| Dec 29, 2006 @ 12:00 AM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful
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Dovestreasure
Posts: 3,419
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A friend of mine fell victim to a scam this week. She was arrested on Saturday night after trying to cash bad money orders. The money orders were sent to her by a man who claimed to be American and was working out of the country. She was suppose to deposit the cash ( 6000) in a bank account for him. She has been chatting with this man for a few months and felt a level of trust. They were suppose to meet after he returned to florida. She is absolutely devastated by this and has never broken a law in all of her life. Apparently she is one among many thousands of women that has been scammed like this.
Dr Phil had a victim on his show. See the link below for more information.
http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/3396/?id=3396&null=null
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| Dec 29, 2006 @ 12:10 AM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful |
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T_i_m
Posts: 809
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Sounds like that old African scam. That's been going on for years.
She probably has one of those paper Jesus prayer rugs too.
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| Dec 29, 2006 @ 1:00 AM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful
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daisy315
Posts: 4,946
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in this day and time of internet dating, I can't believe someone actually fell for such a scam.
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| Dec 29, 2006 @ 2:36 AM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful |
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ToucherinSparks
Posts: 6,699
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Those scams work because of greed, everybody wants something for nothing.
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| Dec 29, 2006 @ 3:01 AM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful
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HiddenIdentity
Posts: 133
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Sorry to hear about your friend.
My uncle went through the same ordeal. It's not fun, nor should be taken lightly.
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| Jan 4, 2007 @ 2:09 PM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful |
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Wildkitty
Posts: 361
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I thought the following information might be of interest to everyone.
The main purpose of this information is to protect the members of the online community, as well as other people who use online dating services, from fraud and scam, to inform them about the horrible situation with scams in the online dating world, to put them on alert if a scammer contacts them and to prevent them from contacting scammers themselves.
Online Scams
Scammers trick their victims into transferring thousands of dollars to Nigeria and some other West African countries, totalling millions of dollars per year.
Online scams come in many forms and shapes, but there is one particularly nasty form: romance scams, when the scammers approach you on a dating service. These scammers play with their victims feelings, send them lovely messages, call them on the phone, send them presents, make them believe that they finally met their "one and only", and after they build some degree of trust, they STEAL YOUR MONEY.
Since these type of scams involve some romantic foreplay and physical attraction, the major weapon of the romance scammers is PHOTOS. More attractive the better! The scammers almost never use their own photos and show their own ugly faces. They use photos of other people: attractive, good and decent. In most cases, they steal photos from online modeling agencies, like FocusHawaii.com, BlackCuties.com or NewFaces.com, or from magazines. But they may also steal pictures from the real dating or Yahoo profiles of innocent people, which is actually an identity theft.
When you receive a picture from a scammer, you are NOT looking at the actual faces of people who are scamming you. People on the pictures have nothing to do with scammers; their pictures are used by scammers without their knowledge and permission.
In case with Russian scams, the girls on the pictures are either also innocent girls (or even Russian models and celebrities) whos pictures are used without their knowledge, or they may get paid to get their pictures taken (sometimes they know what's going on, sometimes not), sometimes they are also the ones who pick up money Western Union, sometimes they get paid 15% of the scam revenue, but in any case, those are not the actual girls you are corresponding with. The scam "writers" and the scam "models" are often part of the same gang, but not the same people.
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| Jan 4, 2007 @ 2:18 PM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful
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Wildkitty
Posts: 361
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Another article I read, stated scammers troll the dating sites for the essay portions of profiles and reuse them on other sites. The majority of scammers are somewhat illiterate when it comes to English, so this process makes them sound more Americanized.
I just read a profile on MD that pulled my antennae up! 
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| Jan 4, 2007 @ 3:25 PM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful |
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icequeen241
Posts: 26
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I got a message from one of them on my Tagged site. I immediately flagged the persons profile. I can't believe someone would fall for it. They have been around for so long. It's really a shame that they would prey on people from dating sites, but I can see where they could think that we are "easy targets". Maybe they are assuming that we are desperate...not.
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| Jan 4, 2007 @ 3:53 PM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful
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swingpup
Posts: 4,105
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Why are few people so and I want to say stupid but let's use a kinder word that being naive. 
A woman that called the office to set up an appointment to talk about a Internet investment possibility. Once I was speaking with her I found that it involving money orders, etc., much as the scenario here above states.
Long story short, she was advised not to participate and that we would (pro-bono) provide her information per the incident over to the proper authorities. After being advise to totally avoid the situation as it was fraud she left indicating she would think about it......DUH. 
A few weeks later she called the office indicating that she did follow through with sending money and the money orders were in fact bogus. 
Yes, she sent her last years property tax that she had in her saving to the perpetrator. Now, this lady was in her 60's.
Why oh why won't people listen to advise?? It seems that even when people pay for advise or if it's obtained via free gradus they often times simply don't listen. 
Her mistake was a costly lesson to her of almost $3,800.00 as well as financial pain and suffering. 
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| Jan 4, 2007 @ 4:23 PM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful |
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Wildkitty
Posts: 361
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Her mistake was a costly lesson to her of almost $3,800.00 as well as financial pain and suffering.
How sad Swingpup! Are you sure about the age of this lady?
After my Mom passed away we found a ton of canceled checks made out to various so-called charitable organizations of which most were fraudulent Call it naive or call it for what it is...some people have very kind hearts and their intent is well meaning. The innocence of the aged and even sad and lonely people on MD are susceptible. Scammers stay in business because they have a success rate, which tells me some people never report being taken down that road because of embarrassment. We'd all like to think enough information has been published warning everyone but the reality is it's never enough at the right time. My Mom had this incredible trust and love for everyone without exception..she would never have believed someone was scamming her..not this well loved and highly educated lady...that was just the way she was.
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| Jan 4, 2007 @ 11:22 PM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful
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bevrice
Posts: 11,141
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You should report these people to the FBI, they have requested that you do. I get one ever now and then, I just tell them that and they go away, real fast. I have reported them to the FBI, everyone should do the same.
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| Jan 6, 2007 @ 3:08 AM |
Internet Scam.. ladies be very careful |
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tcky123
Posts: 9
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ok i can see why she trusted him because is just cashing money orders not asking for her money, so she felt happy that he trusted her with his money orders not thinking it is a scam, seriously though she should never take any money transactions over the net to anyone you dont know.
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