Total money lost $80,000
Type of a scam Romance
I have been scammed by the man I met online last year.. Over 10 months course of the the scams, I had sent him Cdn 80 K ($ US.65 K ) and he disappeared 5 months ago (Jan/2019)
I had been catfish. The guy I correspondent with had stole someone pics and pretending he was that person. He said he live in San Jose and worked in Kenya and got stuck there. He needed help to get back to states since he can’t access to bank acct. First, I felt very uncomfortable and stopped chatting with him…He had never give up… he was begging and crying. Finally, I agreed to help. First , I sent him 2000 U.S but it didn’t stop there… he started to ask for more and more after that.. he said he needed money for the air ticket or for the tax he owed the Gov… There was always money demanding one and after another. His story seemed very convincing and believable … He also showed me his bank acct with 900 K balance and all the fake documents, air tickets…. I started sending him money after 3 weeks of conversation … I did 23 transactions through bank wire transfers and western union . I took all my money from Retirement fund and maxed out my credit cards to help this guy. I had no knowledge about romance scams at that time…
After he disappear, I was devastated. I don’t know where to find this guy. He just disappeared in the air. I don’t want to share my story at first because I feel so embarrass and ashamed.. But it I keep it in secret, I feel more terrible… So, I decided to tell my story to alert people who using dating websites … If someone ask you for money before meeting you… you have to run or you will become the victim. I met this guy on Asian dating website (the site originally from Cali, US). I thought the scammer wouldn’t go there to scam on Asian people since we wouldn’t have a lot of money… I was wrong. These con artists are all over the place. They are very professional and know how to deceive people… In my case I had never video chat with this person… if I did I could save myself from this disaster .. Most of the scammer will run away if they been asked for video chat . I don’t think they can’t hide their face on video (in some articles, they said people could fake and hide their real identity on the video ?)
If you google ‘Romance scams ‘ online, you would see 1000 of articles about the victims who fall into the internet scams like me. There were always vulnerable people in this world… and they always be targeted by these professional con men. They know how to find the way to scam people …. In romance scams, First they send the nice pics to start with and then romantic emails… The victims thought they have relationship with the man on the pics. So, they want to help these men out…. They are taking the bait and become victims. Please watch out for your family and friends, who ever chatting with anyone online, ask them to reverse the images or check this person out before chatting.. You don’t want to waste any times on these perpetrators. Their intention is to deceive people and have financial gains . They are ruthless and have no conscience. As the result from this scams, I am financial ruin and suffering the consequences…