Thread: Sweetheart Scammer or did this really hot person pick me above all others?

Originally Posted by kschang

(Let's just say I looked into marrying a girl in China, legit and introduced through friends, actually went and met her and her family, and went through about half of the paperwork before realizing she just wants me for a visa to the US. After I broke it off she married someone in LA less than a year later)

So I was going to comment on some of the reading I had been doing on marriage for citizenship, which is an interesting topic on several fronts. But then this popped up, and like a monkey with a shiny object I got distracted.

“Green Card” Lottery Scams | OnGuard Online

Capture.JPG

What really scares me about those sites is how serious some people take these scammers. They want to hear all those things but know in their heads it is not right. Maybe the air clears a little when they start asking for money after their million-dollar job has not taken off yet or they need money for their sick daughter. Maybe a light bulb does go off but sometimes they just won't pay attention and run with their hearts right into either a heartbreak or both hb and financial losses. I try to feel sympathy but really I just want to scream WAKE UP FOLKS!! Meet the real people and see them face-to-face before FALLING off the log. It is bad enough when you actually know and trust someone and they take you for a ride into heart and purse ache.

Are we all so starved for LOVE!!??

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Are we all so starved for LOVE!!??

Not enough good women like you scratchy. And Ms. Ribshaw of course, don't leave that out if I want to eat tonight.

Police rescue woman from flying to Africa to meet online scammer

POLICE have twice stopped a woman, 73, from boarding a plane to Africa to meet an online romance scammer who fleeced her of $75,000.
Isabell's daughter, Ann, 48, said she feared if her mother had not been stopped from boarding yesterday's flight to Ghana, she might have been kidnapped and ransomed - or worse.

Pensioner Jette Jacobs, 67, from Western Australia, was found dead in Johannesburg, South Africa, in February after meeting an online scammer.

Victoria Police first tried to discourage Isabell from boarding a flight earlier this year. Ann and WA fraud squad detective Rob Martin finally convinced her to cancel the trip during a stopover in Perth.

After falling for the loving promises of an African fraud, pretending to be a wealthy American proposing marriage, the Western Districts woman is now reduced to cleaning houses and working on a farm to make ends meet.

Victorians lost $8.5 million to online romance scams last year, and $53 million was stripped from the bank accounts of Australian lonely hearts in 2012 alone.

The widowed "American" who scammed Isabell claimed to run a business and said he wanted money to set up an orphanage

Ann said calls and online exchanges were daily and relentless, telling Isabell he loved her and wanted marriage. But the scammer turned out to be a 26-year-old African man.

Ann said there was almost no hope of recovering the money her mother had sent.

"The man knew she had property. He was trying to get her to take out a second mortgage," Ann said.

"It has been so scary for us. I said, 'how could my mother have fallen for this?' She (Isabell) said, 'I've never felt anyone has ever loved me as much as this person'."

WA police have identified 22 other fraud victims in six countries outside Australia who were sending money, via Western Union, to Jette Jacobs' love interest, "Jesse Omokoh".

She sent up to $200,000 to Omokoh, and maybe others.

Omokoh has used a social networking site to deny any wrongdoing in the case.

"We are continuing to work with the Major Crime Squad in Johannesburg, where Mrs Jacobs' body was found, as well as authorities in Nigeria, where 'Jesse Omokoh' is apparently based," Det. Sen-Sgt Dom Blackshaw said.

Herald-Sun.com.au

I just don't get it. Even if I had the money, I think I would just pick up some handsome young man here in the States and lavish him (they are out there!!) rather than travel somewhere to get killed. How sad and futile to send money to an unknown for "love".

Today's stolen photo reminds me of George Clooney, and apparently is a very popular pictures used by scammers.

Bond.JPG

https://www.facebook.com/ray.bond.754?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004188480547
https://www.facebook.com/freebone.wilson
https://www.facebook.com/james.balley.52?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/peter.watts.357622

Facebook still taking it as seriously as I am.

Confrim Report.JPG

Some of the more popular pics, personality type "visit the orphanage home", scammers do love their orphanages. Bride.RU | Russian brides | Russian women | Russian girls

bond6.JPG

This was perhaps my favorite as he gets contacted by another scammer. Match made in heaven. heavenlyhug22 | Member's profile | SinglesDate

bond8.JPGbond7.JPG


Photo used a bunch of times below, all with different names.

Contact Us | Medical Tourism Travel Guide
Halcoy S. L.
Melvin, Male, 30 .Watching sport, Lil Wayne, Pretty Woman, Desperate Housewives, Guitar, Documentary, T.I., Outdoors, Funny Socks, Psychology, CrossFit, Fruit. | Asaba, Nigeria | Badoo

Actually Ribshaw, back earlier, some fool was actually using a George Clooney photo!!!

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Actually Ribshaw, back earlier, some fool was actually using a George Clooney photo!!!

Well nobody better use Ribshaw's mug if they hope to get more than pocket lint.

I got a little more on Ray Bond.

Most notable was the phone number with prefix 4470, this gives the illusion that a person is calling the UK (44), but the calls are actually redirected (70) to the scammer.

Fraudwatchers +4470 Phone Numbers

GC3.JPG

This was a personal photo the scammer sends.

GC2.JPG

There were also some pictures of a fake passport the scammer was using which I left out. Here however is one photo with the passport and the one person in the world with cut and paste skills worse than mine.

GC1.JPG

Originally Posted by ribshaw

Well nobody better use Ribshaw's mug if they hope to get more than pocket lint.

I got a little more on Ray Bond.

Most notable was the phone number with prefix 4470, this gives the illusion that a person is calling the UK (44), but the calls are actually redirected (70) to the scammer.

Fraudwatchers +4470 Phone Numbers

GC3.JPG

This was a personal photo the scammer sends.

GC2.JPG

There were also some pictures of a fake passport the scammer was using which I left out. Here however is one photo with the passport and the one person in the world with cut and paste skills worse than mine.

GC1.JPG

That picture is too funny for words!!

Reminds me of an online friend who used to use her face with fake wigs, sexy body and poses. It was embarrassing, to say the least but maybe it helped her as it made her feel younger, who knows? I was reading some of those stories on the FB sweetheart scammers page this morning and still find it hard to believe some of the stories where these women have sent their hard-earned money to these scammers expecting them to show up on their doorstep. Actually, it is probably best they did not show up!! However, these women are totally heartbroken over this 'fake romances'. Really sad.

Example post:

Can't remember if I posted my last scammer asked for $750 to help his friend who was behind in rent. Name is Alejandro Pollin. Supposedly from Italy orphan now lives in Ormond Beach Florida. Former chief engineer at Chevron Oil. Never married no kids or family. He's 53 years old. Didn't send money but he took my heart. Talked on phone as well. Here's fb profile pic. I really fell for him. :(

I don't want to embarrass this person so I won't post the link here but I do have it.

The person who introduced me to that page is very good at investigative research and has helped a lot of these women and men to alert them on the scams. I have invited her to join RS several times but so far she only concentrates on the romance scams. After this thread was started I sent her a message, we shall see... As shown above in Ribshaw's linked article, these people are as ruthless as drug lords and it is best to be careful dealing with them.

Originally Posted by ribshaw

There were also some pictures of a fake passport the scammer was using which I left out. Here however is one photo with the passport and the one person in the world with cut and paste skills worse than mine.
GC1.JPG

That was horrible all right. It's a vidcap of a stock footage, with "passport" shrunk to size of a business card, and his head replacing the real guy. :)

Serious man holding a business card against a white background - 2217823 | Shutterstock Footage

stock-footage-smiling-man-holding-a-business-card-against-a-white-background.jpg

Originally Posted by ribshaw

This was a personal photo the scammer sends.
GC2.JPG

Google Image search brought up quite a few results: Roger Garnier, and Mark Guilford.

The photo is actually that of Kevin Rockwood

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Actually Ribshaw, back earlier, some fool was actually using a George Clooney photo!!!

You'd be surprised what sort of bull**** you find on LinkedIn, a site definitely NOT about dating. Lots of porn actress and regular actress photos, random Flickr photos of pretty woman, various actors and actresses (often middle Eastern, esp. Turkish). When Linkvaark was around (check Wayback machine) he had a whole blog full of these fakesters. One of them used a real "doll" as his/her profile pic. No, really, a doll (not a sex doll, the 12 inch tall dolls) Others posted what amounts to almost child porn.

All the scammers have been rounded up, on to the next problem.

20 Yahoo Yahoo Boys, Internet Scammers Arrested In Benin City, Edo State | Nollywood, Nigeria, News, Celebrity, Gists, Gossips, Entertainment

Capture.jpg

So, the folks at Facebook, that's right these folks Confrim Report.JPG have banned and deleted one of my scam busting Facebook pages.

Unfortunately it was also my favorite character, and I had it linked to a lot of good people. Sure it was fake, but so are all the profiles being set up by scammers. The ones that continue to populate the pages of Facebook, including all of those of a Silver Star Recipient. So on this Memorial day I will share a video created by someone using images scammers have stolen from service members.



Please take a minute to write to Facebook and ask them to do a better job of protecting the images of our soldiers.

Facebook, Inc.
C/O Mark Zuckerberg CEO.
1601 Willow Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025


This was an image a scammer was using on his Facebook page while pretending to be a soldier.

Capture.JPG

Fortunately I have three more Facebook accounts, the scammers may have slowed me down, but not out of business yet!!!

Originally Posted by ribshaw

Sweetheart Scammer Photo:
SS.JPG

Oh dear, that's a porn actress. Seems to be popular online as "private school jewel". Google image search picked it right up, and links to websites like "coedcherry". :D

What's really hilarious is when I tried Google image search that Photoshop FAIL image, I get visually similar images babies, puppies, and so on. Apparently even Google realized that can't be a real guy. :D

Thanks Kasey for all that research. I hope to get some of those FB folks over here to help them realize how vulnerable they really are and maybe stop them and others before they fall for these lies and lose their money. Ribshaw has done a great job over at FB in keeping these folks informed! So sorry you lost one account but happy to know you have others!

But they are using the profiles to defraud for profit but I understand what you mean, it probably won't happen at least anytime soon. However, the more the people become informed maybe they will start to recognize a fake when they see it. We all know that "love is blind" though...

Originally Posted by scratchycat

But they are using the profiles to defraud for profit but I understand what you mean, it probably won't happen at least anytime soon. However, the more the people become informed maybe they will start to recognize a fake when they see it. We all know that "love is blind" though...

The trouble that I have with all this is how easy it is to create a fake profile and operate it for fraud. I certainly understand on all the obscure free sites, but the major ones could surely disable the accounts being used when known stolen photos are used. One of the things FB asked for was a government ID to verify my account, and could do the same especially if the IP address is from a haven known for scammers. The second would be the .mil email address to confirm military accounts. This would certainly be a simple step to slow the images of service members from being stolen. But I really get the impression they just don't care.

You are spot on with the other two Scratchy, all sites like Realscam can do is offer people information about what a con looks like, but as you say love or 2% per day often blinds.

Originally Posted by ribshaw

The trouble that I have with all this is how easy it is to create a fake profile and operate it for fraud. I certainly understand on all the obscure free sites, but the major ones could surely disable the accounts being used when known stolen photos are used. One of the things FB asked for was a government ID to verify my account, and could do the same especially if the IP address is from a haven known for scammers. The second would be the .mil email address to confirm military accounts. This would certainly be a simple step to slow the images of service members from being stolen. But I really get the impression they just don't care.

WOT (Web of Trust) does this to a certain extent, but only for websites, not profiles.

Perhaps what's needed is some sort of "profile verifier" service.

1) Free, 5 scans a month, checks images against Google, Bing, and Tineye image search, as well as Realscam, RomanceScam, Dating Scam, and similar sites for standard scripts used
2) Cheap, unlimited scans a month, all of the above, maybe $2-5 a month?
3) Profile PI (tm?) : someone on the staff will personally check over the profile and give a rating

Heck, if people can sell clicks on "search _____ for arrest records!" I'm sure we can sell service that checks online profiles. :D

EDIT: A chrome plug-in can let any user submit a suspect profile and have it checked immediately, and stuff uploaded and stored into archive for statistical purposes. Of course, privacy implications... haven't studied that, as well as "terms of use" of respective sites.

Originally Posted by kschang

WOT (Web of Trust) does this to a certain extent, but only for websites, not profiles.

Perhaps what's needed is some sort of "profile verifier" service.

1) Free, 5 scans a month, checks images against Google, Bing, and Tineye image search, as well as Realscam, RomanceScam, Dating Scam, and similar sites for standard scripts used
2) Cheap, unlimited scans a month, all of the above, maybe $2-5 a month?
3) Profile PI (tm?) : someone on the staff will personally check over the profile and give a rating

Heck, if people can sell clicks on "search _____ for arrest records!" I'm sure we can sell service that checks online profiles. :D

EDIT: A chrome plug-in can let any user submit a suspect profile and have it checked immediately, and stuff uploaded and stored into archive for statistical purposes. Of course, privacy implications... haven't studied that, as well as "terms of use" of respective sites.

I wonder if it becomes a question of will versus ability, coupled with a few people that are able to think. Just this morning I heard Nissan had pulled some advertising because of hate speech that was posted on Facebook. At the same time my account was shut for warning people about scams pending verification that I was a "real person". The "verification" process was to identify pictures on my "friends" profiles, I had 40 "friends" and some have over 600 photos on their page. I don't even think Kevin Trudeau with his mega memory could do that.

I contrast that with a discussion a friend of mine had via PM from a confessed scammer, who wait for it is still active on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/scamm...73303886036502

Active Profile.

https://www.facebook.com/garnet.smith.735

Capture.JPG



Zuck, I know you read the pages of Real Scam every day, time to put smart people like kschang in charge of security.

I was horrified to find out today that my soul mate who lives in the 900 area code might not be a nurse . A google image search made me , it claims she is a a coed named Cass, but I doubt that too. One other thing that occurred to me for the casual reader is sometimes scammers will send you a check and ask you to send them part of it back. Yeah, whether you they claim you are a personal assistant, mystery shopper or soon to be spouse, this is a scam, the check will bounce.

http://www.facebook.com/sarah.luyet.7/photos
http://www.facebook.com/karl.sarah.90/photos
http://www.facebook.com/jane.meshack.1/photos
https://www.facebook.com/jhnson.doora

jane.JPGjane1.JPGjane3.JPGjane2.JPG

Originally Posted by ribshaw

I was horrified to find out today that my soul mate who lives in the 900 area code might not be a nurse . A google image search made me , it claims she is a a coed named Cass, but I doubt that too.

Ah, ya mean "BlueEyedCass" formerly known as PrincessBlueEyez? *sigh*

Originally Posted by kschang

Ah, ya mean "BlueEyedCass" formerly known as PrincessBlueEyez? *sigh*

Oh, no, you were in love with her also!!! (Just kidding with you!) You have done some research on these 'fakes', I see.

Originally Posted by scratchycat

You have done some research on these 'fakes', I see.

Takes maybe 2 minutes with Google image search... :) And willingness to look at... uh... women in compromising positions.

I was horrified to find out today that my soul mate who lives in the 900 area code might not be a nurse

Oh, and she was a hottie too!!! Ms. Ribshaw must be very relieved.