Possible romance scam

Hello,

I would like to say that my mother is in the process of being scammed. She is very naive and desperate because she never had a long lasting relationship. 1 1/2 years ago she met this guy through the internet who is a good-looking man living in Ghana. At the beginning I thought this "flirt" was harmless but through the months he has been calling more often and often.

So I started to eavesdrop and I didn't hear anything special. After a while though he was talking about a terrible accident he suffered that left him hospitalized and he needed money for the treatment because he lost his insurance card or something.
Anyway my mother transferred ($6000) and I only found out because I checked her e-mail (she left it open once). I was furious and angry and told her to abort contact with this man. Later she said that the $6000 was transferred back which I can't verify because I am not permitted to her bank account.
Now I think she has another fraudster (or it might be the same one) who said that he is in an exceptional situation and has someone outside of Ghana transfer money or a 'check' to my mother's bank account. After the money arrived on her bank account she would transfer it to that of the fraudster and keep a part of the money, or so I heard.

Sorry for the long story. But the facts are that the fraudster:

-Has bank details of my mother
-Has personal details of my mother and is friends with her on facebook
-He is constantly spamming e-mails, sms and phonecalls to my mother

I don't know what to do in this situation. You have to understand that my mother is extremely naive and is desperate and that we are in a very tough financial situation which might be the motivation to 'cash' in on part of the check's money.
I will confront her tomorrow but I don't know what to do with the money that might have arrived on her bank account. Is it possibly 'fake' money or illegal 'gangster' money? How do I get out of this situation? What do I need to tell the bank?
I've read that the 'flash' money, as it's called, transforms into an expensive loan after cashing in the money. We are left with the loan to pay and the fraudster is handed tax-free money.
I've experienced frauds first-hand, when I was 11 my mother went with me to exchange $500 and was frustrated of the exchange rates so she went to this shady guy on the street who was lurking near the exchange office. We lost $500 but this is peanuts compared to this fraud that might involve drug money or similar.

I don't know what to feel really. I am extremely wrathful yet I feel a deep sorrow for my mother because she is so desperate and has to go these online dating sites to find love.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Hi Ziola.

This is a better place to deal with the situation than the other forum.

OK. It's pretty obvious that your mother is being scammed. What you've described is typical of the methods of a 419 scammer.
First thing you need to do is to make sure that your mother does not draw on that money. Hopefully, the bank will flag the check as a fraud, but sometimes they slip through the system and don't get discovered for some time.
Next, phone the bank and inform them. If your mother can do this great. If not, try and make an appointment to see someone at the bank as soon as possible. Take as much information with you as you can. If you can get any copies of the emails, take those along with you as well. Explain the situation to them. They should be pretty accomodating and that should put a stop to any immediate problems. Although there's probably no immediate danger with the scammer having your mother's bank details (other than sending fake checks to it) they should sort her out with a new account.

The next thing we need to do is get your mother off the scam. There are a few ways to do it, depending on how deep in she is. The first method is to use her PC to show that she's dealing with a scammer. Get her to Google parts of the scammer's first email to her. Google his email address. Google his name along with the word "scam". This will sometimes turn up enough information to convince someone. If she refuses to Google, then try to gather the information yourself and then print it out and present it to her. If you're unable to find anything or feel that you don't have the know-how, drop as many details here as you can and we'll take a look for you.

Also, if she'll come, feel free to direct your mother here to read up on Romance scams. There's plenty here that will show her that she's embroiled in a Romance Scam. She can also talk to us on the forum anonymously or if she prefers, she can speak to a scamwarner by using the Private Messaging service. We can also arrange a phone call to walk her through the scam if need be.

Once she's convinced, we'll then try to stop the scammer from getting through to her. It might take a change of phone number and he'll need blocking from her email box, but if she tells him that she knows that he's a scammer, does the above and ignores him, he'll hopefully soon give up.

If you can drop as much information here as possible or PM it to me, it would be a good start.

First things first though: make sure that she doesn't try to draw on the check. Explain to her that by doing so, not only will she lose money but she could get into deep trouble with the law. That sounds harsh and it's a scary prospect but honesty is the best line to take.

Thank you very much ChrisSmith for the quick reply. I have already 'locked' my mother's computer and lied to her the internet wasn't working . I will confront her tomorrow and try to contact the bank (although tomorrow is a public holiday). I'll also ask her e-mail details so I could check it and post the fraud content on this forum.
One thing that I found out from previous eaves-droppings is that one of the fraudsters is called "Hillary Jones" and the other "Ernesto" or "Ernest". I've googled both of them but only "Hillary Jones" yielded a result:

http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewto ... 3&p=149383

I am really really really REALLY Really grateful for the quick reply and the advice you posted. You've at least prevented one scam that could've probably cost our survival as we are in a very dire financial situation. I'm a convinced atheist but I hope God or someone else helps you prevent more scams and make the world a better place and fulfill your life

Thanks again, and hopefully I'll post e-mails tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Cheers and peace!