Internet Romance Scam

[234872_1469957439]

A Thai friend of mine has been writing to a guy for four months.  This morning she sent me some of the latest messages - as she'd got a little suspicious.  I knew it was a scam straight away.  The question is... what can she do at this stage to protect herself?

 

He claims that he's sending her a parcel containing valuable gifts.  When she confirms receipt of the parcel - he will give her details of his flight... so she can wait for him at the airport.

He will hand the parcel over the freight courier services (f.c.s).

 

He has asked for her personal details... name passport number, address etc.  Unfortunately - she didn't smell a rat quickly enough, and gave him all of this - but she doesn't have a passport... so she showed him her Thai ID card.

 

(Presumably... the sting will come when she needs to pay "taxes" to receive the parcel... and fake f.c.s. will contact her?  or maybe she needs to bail him out being "detained" at the airport)

 

Anyway - what is her next step now?  How much damage is already done now he has her personal details?

[johng]

Just don't turn up at the airport...and have no further contact with the scammer.

[thedemon]

Have some fun with them by stringing them along.

 

You can get some ideas here: http://www.419eater.com/

 

[keeniau96]

she might be getting set up for illegal goods transfer, maybe drugs, which could get very nasty. I would contact Thai police on this one.

[PMZ]

This looks like the classic scam where she will be contacted by a Thai speaking person, claiming to be from Immigration, then asked to pay duty on the package.

If she plays along and get's contacted, she should report the phone number and bank account details of the local caller to the Police.

Doubt she has any real issues as long as she has not shared any bank account details.

Suggest she cease all communication or, as thedemon suggests, she/you could have a little fun playing along for a while.

 

[Carlosm]

Defo contact the police. These parcels usually contain porcelain products filled with drugs. If customs dont pick the scent and she receives them he gets them for free but if customs get wind of the drugs she gets the wrap for them !

p.s.  the excuse 'i didn't know what they were' rarely works.

[expat_4_life]

2 hours ago, thedemon said:

Have some fun with them by stringing them along.

 

You can get some ideas here: http://www.419eater.com/

 

IMHO, this sounds like fun, but is getting caught up in "something" while playing "007" worth the risk?

[reargunnerph3]

Report a scam to the Police.

[expat_4_life]

8 minutes ago, reargunnerph3 said:

Report a scam to the Police.

Assuming it is a scam, and the OP portrays it as such (certainly red flags), I agree, involve the authorities.

They will know all the angles, she could even be being groomed for something bigger down the road after the

first "innocent" encounter.

[234872_1469957439]

10 minutes ago, reargunnerph3 said:

Report a scam to the Police.

I think we may have nipped this in the bud.  After I talked to her - she called him out on his bullshit and demanded they video call so he would show his face.  She ended up with a voice call - and she says his English wasn't too good.  (Nigerian?).  Then she blocked him.

 

I don't think any parcels had been dispatched yet - but I'll check.

 

The Thai Police?  I thought the policy was never to involve them in anything if you can help it.  As they will only try and exploit the situation for their own financial gain.  But that's probably only as a foreigner .... Ok, I'll suggest she talks to the police.

[VBF]

Firstly well done for helping this lady withdraw from what might have been a very dangerous situation.

And kudos to her for listening to your good advice and getting out.

 

Regarding the parcel - who cares? The scammer may have sent it but he's lost it and that in itself serves him right!

 

But a further thought occurs to me, and I'm not an expert so it's just my thinking.

 

The lady's ID card may have been compromised by her giving the details over.

Would it be both possible and sensible for her to get that card cancelled and a new one issued?

 

I have no idea what the mechanism would be for this but I do know that any sort of government-issued ID document is valuable "currency" to unscrupulous scammers the world over.

IMO, she should not say it has been stolen because it could be shown that she herself sent it to the scammer - that sort of a lie could backfire and make her look guilty of a crime which clearly she is not.

 

Hopefully someone here will have the knowledge on how to get this done - despite negative opinion of Thai law enforcement, involving them voluntarily might, in this case be wise.

[tandor]

4 hours ago, johng said:

Just don't turn up at the airport...and have no further contact with the scammer.

..request a photo of him masturbating.

[PerkinsCuthbert]

This is how the scam works: the perp befriends a vulnerable woman online over a period of weeks, to the point where expressions of regard/love are exchanged, and the perp, having built an identity in the female's mind of a hard-working, well-off white man, announces his intention to send gifts to his amour. Needless to say, he is not who he claims to be. He later announces that these valuable gifts (jewellery, watches, designer goods etc) have been seized or held up in customs, pending payment of duty, which he is unable to clear due to being offshore/travelling/unable to speak the local lingo, etc. He then requests she pay said duty (a mere fraction of the value of the goods supposedly now waiting for her in bonded warehouse, but still a substantial amount) to a local friend or agent he knows, who in turn supposedly knows the ropes and can get her gifts released. Of course there never were any gifts.

 

There are many variations on this theme, but essentially it is a confidence trick that depends on the perp successfully pretending online to be another person, in this case preying upon and exploiting the loneliness and vulnerability of single women. Others exploit avarice, greed and so on.

[tompelli]

Don't play games with these people. They know her & where she lives. She only knows what they've told her. Had a friend with identical setup. Supposed to be a white fallang in the oil business who was going to move to Thailand, buy a house yada yada in Nigerian English with profile pics from linked in & facebook.

[connda]

And when she shows up to pick up the drugs, she'll be the one doing some seriously hard time. 

[yosithezet]

Just move on. We had a similar situation. Even got the Bangkok Bank account the scammers were using for the victims to transfer the ‘duty’ for the parcel to be cleared. Found bank account owner’s Facebook and pictures of her with the African dudes. Contacted the Cybercrime Suppression unit who said since  the woman had sent no money there was no crime to pursue. Eventual a YouTube video describing the scam with a phone number of some police officer to report to was found. Not worth the hassle to report to police who don’t want to hear about it.

 

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/nigerian-thai-scammers-con-thai-women-out-thb20-million-posing-farang-bachelors/

[The Theory]

A “Prince” ? must be involve with this case. Many  “Prince” recently get arrested everyday in Thailand.

Report the whole story to police before she become a partner in an illegal act. 

[FritsSikkink]

15 hours ago, 234872_1469957439 said:

I think we may have nipped this in the bud.  After I talked to her - she called him out on his bullshit and demanded they video call so he would show his face.  She ended up with a voice call - and she says his English wasn't too good.  (Nigerian?).  

The official language in Nigeria is English.

[jorgenweihrauch]

Contact the police already  and let them tell you how to handle this

[Huckenfell]

9 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

The official language in Nigeria is English.

But have you ever hear one talking English ?

 

[FritsSikkink]

2 minutes ago, Huckenfell said:

But have you ever hear one talking English ?

 

Yes, quite a few. Have you heard some of the English accents?

[mrfaroukh]

The best thing she can do is to report to police for any further problems. Police can help her to set a trap for delivery guy who would be fake. He would probably say the value of parcel is x amount and you must pay x amount for tax etc.

[Huckenfell]

I have been suspended from Thai Visa for several months now. So how is it that my name HUCKENFELL  is being used ?

 

[Huckenfell]

On 8/3/2018 at 11:26 PM, Huckenfell said:

I have been suspended from Thai Visa for several months now. So how is it that my name HUCKENFELL  is being used ?

 

Sorry  my mistake but i do not know how i could have posted on a romance scam. Not me.

[dabhand]

9 minutes ago, Huckenfell said:

Sorry  my mistake but i do not know how i could have posted on a romance scam. Not me.

You seem to have transposed the H and the F on your user name. Are you from Nigeria by any chance?

[fanjita]

I love reading about online scams.  They're never anything less than interesting.  

[jenny2017]

On 6/16/2018 at 2:47 PM, 234872_1469957439 said:

I think we may have nipped this in the bud.  After I talked to her - she called him out on his bullshit and demanded they video call so he would show his face.  She ended up with a voice call - and she says his English wasn't too good.  (Nigerian?).  Then she blocked him.

 

I don't think any parcels had been dispatched yet - but I'll check.

 

The Thai Police?  I thought the policy was never to involve them in anything if you can help it.  As they will only try and exploit the situation for their own financial gain.  But that's probably only as a foreigner .... Ok, I'll suggest she talks to the police.

Best move to block this idiot. But I'd still give the contact details to the cops and let them check what this freak's doing with others. You and your friend could help a few others not to get scammed. Pretty obvious that it's a Nigerian, but also Filipinos have started such scams and seem to be very good at it. 

 

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/03/07/nigerians-and-a-filipino-woman-among-10-detained-over-love-scam/

[The manic]

On 6/16/2018 at 11:59 PM, FritsSikkink said:

The official language in Nigeria is English.

But they speak it differently so the poster was not referring to the language, Nigerian, no such language, but the nationality of the speaker- Nigerian.

[Berkshire]

Some of these scammers can be very convincing...especially when the victim is older, lonely, and basically desperate to "believe." 

 

[Tony built trust with Jan by giving her the password to his supposed checking account and then asked her to “help me make the transfer” to pay for multiple business transactions.

The fake checking account had more than $700,000 in it, leading Jan to believe her online boyfriend was already very wealthy.

Then a manufactured moment of crisis propelled Jan toward what she admits were a series of bad decisions.

Tony said his business bank account has been frozen because of the activity from her computer and IP address.]

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/9-investigates/charlotte-woman-loses-thousands-in-online-dating-scam/699974526

 

This lady was about to kill her own mother so she can keep paying the scammer....

https://wlos.com/news/local/police-online-love-scam-leads-investigators-to-north-carolina-killing-plot

 

There are Thai women who are vulnerable and have the same profile, i.e., older, lonely, and desperate to believe.  Easy pickins for the scrupulous. 

[LongTimeLurker]

On 8/5/2018 at 11:57 PM, The manic said:

But they speak it differently so the poster was not referring to the language, Nigerian, no such language, but the nationality of the speaker- Nigerian.

Each tribe in Nigeria has a language of it's own with most being pretty similar.