Help, my mother has travelled to meet a possible scammer

Hi, my name is Brittany. I joined this site because I believe my mother has gotten caught up in a scam. For the past 3 days, I've tried to reach her on her cell phone but get no answer. She hasn't been returning any text messages, either. Today I called my sister to check on Mom, and was informed that my mother flew to Tunisia to meet with a man she met on the internet. She said Mom asked her not to tell anyone she went, and that's why she hadn't told me sooner.
I am, of course, in a blind panic. My cousin has information but refuses to tell me because she "promised not to tell". At this point all I have is the man's email address and supposed home address, but when I tried to Google his address nothing came up. I'm waiting on my sister to get back to me with all of Mom's flight information and travel dates, as well as hotel room number for the hotel she's supposed to be staying at.
My sister does not think we should be worried because she has received several texts from Mom's phone. I even got one today telling me "I'm not in Algeria. I'm in Tunisia with Chawki. It's beautiful here. Having a great time with a wonderful man. I'll tell u all about it later. Love u!!" I responded by saying I couldn't believe she'd be so stupid to go halfway across the world to meet a man she met online and she said "I'm not stupid, just in love". My immediate thought is that it might not be Mom doing the texting. My husband Googled the email address she gave my sister and we found a page that says this man is married and living in Algeria. I'm beyond worried, and I need some help. I have the contact information for the Tunisian Embassy, which I'm going to contact as soon as I have more information from my sister.
Is there anything else I need to try to do? I'm beyond worried about my mother at this point.

Hi Britdaw and Welcome to Scamwarners

Firstly I am sorry to hear about your concern but I agree, your concerns are well founded, visiting any stranger can be dangerous and especially when it is abroad.

At Scamwarners, we are not experienced in kidnapping nor are we part of any government organisation so any advice we can give you in regards to those subjects will be limited, we do however understand scammers quite well.

From what you have told us so far, it doesn't sound like the typical romance scammer that we normally deal with, most of them will not actually ever meet their victims.

That said, there are several other possibilities here;

Some scammers and in particular those from poorer countries will actually meet the women they seek to scam if the opportunity arises, it doesn't happen often I must point out but basically they will use their victim until they run out of money then move onto the next.

In some limited cases, the victim will be lured to another country and held for ransom, this is very rare and I think unlikely in this case.

The least likely option, it may be that they are both in love through exchanging a couple of emails, while this is possible and I hope that is the case, I doubt it.

If you could get us some of the details of this man she has gone to see we may be able to dig up some evidence of scamming, meanwhile, as hard as it might be, try to not to sound too negative towards your mother, I understand your frustration but if you alienate her it will be much harder to get her to believe you if we can gather some information and you may lose contact altogether which will only make it worse.

For what its worth, I do believe the texts are actually from your mother, I would think you would pick up the difference in what you mother would have texted to you and if it were in regards to a randsome there would be no point in assuring you that she is safe.

Many countries like Tunisia do not have well marked up street directories so not finding the address with a google search is no big surprise

Finally, if it is a scammer, the name used will not be his real name, it may well be the name of another person who is not connected or if it is legitimate it may simply be another person with the same name.

The more information you can get to us, the better the chance of us finding something for you

I think it would be better to contact your embassy rather than the Tunisian one. That's what they are for, looking out for the interests of its citizens abroad.

Hi Britdaw, I'm glad to see you made it over to here from 419Eater. I posted in response to you there under a different username.
I have split these posts off from the welcome thread to their own thread so that you can post information and updates for us as we help you, rather than us continuing on the welcome thread where the information will be intermixed with other welcome posts.

Please do give us any further information you are able to get.

@Arnold: The information britdaw has is for the US embassy in Tunisia.

Well I finally got to talk to my mom yesterday. She told me I had nothing to worry about because "Chawki" is a wonderful man who loves her and they were just having a vacation together. I told her everything I've been able to find out about this guy so far, such as the fact that he does appear to be married and that we have now found 6 different profiles on 6 different dating sites that all have different information on them. She doesn't care; she says she's in love with him.
I'm terrified for her... But there's absolutely nothing I can do at this point but pray that she'll come back safely.

It's not my place to comment on how you feel about your Mom, and offspring can often forget that their parents have their own needs, so rather than just considering that the relationship should finish, it might be more constructive if you guide your mother in to understanding that there probably (or very likely) isn't any long term basis for their relationship.

If she can see that you can accept it as a 'fling' then perhaps she won't see you as being totally negative and it will give you the chance to guide her out of harms way.

Establishing his marital status is important and if he is running a lot of online dating site profiles then perhaps he is operating as a gigolo, so your mother had better forget ideas of love, and be cautious about her finances, because unless she is, he won't be around for long.

If you're completely negative, she'll ignore you, so concentrate on guiding her into being cautious and enjoying the relationship for what it is, not what she'd like it to be.