Web scam nets thousands for African conman

 

Shane Symington

 

Published Date: 

15 January 2009

By Gareth Bethell

 

A MAN was cheated out of more than £130,000 when he fell for a woman in an internet chatroom – who turned out to be a Nigerian conman.

Shane Symington handed over thousands of pounds thinking he was helping the ‘woman’s’ sick mother.

The 32-year-old, from Southsea, was then tricked out of even more cash when he received e-mails from men claiming to be FBI agents.

They said he had been conned by the woman and that they would take on his case if he would fund their trip to Nigeria, and any subsequent costs they incurred, which the man agreed to.

Police say they have received a lack of support from the Nigerian authorities, and the money will probably be lost forever.

Detective Constable Jon Knox said: ‘This is a very sad situation, and this man has now parted with a huge sums of money through his own good nature – in trying to help others and then to recover some of what he had lost.’

Mr Symington told police he was first contacted by a woman in Nigeria via an internet chatroom in the summer of 2007.

The pair struck up a friendship and continued e-mailing each other. She then began asking for money to help her sick mother, which he sent over.

The ‘woman’ then claimed her mother had died and she needed cash to pay for her funeral, which he agreed to.

Mr Symington then received e-mails claiming to be from the FBI, saying the woman was in fact a Nigerian man who had been lying to obtain money.

The supposed FBI agents then said they would take on his case if he paid them. This went on for months before it transpired it was another con.

Police in Portsmouth are now warning people to remain vigilant when they are approached for money over the internet, or via their emails.

Det Con Knox added: ‘We do not want anyone else to fall foul of this kind of shocking activity, and I would warn anyone who is asked for money over the internet by people they do not know to refuse.’

 

Postman loses £130,000 savings to Nigerian internet scam after being duped by a friend he met on MySpace

A postman told today how he sank into depression and debt after losing £130,000 in an internet scam involving Nigerian fraudsters.

 

Shane Symington described how an apparently innocent friendship that he formed with an American woman through the MySpace website turned into a ‘nightmare’ as he started handing over money.

 

The 32-year-old said he was friends with the woman for several weeks in the spring of 2007 before she suddenly started asking for money to pay for her mother’s funeral and medical expenses.

 

He said the requests then carried on for money to pay for legal fees so that the woman, who called herself Angela Gates, could free up land that she had inherited apparently worth $2million.

The requests continued throughout the year and, by last year, Mr Symington had handed over his bank details and more than £100,000.

 

He said that he became suspicious when the woman stopped communicating with him and contacted what he thought was a website run by the FBI in America but which turned out to be another scam.

 

Mr Symington, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, said he then got a text message from his ‘friend’ Angela who revealed that it was all a fraud.

 

‘It said that it was all false and that Angela was actually a man from Nigeria’, Mr Symington said.

 

‘I guess he came clean because he thought he had taken all the money he could.’

 

But his problems did not end there as he was then contacted by another woman, again from America, claiming she had also been caught in the scam.

 

He said that he then helped pay her legal expenses and the cost of hiring two ex-FBI agents in an attempt to regain the lost money for both of them.

 

Mr Symington said that he now believes that these people are also involved in the scam. He said that he had paid out more than £30,000 to them, bringing his total losses to more than £130,000.

 

He said: ‘I feel sick from it all, I feel disillusioned, they have just played on my good nature. I’ve lost my life-savings, I have two loans and credit card debts, I’m in huge debts because of all of this.

 

‘Before this happened, I used to go out every night, now I just stay in because I’ve lost all the self-confidence in my life and I don’t have the money to go out any more. I’ve also had five weeks off with depression from work.’

 

Warning others to be extremely careful before handing any money over to people they have met through the internet, he said: ‘It’s just wicked people getting everything they can get out of people.

 

‘You just can’t trust anyone on the internet. I want to warn people but I know I won’t be the last to fall for something like this.’

 

Detective Constable Jon Knox, of Hampshire Police, added: ‘This is a very sad situation, and this man has now parted with a huge sums of money through his own good nature – in trying to help others and then to recover some of what he had lost.

 

‘We do not want anyone else to fall foul of this kind of shocking activity and I would warn anyone who is asked for money over the internet by people they do not know to refuse and not put yourself at risk.’

 

A police spokeswoman added that there was little police could do to help Mr Symington get his money back.

 

She said: ‘The money cannot be recovered due to the current political situation in Nigeria, resulting in a lack of co-operation from the police in the country.’

Nigerian scam targets Lake Geneva woman

By KAYLA BUNGE
LAKE GENEVA — An overseas scam turned scary for a Lake Geneva woman.

A 49-year-old woman called police Dec. 20 after receiving a “death threat” call to her cell phone, according to a press release from the Lake Geneva Police Department. While she was telling a detective about the incident, she received another call, and the detective listened to the conversation, the release said.

The caller with a foreign accent told the woman that someone close to her had paid him $12,000 “to do the job.” He told the woman that if she paid him $6,000 he would not kill her and instead would give her the name of the person who wanted her killed, the release said.

He told the woman to check her e-mail for further instructions.

The woman and the detective checked the woman’s e-mail and found a message from “Don Kill,” the release said.

The e-mail instructed the woman to send $6,000 to an address in London. The e-mail also said the name of the person who wanted the woman killed would be sent via DHL or FedEx.

Police traced the cell phone call to Turkey or Nigeria and the e-mail to Nigeria, according to the release.

Lake Geneva police now believe the call and e-mail are the latest in a series of scams originating in Nigeria.

The incident marked the first appearance of this type of scam in the Lake Geneva area, according to the release.

People who receive similar phone calls or e-mails should immediately contact authorities, police said. People also may file a complaint with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center by going to www.ic3.gov.

Virtual Love Cost Her $12,000

 

Hi. here is another scam story. This one took place in Singapore. read on.

alan. www.elovedeceptions.com

Jamie Ee Wen Wei

Mon, Oct 20, 2008

She had gone on the Web to search for a life partner but his web of lies left her nearly $12,000 poorer.
Last Friday night, the 37-year-old accounts executive, who declined to be named, made a police report after she was cheated by a man she ‘met’ on international dating website match.com

The divorcee with three children told The Sunday Times yesterday she had put up her profile on match.com after hearing success stories from friends and colleagues.

She, too, thought she had found love when two months ago, the man, who went by the username tony7407 and who claimed to be Taiwanese, sent her an e-mail message.

They chatted online daily, occasionally calling each other over the phone too.

The man, claiming to be working in an investment company in Hong Kong, was ‘caring and knowledgeable’.

‘He said we had a future together and I believed him. He even said he was going to visit me in Singapore within the next two weeks,’ she said.

Just as she began to let her guard down, he told her he had lost heavily in the recent stock market crash.

Now eager to help him, she invested $5,500 through a ‘VIP account’ of his client. He promised her it would ‘definitely make money’.

Last Monday, he told her the stock market had rebounded, she had made a huge profit, and that his company would reinvest the profits.

Twenty-four hours later, more good news came: She had made a million dollars.

But to get her money, she had to remit $10,000 in administrative fees. Smooth as ever, when she said she did not have that sum, he said he would borrow it from friends.

Later that day, he claimed to have borrowed about half the money. He also said he would get into trouble if his company knew he had illegally used his client’s account.

Not wanting to see her ‘boyfriend’ in trouble, the woman called her sister, who works in China, to remit $6,100 to him.

But the man failed to log in that afternoon, as he usually did. Now suspecting a scam, the woman called him on the phone. He denied receiving the money.

She then tried to get her sister to stop the fund transfer but it was too late.

Last Friday, she made a police report in Singapore and in Hong Kong but was told that her chances of getting the money back was slim.

‘I was too engrossed in the relationship, and I used my heart to think instead of my head.’

She added: ‘Things on the Internet can’t be trusted. You must be 110 per cent on guard.’