Too many FR threads these days have little more than a thread title and a link to a video.
In other words, no information.
I get that.
Synopsis if you do not want to watch the video:
An older woman named Helen (I’m guessing in her early 70’s), who has been single/divorced for over 30 years and dated quite a bit but never found a man “good enough” for her in real life, decided to try on-line dating.
She claims to be “very intelligent” and “technology savy”, brags about having an AA in nursing and 2 master’s degrees, one in psychology no less, who she says is smart because she works with doctors, met a man on Facebook Dating. She is also a devout Christian and considers herself a patriot.
One of the men who contacted her on Facebook Dating claimed to be US General James H. Dickinson (there was another woman who thought she was in a romance with General Mark Milley).
He told her he was stationed on a peacekeeping mission in Syria, and they connected and were soon talking about being in love and starting their life together, getting married (he even sent her a ring that I’m betting isn’t a real diamond) after he retired after he returned home from Syria. It should be noted that she never talked to him over the phone or video chatted with him, this was all via text messages because with all these scammers, there is always an excuse.
Soon there was a problem. I won’t go into all the details, but it had something to do with his miliary papers being in a warehouse and when he opened the package, it was also full of cash, a lot of cash because he allegedly saved a Syrian official from ISIS and “they don’t trust the banks over here”.
He now needs Helen’s help getting his papers and the cash out of Syria with the help of a UN Diplomat and of course, needing Helen to pay all sorts of fees to get the package out and through several countries for which she was sent tracking documents and invoices, to the tune of $72k, mostly in the form of cashiers checks she sent to various people supposedly the general’s secretaries which he “promises” he will pay back to her once they are together. Then surprise, surprise, the package was “lost” or stolen and of course needs even more money as he’s in a bad state mentally and beyond hope of returning home so he “needs” her.
This was a bit unusual as the scammer will most often ask for gift cards or bitcoin but will sometimes use a “cash mule” to receive checks or even cash and forward that to the scammer for a cut and in some cases these cash mules are themselves victims.
She was truly convinced she was helping this General with whom she had not only formed a romantic bond with but also a “Covenant Bond in Christ” because he sent her several prayers via text and was herself because of trying to help him, “involved in the war in Syria” (narrator – no she wasn’t).
Of course, she was scammed and lost $72k. Some people lose less and some even a lot more. Some are scammed out of their entire life savings, resort to borrowing money from relatives, etc. go bankrupt, etc.
The folks at Catfish.com (check out their other vids which are interesting and informative), as they do for all the victims who reach out to them, investigated and showed her all the reasons why the man she was communicating with and sending money to, was not the real General James Dickinson, that the documents were fake and some of the photos photoshopped such as the one he supposed sent her of his military ID. She was resistant at first but was finally convinced. But now she’s going to write a book to help other people because, you know, she’s very intelligent. /s
These “Romance Scammers” are mostly located in Nigeria and Ghana, and they are getting increasingly sophisticated and are highly manipulative.
They steal photos from real people’s Facebook and Instagram, etc., accounts (and they are victims in a way as well) and find out as much as they can about their potential victim so they can find their interests and weaknesses, in Helen’s case her religious beliefs, willingness to help people and her patriotism and their wish to find “true love”.
There seems to be several variations of the scam – the 1) I’m in the military and need your help (and they are not aways generals); the 2) I’m on an oil rig and need your help and 3) the celebrity scam where a victim is convinced that they are in a romance with Johnny Depp, Darius Rucker or Chris Brown, who all of course need money.
While we’d all like to think the people who fall for these scams are stupid, uneducated, low IQ, borderline “retarded” or deserve to get scammed, but that is not always the case. Gullible, desperate or deluded into thinking they are still young looking and attractive and thinking that some young stud or nubile young woman who looks like a model or a celebrity would be interested in some rando.
While I’d like to think no one here would fall for such a scam, we might know a relative or friend who might be vulnerable, so I posted this as an FYI and service.
Other scams are the IT support/refund scams that mostly come from Bengali India and the PCH (Publishers Clearing House) or lottery scams that come mostly from Jamacia. There are also job scammers.
Some years ago, my brother who was a bright guy nearly fell for a job scam. In this case he posted his resume to Monster and since he had a background in commercial printing, thought it was a real job offer. But it wasn’t.
In this scam in his case, he was told it was an international manufacturing company based in Germany and they would email him invoices to their US customers which he would print out and mail for them because it was quicker and cheaper than sending mail internationally.
They gave him a specific printer he would have to buy along with other supplies, and they would send him a check to reimburse him for this. But of course, they needed him to purchase these things ASAP and after his son and I found out and did research on this, the check would be in amount much greater than the cost of the printer and supplies and he would have to send a Western Union money transfer or gift cars for the difference.
By the time the check was sent and deposited to his account it would have bounced, but it would have been too late as he would have already sent the scammer the money. Fortunately, we also stopped him from sending a copy of his driver’s license and SS card and banking information for “direct deposit” as the scammers would use this further to steal his identity.
Be careful out there people and look out for others in our lives who might fall prey to these scammers.