i followed up on one of these types of things in my younger days many years ago just out of curiosity. knew it was a scam but played along.

 

it got to the stage where someone would meet me at the airport in person. i assumed it was a kidnap for ransom situation or some type of extortion.

 

i emailed the paper trail to the fbi and thats the last i heard about it. this was in the usa.

On 6/16/2018 at 7:32 PM, PerkinsCuthbert said:

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.

And they say that farang are stupid. Lol.

Edited August 17, 20188 yr by I am More Thai Than You
Spelling error

On ‎6‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 3:47 AM, 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.

There are many angles to the scam game. Chances are, this was all about identity theft. The "gift" was just part of a confidence game. From what I read on TVF, Thai police would not show any interest in this scam because there is nothing in it for them. That said, there was an article on TVF about a month ago regarding a phone number that Thais could call to get advice on situations like this.