inner most thought together, reason together and plan our life and family together. I have some few questions for you, what are your likes and dislikes,whats your favorite color and food? Do you like pets? If you do ...do you have any? Also if there is one thing you wish you could change about yourself...what will that be? How old are you? what kinda of work did you do as an accountant, tell me more about it, Do you live alone?

Expect your answers to those questions I asked

I'm not really mad (it's not like I invested a lot of time, these are the only two e-mails), but it does kind of irk me that people take advantage of the vulnerable like this. And I wouldn't mind at least notifying the young woman whose pictures I was sent that her photos are being used by some scammer.

Sunnyvale is Yahoo's headquarters. It is possible that a protocol is being used that strips the originating IP, but it is also possible that the wrong IP was checked. Can you post the full headers from her first email? If you don't know how to get them, let us know what you are using for email, and we should be able to help you. Just make sure you delete your own name and email address first.

If you haven't run the photos through scamdigger.com, you may want to do so.
Also, marking the photos "used by scammer" and posting them here is helpful to both victims and the person in the photos, because it makes it clear to future victims that the person in those photos is not a scammer. We can also help you with that if necessary.

I'm using gmail.

Received: by 10.231.13.202 with SMTP id d10cs17392iba;
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Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 17:16:15 +0000 (GMT)
From: Katie Kern <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hello!

Is this what you are looking for?

I'm a little hesitant to post this woman's pictures. So you're pretty sure the e-mails I've received are scripted? That makes sense, they seem impersonal.

Yes, the emails are scripted and "she" is sending the same emails and photos to other men at the same time. This is why posting them is important. If the scammer has a variety of photos, they are most likely taken from a modeling site or a porn site, which means they are already out there--it is even possible we will recognize them if they are Raven Riley or one of the other commonly used porn actresses. Since some victims can't quite understand that the person in the photos is not scamming them, posting them here where they can learn the truth really is beneficial to the person in the photos too.

The IP does trace to UK--but my guess is that it is a proxy considering how often it is linked to fraud:

http://www.google.com/search?q=87.248.1 ... =firefox-a

It is trully a scam. I received the exact same email as the one you copied. I was hesitant with the grammer on the first couple emails, but totally stopped when she mentioned needing money, etc. Same email address and replies.