I read your profile, I LUV U

Was chatting with a bud this morning and the subject of scams came up. We all know about the Nigerian general who died in a car accident and his family is trying to get $6.5 million out of the country. If you help, you get 1/4 of it.

I was in a relationship for about 17 years so when we broke up this internet thing was all new to me. I'm a cynical person by nature and a cheap mother so you have to get up pretty early in the morning if you want to get 40 cents out of my wallet much less $200.

It started with an email on SD from a guy who lived in "Houston". He read my profile and liked it and asked me a couple of questions. We emailed back and forth a few times and then met in a chat room one night and hit it off well. We continued to email and after about 2 weeks he sent me a pic. Of course he was drop dead gorgeous. I did notice that he rarely answered any of my direct questions and that his emails started to seem canned. But I was new to all this and continued corresponding with him. He was a petroleum engineer and an independent contractor. When working he made $15k a week. Six weeks after his 1st email he had to travel for work and let me know his replies wouldn't be timely. A week after he left he wrote that he was on an oil platform off the coast of Nigeria. OOOGAH, OOOGAH the alarms sounded, the red light lit up and my keyboard started to vibrate in alarm. Then the poor man lost his tools. Luckily he found a Bechtel employee willing to sell him his tools for only $200. He couldn't get to his bank accounts because whenever he traveled he locked them for security reasons, could I help. Yes I could, I suggested next time he traveled he get a credit card with a cash withdrawal option so he wouldn't end up in this predicament.

Most of these scams are easier to spot. The emails are way too long filled with flowery statements about how you are the only person they have ever read about that is as amazingly wonderful as you are. If you would only agree to be part of their life they would finally be fullfilled and they would love you forever. This all in the first email. Many claim to be from Midwest cities but if you ask they don't know where nearby cities are. Most are from Nigeria and despite telling you they are in England or Canada they will eventualy have to travel there before the come to see you the love of their life. One guy sent me a copy of a business class ticket on KLM that cost him $5700. He was unfortunately relieved of his wallet in the Admirals Club lounge and needed $200 for food for his trip here. There is a smaller group from the anti-government conspiracy groups in Idaho and Wyoming but they are not nearly as polished as some of the Nigerians.

Have you fallen for one of these scams? Do you receive them often? Which websites are the worst? Personally I like playing with them. In my mind every minute they waste on me can't be spent on the truly naive.
By txholdup | 08/10/2011 12:58 PM | 4 comments
Comments are disabled for this blog post.
  • A few years ago, I posted that I had a 1955 Chevy for sale. I was immediately contacted by someone that wanted to buy it. I was asking for $3500.00 for it. This person wanted to send me a cachiers check for $6000.00 if I could send the balance to him. In all the conversations we had via the internet, he never once asked me about the conditiion of the car, if it ran, what the color was, whether the transmission was a stick shift or an automatic, NOTHING! That gave him away right there. When I asked about how he would get the car, he said someone would be making contact to get the car. I kept up all the "right" answers for him. He finally said he would send the check by Tuesday. Right, it never showed. I told him that I was going to the bank to get his "balance" on Wednesday, but I did not have his check. He assured me it would be there by Friday. I told him I was going out of town for the weekend, could I send his money on Friday. He eagerly said yes, send it to him early on Friday. He even gave me Western Union information and insisted that I send him an email as soon as I sent the money. Well, you know I did not send anything right? I got an angry email from him on Saturday morning DEMANDING his money. I told him his check did not show up on Friday, so no money until I got his check. He assured me I would have in on Tuesday again. Well, guess what? I GOT IT ON TUESDAY! It was a "cashiers check" for $6000.00 just like he said. Of course, I knew it was phony. I took it to my bank and they were going to cash it and give me $6000.00 just like it was real. BUT, I asked for the Bank Manager and explained the circumstances to her. She took the check and verified my suspicions-it was a phony check. The bank address and the bank numbers did not match. She took a copy of the check and made sure that her corporate people got the information to send to all their banks. I got a very nice letter from the bank thanking me for making them aware of the problem. Seem they had a problem with taking these type of checks. As for the idiot that sent it- I kept him on the hook for about another week with stupid excuses. Then, I finally read him the riot act and exposed him for what he was- a crook. I told him what I had done and he was pissed off. I still have the check in my bottom drawer to my desk. I have had other scams tried to be pulled on me in the past, but just like txholdup's blog, I don't give up my money very easily! And neither should you! Thanks for reading.
    tricky1269 08/21/2011 01:41 PM
  • FYI: http://www.419eater.com/html/419faq.htm

    If you have time, go through the letters archive or their hall of shame section. Some funny stuff there.
    DelRey 08/12/2011 08:45 AM
  • I have also been contacted although not once but twice. One was a guy in London in the travel business but also had a house in the Hamptons. Supposely he took this turist group to China but that he was preparing another trip for older folks and did not have access to his accounts so he wanted to know if they could send me their money to my account and I could then lend him some money. The second had a telephone number with an area code of Eastern Texas but lived in Union city, NJ. Asked a few question about Union City and himself, since there is a large cuban population in Union City and I am cuban. Originally we were going to meet in my coming trip to NYC, sudenly he had to go to London for work, and while there his company did not reimburse him for his trip expenses so he asked me to loan him some money until he came to Florida to see me. In both cases I did not sent them money.
    PalmAireTony 08/11/2011 09:23 AM
  • i was but i sent no money but it was hard not to his nam he gave me was henry and he worked for the oil company in canada but traveled every ware and would come see me. but he had to go to africa first he was going to get a new contract but in his way he was stoped in this african town by the police and beat and they took every thing his clouths all he had was a blanket that was in the taxie.he was kept in a room at a resterant of some one that befriended him and he could use his computer but not for a long time and he had to pay the man 200.00 for the use and if he did not get the money he would hurt him well one day he did some thing stopid he opened his cam and i was face to face with a black man and henrys pic was a whit man and this guy had the fear of god on his face and he shut it off and said nothing about it he kept go on how he would get his family to send me some money orders to cash and send him part of it and keep the rest he woud come and get it later when he could leave africa. well when i got the money orders i took them and the prone number to my babk and told them what i thought was going on and they had the fbi or some one track it down and they found a scam operation in kenya. and shut them down . i am sure they are at it again but i am not going to fall for that again .
    crash49 08/10/2011 06:16 PM