Is Deborah Diana Donnell a scammer?

I met a woman who calls herself Deborah Diana Donnell, on the Lavalife dating website Her user name on Lavalife is DERBINNY909. She claims to have been born in the USA and lived in Houston, Texas but is now living in the UK. We have been chatting for a while and she says that she would like to meet me but isn't sure whether she can afford the airfare to Australia from the UK. At first she asked if she could pay most of the money herself and borrow the rest from her boss and be reimbursed by me for the portion she borrowed from her boss. This sounded reasonable so I agreed. She sounded genuine because she was bringing her 3 year old daughter with her. Then she says that her boss wouldn't give her the money and she still needed GBP 600 for the ticket which she wanted me to give to her via Western Union transfer. She forwarded an email to me which she claims is from the Travel Agent and which at first glance looks to be from a legitimate travel agent. It contains graphics that appear to be from a company called Aerolinx Bristo Travel which appears to be associated with Aerolinx World Travel. I looked the company up online and there is actually a website for Aerolinx World Travel but they appear to only operate in Canada. I checked the UK yellow pages and there is no listing for an Aerolinx Bristo Travel anywhere in the UK.
The supposed email from the agent contains several grammatical and spelling errors, something I wouldn't expect from a legitimate business operating in the UK. I would expect a business in the UK to have a good command of the English language. I almost sent the money until I had another look at the email and did some checking. Alarm bells started ringing when I saw that Aerolinx is the travel agent used in an employment scam.



This is the email from the travel agent:
To: removed by dotti
Subject: ATTN:Flight Information/Deposit
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:52:42 -0400
From: [email protected]






Dear Customer,

With regards to the enquiry made by Miss Deborah Donnell on the 29th of OCT. 2010 concerning the date and price for flight available to Melbourne intl Airport, ( Australia). We searched all through but we usually insist on British Airways.... They are reliable and convinient, and we also put our clients safety into consideration.
A flight Ticket from Heathrow (London) to Melbourne intl Airport, ( Australia), cost a total of 2050 GBP for (2) one Adults for one child. The avaliable date of departure is , the 5th of NOV. 2010.

A deposit of 1,450 GBP has been made as part payment(NON REFUNDABLE), for one (1) Adult and (1) child. As soon as the remaining balance of 600 GBP is made, A detailed proposed flight intenerary which includes date of departures, arrivals and other necessary information chosen by Miss Deborah Donnell will be sent immediately.
Price breakdown
Passenger Price Taxes, fees, charges and surcharges* total
2 2000 50 0 2050GBP

This is to inform all our customers that the price includes taxes, charges and surcharges. It is important to know that this is a payment notification, to make enquires or complain, please reply this mail.

Thank you for using Bristo Travel.
Customer care
Bristo Travel
Mr Mark Keith
Aerolinx Bristo Travel Inc..


Copyright © 2010 Aerolinx Bristo Travel, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Aerolinx World & Conditions | AWT Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact mail Address: [email protected]

Key Phrases:-

claims to have been born in the USA and lived in Houston, Texas but is now living in the UK.
isn't sure whether she can afford the airfare to Australia from the UK.
borrow the rest from her boss and be reimbursed by me for the portion she borrowed from her boss.
boss wouldn't give her the money and she still needed GBP 600 for the ticket which she wanted me to give to her via Western Union transfer.

Anyone who befriends you on a dating/romance/friendship website and then asks you to pay for anything at all is 100% guaranteed to be a scammer. It is not genuine, it is a scumbag of West African origin, likely Nigeria or Senegal (others too).

Welcome here Kayakbloke.

Thanks for posting this information. If that is your real e mail addess, you'd better remove it, as it will only result in getting lots of spam and other scam emails.

I'm glad you got suspicious and starting to do some research. A very good clue wether it's a scam is the email address the scammer is using, which is a free mail.com address. A legitimate company would never use such an email address. Is it possible to post the full headers aswell? If you don't know how to get the headers, just ask.

Good job catching this before losing any money! If you had sent money, more money requests would have followed, with new excuses for not traveling of course.

Scammers do come from all over the world, but this particular scam format does frequently originate in Africa--and that "travel agent" letter is very much consistent with an African origin.

-As David already pointed out, consultant.com email addresses are free addresses issued by mail.com. A real travel agent does not have a free email address as a primary business address.
-While I have certainly seen American and British individuals with poor spelling, as you suggested, legitimate businesses generally use a little more care in business correspondence.
-"We searched all through but we usually insist on British Airways" -- travel agents are service providers--they work for you. They would be expected to provide you with options, not "insist" on their itinerary.
- The "she paid deposit, you pay balance" scenario is typical scammer. It is intended to make you think it can't be a scam, because the scammer paid money (assuming it doesn't occur to you that there is no real proof that the scammer has paid a dime to anyone.)
-Legitimate businesses don't operate by Western Union.
-Note the lack of phone number--you are only allowed to respond by email. Again, a legitimate business such as a travel agency would have a phone number.
-"Mr Mark Keith" This is typical of an African scammer. Many Africans don't know the difference between our given names and surnames, and it is very common to see scammer names that consist of 2 typical first names or 2 typical last names (e.g. "williams jones"). While the name is not impossible, combined with the many other indicators, it is another sign of a potential scam.

As tempting as it may be, don't point out the scammer's mistakes or lead him here--that will only help him to make the next scam more believable. Just drop "her" and don't waste any more time on her. The scammer will probably keep trying for a while, insisting "she" is real and loves you--and will likely drop the money requests for a while while attempting to get you hooked again. These are typical scammer tactics--ultimately, nobody is traveling to see you, because you have never been in contact with the person in the photos you were sent.

Do you have a bank account Kayakbloke ? I certainly do and I don't know anyone who doesnt. Even the most poverty stricken person will have a building society account at least and only scammers, either don't have them or don't use them as they can be traced through them.

Just because a person offers a bank account doesn't make them genuine, as scammers can sometimes use accomplices or dupes to channel funds, but the use of Western Union is a dead giveaway.

You may feel cheated and foolish but if you had been scammed as well, it would hurt a whole lot more.