Am I an idiot

Hello There

I am feeling so ill to my stomach right now and I have so many alarm bells ringing but then there is a part of me that thinks maybe this is legitimate.

I was contacted by a man on FB. I was reluctant to add him at first as my FB is private and I do not allow anyone other than friends to contact me. Needless to say after a few emails I added him. In the short time we have been communicating he has professed his undying love for me. We have chatted on Skype often and his face appears in all tense and purposes the same as his photographs with his son. There have been times where I have wondered if the video is real as he appears to be typing but the screen is frozen. Yet there have been times when I have asked him what he is doing to see if he is legit as the one time he was drinking a coffee and he said drinking a coffee and he was.

He does email me and phone me and I phone him. He appears legitimate. He is German living in the UK. He told me he works for a company in England in LIverpool. It is a legitimate company and I have just spoken to the company on the phone and there is no office in Liverpool.

This is my scenario. He said he wants to send me $900 000. He says he has been saving it over the last 5 years and wants to purchase property here in Australia. Initially it sounded fine. He asked me for my address and passport details as he said he needed them with me being the beneficiary of the money. Half of me has been thinking wow is this for real and the other half of my head is screaming. I am a widow who has recently had to declare myself bankrupt. I told him this over the weekend when I said that I could not receive any funds. He said it was not a problem. This evening chatting to him on Skype he advised me that the diplomat is on his way from the US with the funds and he has paid 35000 pounds to clear the costs etc and I will just need to cover what ever fees there are here. I told him that there is no way I can do that. I do not even have money to feed my children let alone pay out some huge sum of money. He said I am not to worry as I must just phone him and he will sort it out.

Okay so am i being scammed. To be being scammed is when someone takes money from you, not the other way around. He keeps telling me he wants me to meet his parents etc etc.

Is the best thing just to cut all ties and not have any further contact. Yes he has caught my heart but I cannot afford to ruin my life on this.

Please help me.

Thank You
removed - dotti

You're certainly not an idiot Brainyblonde, and you're very sensible to have remained skeptical.

Yes it is a scam and you're dealing with a scammer - and from what you state a very smart one. Though many are quite amateur the actions of the one you've described make him appear a very polished and professional operator and they aren't rare.

The feature that makes me certain of him being a scammer is this point.

..........he advised me that the diplomat is on his way from the US with the funds..............

It is almost a part of scammer folklore that diplomats wander around the world carrying cases full of money but this is a comical and silly belief unique to them. Diplomats represent their country in Embassies in foreign countries abroad and have no function whatsoever in carrying parcels, money or other goods around the world. Why a diplomat would carry the savings of a UK citizen from the USA to Australia is quite a bizarre suggestion, especially when it would be easier to make a bank transfer which would be considerably cheaper to do than hire a Diplomat, and what the fees would be is unfathomable as the idea of using a Diplomat is that what he carries isn't open to scrutiny by your border authorities. So there wouldn't be any fees payable even if this situation ever happened in real life.

The description of this type of scam is 'Advance Fee Fraud' - that is, you pay him some money and he promises to pay you a fortune. Of course you pay your money and the scammer runs off.

You probably don't understand how you fell into this trap, but these people focus on being good at what they do by manipulating people. If you're vulnerable emotionally and/or financially, then that only makes them more ruthless and his demands will lessen initially to suit your circumstances, but he'll be back for more.

I know that this will come as a blow, and it's the last thing you need to hear at this time but at least you haven't worsened your financial situation, and you need to focus on what's good for you and your family, avoiding the 'sharks'.

Yes - you have to cut all ties and ignore him. He won't let go easily and he'll promise anything and probably only make it more apparent that he's a scammer. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get rid of someone trying to give away their money. The reason being that his interest is in getting money out of you, and has no intention of ever giving you a cent. He probably has others he's telling the same tale to as he's clearly using tricks and cheats only employed by a career scammer.

Welcome BB,

As Gomer said, there is absolutely no doubt that this is a scam. Since he is using video, the scammer does appear to be more advanced.

The scenario you are describing (I'm sending money to you so you can buy property, then I'll come to your country and we'll all live happily ever after) is typical of an African scammer, so that is most likely who you are dealing with. In addition, as Gomer already indicated, only in the imaginary world of African scammers do diplomats carry money and packages for private citizens. Diplomats work for the government of their country--they play a major role in the relationship between their home country and the country they are stationed in. They may carry classified government documents from time to time (which is why they are exempt from the scrutiny of border authorities), but they don't tote around large sums of money, and they aren't for hire by private citizens.

Webcam can be faked, and we are seeing more and more scammers who are using fake webcam in their scams. Most often it is faked using existing video--e.g. the real person in the photos is an actor/actress, or is on a webcam site, or has online videos on sites such as youtube. Software is used to clip and rearrange the video to imitate webcam. It's possible, but a little less likely, that he is using software to add animation to photos instead. Or, he could be streaming video from a webcam site, and he could be showing it at the same time. He can tell you what he is doing in the video because he created it, or is watching it along with you.

Does his phone number start with 44-70 or 44-87? if so, that is a redirect number, which means the scammer can be located anywhere in the world--if he is using a redirect number, he is likely in Africa or Malaysia. African scammers don't care if you say you are broke, because they have successfully gotten money from others who have made that same claim in the past. They don't care where the money comes from or what you have to do to get it. They sound very romantic and caring, but the truth is, they don't care if you lose everything and end up on the street because of them. I have encountered many African scammers who have convinced their victims to take out a loan, mortgage their house, or even sell their car or personal possessions to get the money for the fees, promising the victim that it's ok, because they will be rich when they are finally together.

You do need to cut all contact with this scammer, and do it NOW. For the sake of other victims (and I can guarantee there are others--this type of scammer does not limit himself to one victim at a time) we also recommend posting his information, including his email address, samples of the emails from him (these are scripts, which he will most likely reuse), photos, and any phone numbers/addresses used. If you can get the full headers from some of his emails, we may be able to help you to identify his true location if he is not using a proxy server.