Stephen F. Harris or Stephen Frank: Frank Anderson

I think Stephen Frank is now going by Stephen Harris. He is supposedly a Shell Oil executive and wants to help you invest in the company. He has the inside track because he is a financial executive. He is currently in Nigeria on special assignment. He says he will retire in October. He is very slick and his English is good. He appears well-educated. He seems to know a lot about Shell. Very believable. He scammed me out of $50,000. I met him from a dating site called Chemistry.com. By the way, I think others are coming from this site as well. Frank Anderson may well be. He is in Guana building apartments. He says he's a Civil Engineer. His luggage got stolen and he needed money. Then, he wanted me to buy him a lap top. Both these guys have an accent that sounds Dutch, Russian, or German. They do not sound American. If I can figure out to post their pictures, I will. Neither came from Focus Hawaii modeling agency. Stephen's picture is just a regular guy, Frank's pictures appears to be professional.

I've been scammed by Stephen F Harris or Stephen Harris from Nigeria. He is supposedly from California working for Shell oil and is in Nigeria on "special assignment". He was very convincing in wanting to help me invest in the companies retirement plan. He also has a "daughter" named Amanda working on her Masters in London. She looks like a hooker. I sent him $51,000! I'm sick. I'm also very stupid. He is using a picture of a average looking guy that is not on your website. I need help!

Hi Rosiegirl
I'm really sorry to hear that you have been scammed, that's a huge amount of money to lose.
Rosegirl, you are not stupid. Unfortunately, you came in contact, and then were targeted by a criminal. A scammer who had one purpose in mind, which was to pretend to be somebody who cared about you, in order to steal your money.
I hope that you can share your story with your friends and family so they can give you the emotional support that you need right now.

Rosie,

First of all, I'm sorry to hear you were scammed. I don't know what alerted you to the truth, but as hard as it is, I'm glad you are now aware so that he can't do any more damage.

For female characters, scammers like to use photos of porn models and/or models with lots of "sexy" photos on sites like focushawaii.com, which probably explains the "daughter" photo.

I'm going to paste below an informational topic we will soon be posting in the romance scams forum, addressing next steps if you have been a victim. There is a lot to absorb right now, but this is a good place to start.

It’s never easy to learn that the person you have been in contact with is a romance scammer. You thought you had found the perfect person. He/she was attentive, romantic, and always knew just what to say. You may have already invested a lot, emotionally and financially, into a relationship that you are now just beginning to realize does not exist. So where do you go from here?

1. CUT OFF ALL CONTACT WITH THE SCAMMER AND ANYONE CONNECTED WITH HIM. This is the most important thing you can do. Remaining in contact with your scammer will only cause further harm. Continued approaches from him (which may include continuing to plead his innocence, manipulating you with guilt or phony confessions, or even becoming verbally abusive or threatening) will make it much harder to accept what has happened and move on. Block him on messenger, filter his emails to trash without reading them (better yet, change your email address if it’s feasible), don’t take any phone calls from him.
2. Don’t beat yourself up. Falling for a scammer doesn’t make you stupid, desperate, or deserving of punishment. It makes you human. You were looking for someone or something, and the scammer convinced you he was what you were looking for. The scammer is very experienced at using lies, guilt, and manipulation as tools to get what he wants.
3. Don’t allow this experience to derail your life. If you were walking down the stairs, and you tripped over an object you had left on the top step, would you just throw yourself down the whole flight of stairs because you felt guilty about tripping? Of course not. You would get up and keep walking, and you would probably learn to avoid leaving things on the stairs in the future. As difficult as it is, that is what you need to do here--learn from the experience, and try to get back on course. If the feelings are overwhelming or you find yourself on a destructive path, you might want to seek a professional counselor or appropriate support group.
4. If you have lost money, report the crime, but do not allow yourself to get hung up on false hopes of getting your money back. In reality, chances of getting your money back are virtually zero. The scammer is most likely operating from another country, and everything he has told you is a lie, so you have little to no real information about him. When a scam crosses international borders, a tremendous amount of money, red tape, and political activity is required just to initiate an investigation, and with few resources available, only the largest of losses (typically hundreds of thousands of dollars) will trigger an investigation. However, reporting the crime is still important, because our governments need to understand the severity of the problem if we want them to take stronger action against it.
5 Review the information you have given him. If he has your name, address, phone number, and photos, there’s really nothing for you to do. If you have given him your social security number or other identification, bank account information, credit card numbers, passwords, or you have opened any accounts for him, take action. Follow your country’s process for reporting possible identity theft. Report your credit cards as compromised and replace them. Contact your bank about actions to take on bank accounts. Change your passwords, and –this is very important – change any password reset questions to something he can’t guess.
6. Post the scammer’s information, including the text of his emails, to help alert others who may be current or future targets. Scammers frequently use scripts – a series of prewritten emails – that they send to multiple victims. They often keep these scripts even when they change names. There is a good chance that the scammer has sent the exact same emails you received to dozens of other people! Posting those scripts can help another victim or potential victim.
7. If at all possible, resist the temptation to confront him, send him proof he is a scammer, or show him he is posted on an anti-scam forum. It is a normal reaction to want him to confess and feel guilty about the harm he has done. The truth is, if he confesses he will just tell more lies, and he is not going to feel guilty. To a scammer, your whole relationship has been a business transaction. He learned a long time ago to see victims as nothing more than a source of money, no matter how much he pretends to care. When you point out what he has done wrong, he will learn from your information and will make his scam more believable next time. If you point out that his current name and email are posted, he will create a new fake identity, and the victim who googles his new name won’t find the important evidence that he is a scammer.

I am the latest victim of Stephen Harris. He found me on Chemistry.com and came on very strong with his story. This time, he lives in Nevada and works for Shell Oil and Gas (no one really calls it that) and yes, he is retiring in a few months. I started to get suspicious when things he said didn't add up. Like he couldn't call me because he uses his company phone for calling, yet he texts me from a Blackberry. He said he had a pay as you go phone. That donesn't ring true. I have a Blackberry and it is definately NOT a pay as you go phone. Apparently, he is leaving on a trip to Hong Kong and will be gone for a couple of weeks. Luckily, I listened to my inner voice and goggled his name and Shell and found this site. The horrible thing is there really is a Steven Harris who works for Shell in the UK.

This Stephen's English is not that great and if you pay attention to what he says, you will see. Here is a sample of the stuff he is saying now "It so good to hear from you too,I am glad your ex is no longer interested his lost is my gain lol,well I guess we are meant for each other or chemistry wouldn't have match us. thank you for offering to accommodate me until I find a nice place by the ocean to buy,that is very sweet of you. I am not very familiar with the lakes there but I would will check them out when I get to ca, I am sure you should know the best for us,I have about 2M usd to spend on a brand new home. Yes I am real and I really would like to get married to you someday and settle down,I have always wanted someone to share all the beautiful things that life has to offer with and do you realize that people in love live longer and healthier? I see you appear to be online on your IM do you think we can chat for awhile before I jump into bed sweetheart? "

Welcome to Scamwarners.
I don't know if he's asked you for any money yet but I'm sure the trip to Hong Kong will result in such a request. credit card declined, robbery, etc.

Hi Everyone, He hit me up several weeks ago on FaceBook. Left to go to South Africa for work, Shell Oil. Divorced one daughter. Also his father had recently passed away and wanted to sell his land in South Africia. After a couple of weeks and more chit chat he asked if I was interested in a great investment. At that time I 100% sure what he was. Told him no. Invested to the max with my employeer. Continued on a couple more weeks with little contact.

Started back with IM then needed to borrow 50K. Dad's land needed taxes to be paid. He had two people wanting to buy dad's land but he could not sell due to back taxes. Had money in US but he was have difficulity getting. Would pay me back 20% of 3 million when he sold. That would be immediately. Just wanting to see what he would do, I asked for deed or something. He emailed me a scanned copy of a deed. Had Caifornia address and phone number on this so called deed. Number was not valid. Googled address. It was the The Grove Shopping Center's address in Los Angles.
I had know for weeks he was not for real. Terrible English skills. Face Book page only had 8 friends, All women. Pic of daughter that looked like a hooker.

I attached some emails below to show how he writes. Read from bottom up of page up to follow exchange. He is gone from FB, Yahoo, and any other way I had to contact him.



Stephen or what ever your name is......
Are we a little pis***? Don't think I know, I know for a fact. As far as kssing your a**, you WISH! Later,


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Subject: Re: Finally!
To:
From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 18:10:39 +0000

Ok now that you think you know,you can kiss ma ass Bitch! Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from Verizon

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From:
Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 13:52:50 -0400
To: stephen harris<[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Finally!


Just in case you did not get this in IM or FB email. I am sending again. You really need to impove your game if you are going to play this

"You live in "The Grove Calfornia? A shopping mall complex. Guess you live between the food court & elevators. OK. Whatever!
You are getting Zip, Nada, Zlich,not one red cent from me. You suck at scamming. I have known since your second email what you were about. 419-ers. Twas fun for awhile.
A couple of suggestions take a English course, Learn punctuation (for sure), sentence structure (most definitely) and get spell check.
Also, learn how Americans phrase money matters.
Just one more thing, some women would not spend 50K on some idiot man that thinks they are a moron. Reported u 2 EFCC.
Has been fun just not very much.

Reported you to FB. BTW that was so obviously a fake page and your daughter, bless her heart, looks like a hooker. Not a pic proud dad would have of his daughter on his page.

Do not in any way contact me again. You are a thief and criminal.


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Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 15:19:03 -0700
From: [email protected]
Subject: Finally!
To:

Hi honey,this is the gov doc that will allow me get the contract form to sell the property once i paid the money,i can't wait to sell off this property so i can get back home on time,i just want to hold and kiss you,its has been way too long honey.