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by panicearly Mon May 24, 2010 12:55 pm
Hello to everyone. My sis-inlaw has possibly fallen into a romance/drug mule scam and I`m hoping that its just a romance scam for her families sake. I`ll give as much detail about her behavior and her new boyfriend and would appreciate your opinions.

First about my sis-inlaw, we`ll call her DB.
DB is single 35 year old, college grad, acts confident, office worker, want to be an independent woman, sexual relationship wise not very experienced. We believe she hadd one boy friend 8 years ago. She is private about her relationships but we are sure that she has not been in other relationships.

3 Months ago she quit her job after saving up a fair amount of money over the last 8 years.
1 month ago she travelled to Vietnam, where she met a girl from Spain, then decided to go to Spain in June.
After Vietnam She went to Thailand and met a guy towards the last 3 days of her visit.
She then returned home, and immedietly bought another plane ticket to meet him again in Thailand this time for a month stay. Just A week later she returned home to close out her apartment as she said "im going to live with my boyfriend". DB`s roomate says he calls her repeatedly and all she can talk about is him.
At this point DB has known this man for 10 days (physically together).

Now about the boy friend (BF), what she reluctantly told us so far
BF is 34, From Turkey, Says he has a sick mother, and has land in Turkey he has to go to sell.
BF paid for her trip home($700) to clear out her apartment. BF says that he has a business in Thailand and he will get DB a business visa so that they can be together.
BF also wants her to go to Turkey with him this week from Bangkok


Taking her lack of relationship experience into consideration and seeing her erratic behavior I knew she was lalalove land. Which is fine, except that this seemed to me like a somewhat common drug mule operation.
Girl falls in love, BF wants to take her to Europe or somewhere, and she either knowingly or unknowingly carries drugs through customs. IF she clears it then all is well and the romance continues till eventually the girl is caught. At which point the man moves on to another waiting gf. This is not uncommon in SE Asia, and BK is a major beggining point for China White(heroin).

I told DB about these kinds of scams and she should not beleive some man she met on the streets. She at first seemed to be nervous, which i took as a positive sign. She asked me what she can do to tell if he is a scammer. I told her to tell him that you dont feel like going to Turkey and see what his reply is as an example.
But later that day he called her and she told him that she doesnt feel like going to Turkey, and just wants to relax in Thailand. To this he replied that it was ok with him and in this case he will fly his sister to Thailand as he wants to introduce her to DB.
BF did not mention his business trip to sell his land. Instead now his sister is going to come from Turkey to Thailand just to meet his 10 day old girl friend DB.
DB thought all was well and took off to Thailand 4 days ago convinced that she was going to start a new life with BF. No one has heard fromher since, possible she is just running around thailand`s beaches so far.

Apart from her behavior several things about BF make me see red flags.
1. How many 34 year olds own land they need to sell
2. How many foreign 34 year olds have businesses in another country.( He is from Turkey with business in Thailand)
3. Why would a smooth talking stripper recruiter in Thailand shack up with a homey inexperienced office worker?
4. Why would a stripper recruiter pay for a girls plane ticket after knowing her for only 10 days?
5. Why woud he change his travel trip after DB declined to go?
6. After she became nervous about going to Turkey, he then says he will have his sister come all the way to thailand to meet DB. Is he trying to make DB feel more comfortable?


DB is reluctant to give any more info about BF and has gone into a "stand by my man" mode. She did not disclose his facebook. After I found it on my own she acknowledged that it was her BF.


To end, we all told her what we thought, but she went anyway. I dont expect to hear from her but will post again if i hear something new. This could be scam in progress. Live. Your comments and opinions are welcome. Thank You,
Panicearly.
Last edited by panicearly on Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by David Jansen Mon May 24, 2010 4:23 pm
Welcome here panicearly.

Your description of BF sounds like a loverboy, but they prey on naive teenage girls, not adult woman. And "investing" in a victim like paying for DB's flight home to clear out her apartment doesn't sound like a loverboy or criminal would do. And why would a 34 year old not have land to sell. His father could have been a land owner and BF inherited the land from his dad. But yes, BF's occupation is not something common people do, it is a dubious world. I can't see a scam here, only the possibillity that DB has fallen for a criminal. We are experts on internet scams, not in investigating possible criminals. The best advice i can give you for now is to get in contact with your local LE and ask advice there. They can get in touch with interpol if there's reason to believe that DB is involved with a criminal.

Being a victim doesn't mean you stand alone. We're here to help you.
by panicearly Tue May 25, 2010 2:11 am
David Jansen, Thanks for the comment.
My comment re: 34 year old with assets to sell in another country, is not so much that it`s not impossible, but given the profile that I have of the BF i find the probability low.

Pros do invest in their marks, depending on the scam. It created trust.
Drug mule scams for example invest quite heavily in the relationship as the payoff is 20 fold or better and the their personal risk for trying is low legally and financially.
Here is a video put out by Singapore police of one such scam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B23JF3Nv_dM

Any single point is not an alarm in itself, but taken as a whole can help one construct a theory.
I`m just putting out what I know so far. I`ll update again.

You could be right. Hopefully Its just a loverboy and does not involve much more than a broken heart and a few dollars.
Thanks, Panicearly
by David Jansen Tue May 25, 2010 5:45 am
As i said earlier, my expertise lies with internet scams, not with other crimes. I do believe that loverboys could "invest" in their victims, but the internet scammers we deal with never do that. It would be best to get in touch with the police about this, even though you have only suspicions just now. They can at least give you better advice on what to do then i can.

Being a victim doesn't mean you stand alone. We're here to help you.

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