Victim of Loan Scam

I believe i have been a victim of a loan scam and want to do something about it. It all started by me doing a search for a hard money loan to fund a deal for property. On about 9/18/2010 i got a response from individual and along with all the information that they would need in order to process the loan. I agreed to the terms and sent the 1st $400. Shortly after he sent information stating that the funds needed to be in pounds, so that was more money that i had to give. The pound is stronger than the dollar, so in all to make a long story short i western union $660 of my hard earned money. And now he(scammer) is telling me that i have to pay an additional 200 pounds for taxes it cost to complete the transaction. I refused and told him to refund all my funds. He keeps on going asking me for money, disregarding my attempts to get refund!

The scammers info:

[email protected]
[email protected]
I have a copy of a passport and can post it if needed.
Scammers phone # is (+)44-702-405-7517
Please can someone help me!!

I'm sorry to hear your story fightback and there's no way to sugar coat the situation.

The man is a scammer and the money's gone and there's no way to get it back, though he'll try to persuade that just one more payment will do it, and he'll keep that up for as long as he thinks he can squeeze more money out of you.

No honest lender uses Western Union. It's a service only possible to be used by private individuals, and the fact that the money can't be traced once it's been sent makes it ideal for use by scammers. He's also using an anonymous redirect telephone number that looks like a UK one, but actually he could be based anywhere in the world.

The passport he's sent you won't be his. Scammers often ask victims for copies of their passports which they then recycle as being their own. I've done a Google search on his e-mail address and he's done a lot of spamming around the internet for victims.

It's a shock when you realise what he's done to you and he won't pay you anything back because he never intended to do anything other than steal your money and, if he can, he'll steal some more. There's no dirty trick or lie they won't use.

I'm sorry I can't give you any hope of getting your money back but you know nothing about him and, even if you did, where he's operating law enforcement isn't very effective.

Hi fightback and welcome

I'm very sorry that you got scammed

Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to get your money back

His number is not a real UK number, it will redirect your calls to any place in the world (any number with the format 070**** is not a UK number)

What you can do now is to post all the information you have about him (emails, names ..etc) so it can help others .
The passport he sent you is fake and might be stolen from another person.
You can post the passport after you mark it (FAKE) so it can not be re-used by another scammers.

It would be useful if you can post the emails headers as well


Edit: GomerPyle gave you an excellent advice in any future deals !!