A Helena woman is out $1,000 after being caught in an online romance scam.
According to police, the woman thought she was doing a favor for a man she had been communicating with online.
However, that favor turned into a wire fraud scam.
When all was said and done, the woman had transferred a $1,000 for delivery charges through Western Union, only to find out that she would be responsible for wiring money from someone else's credit card.
Lt. Corey Livesay, an investigator for the Helena Police Department, explained, "In this one, they think that they are wiring it to a place in New Jersey, when in fact this money is being picked up by a person in Nigeria. And when they discover this they feel embarrassed, and they feel completely taken advantage of, which they have been. And in a lot of these instances they are going to be the ones ultimately responsible because the individuals in another country fall outside a lot of the jurisdictional boundaries where we can hold them accountable."
Livesay says never wire money to people you don't know for any reason.
Learn more about this type of online scam at RomanceScam.com, including this overview:
You or someone you know may be dating this person online right now. However, be warned. Things aren't what they appear to be. In reality you're talking to a criminal sitting in a cybercafe with a well rehearsed script he's used many times before. He's hunting through chat rooms, dating sites and social networking sites searching for victims, looking to cash in on romance. If you are over 40, recently divorced, a widow, elderly or disabled then all the better in his eyes. Scammers are adept at psychological profiling, and use any weakness they find to their advantage.
It's the newest evolution of the Nigerian advance fee (419) scam. Instead of sending spam letters that promise millions for your assistance, these scammers are targeting single men and women who are searching for love online.
They use psychological tricks to lure their victims in, use poetry and even gifts to get them under their spell, then once you are there, will try to reach for your wallet, all the time declaring their "undying love" for you. The scam may take the form of asking you to cash a cheque for them through your bank account because they are "out of the country" and unable to cash it themselves, or they may come right out and ask you to send money to help them out of a fabricated "financial difficulty" they claim to be experiencing.
Source
July 5, 2011 at 9:57 AM
Only delusional people would do something like this.
August 15, 2011 at 1:48 AM
oh, I suppose you're perfect...and have never made a mistake and actually learned from making mistakes in life!
August 19, 2011 at 11:56 PM
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September 7, 2011 at 11:28 PM
ridiculous, just ridiculous
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January 28, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Apparently, people who fall for this tend to have some kind of cognitive interrupt. Essentially, the brain's critical thinking skill stops working. It does this because the person starts fantasizing about the reward money (or love in this case) and shuts off the part of them that says "Of course this isn't real, its a scam!"
January 28, 2012 at 2:03 PM
I MUST HAVE 34 OF THESE E-MAILS FROM NIGERIA TELLING ME THAT I WON MILIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.WELL I E-MAIL THEM BACK AND TELL THEM TO MAIL MY CHEAK TO MY BANK, WELL THEYY NEVER E-MAIL BACK, NEVER.
March 31, 2012 at 7:32 AM
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April 15, 2012 at 10:05 AM
i currently go into a chat most days i recieve at least 5 messages every time i go on line from these people they all cliam to be us soldiers who are looking for thier soul mate after the first epic message they send you which is always well written in perfect english then it becomes quite apparent that thier english is not that hot then they pester you for your email so they can sweet talk thier way into your bank account why any body ever falls for this il never no but they just keep on coming i have reported them many times to the chat line but they never seem to take action why ?
May 4, 2012 at 3:51 PM
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May 28, 2012 at 6:37 AM
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June 22, 2012 at 3:58 PM
I got one and fooled with him :) I am still on this idiot, if you have more creative ideas please let me know :) There is a link to my blog I created just for this scam artist !!
http://thebusyscammer.blogspot.com/
:)
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April 20, 2014 at 4:54 AM
TAKE CARE THE INTERNET IS PLAGUED WITH SCAMS
THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GULLIBLE PEOPLE
SCAMS ARE PROMISES WHICH NEVER MATERIALIZE
THE PERSON BEHIND THE SCAM ACCEPTS YOUR MONEY THEN DEFAULTS ON HIS OR HER PROMISES. A SCAM IS SIMPLY A FORM OF FRAUD DESIGNED TO ENRICH THE PERSON OR PERSONS BEHIND THE FRAUDULENT SCHEME.
May 4, 2014 at 3:31 PM
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August 18, 2014 at 11:24 AM
Amen
September 26, 2014 at 9:23 PM
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October 3, 2014 at 12:17 AM
Sometimes what sounds too good is fake and generally nothing but scam. People should not invest their hard earned money on things which are promising you that these will make your money double in short duration of time.
Regards,
Ramiz
November 13, 2014 at 12:57 AM
It is even harder to comprehend how Ryan Eagle Scammer think they are going to swindle people into believing their devious lies and unbelievable stories.
November 23, 2014 at 9:59 AM
Over the past 50 years did a very active and seemingly unprincipled Eastern European female predator living in the USA scam multiple US men out of tremendous amounts of money through marriages, sending as much of the funds as possible out of the country? If so, in what states did she operate and what is the estimated number of victims?
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October 30, 2015 at 8:30 AM
This is to bring to the unemployed youth of nigeria.. read this
They are real corporate scam (telepoint communication limited located at ikeja lagos nigeria ).. promise u a job and will not give u any. an India man will leave his country to scam us Nigerians and he his helped by some Nigerians, why?? ... telling us that the certificate is from USA that he was born in the USA and has worked with apple, IBM , all lies., i just hope my post can be seen so as to stop they from getting money from unemployed youth this is not right . i trained with them with the hope that i will get a job, and its not just me all my set June / July we have not yet gotten any jobs and some people from the previous set as well.. will planing on reporting they to the authorities. if they want to be a training school fine not saying after your training a job is already waiting for you this is wrong very wrong .. i had to borrow the 53k to go from this training hoping i will get a job so i can pay back. this is wrong so so wrong. i want other unemployed youth to be aware of this,.. am not trying to spoil any one business .. but if u want to do business don't do it in the detriment of others. you reach there the first day they will tell you that u should dress corporate some companies are coming to check you out all lies ..nobody came . they will tell you that you shouldn't mind negative comment from nairaland that they are competitor trying to spoil business this are lies if only i read comment on nairaland i wouldn't have paid cry cry .. if you going for just training its ok go .. but if u unemployed and u think thats ur way out .. then you have a long way to go. good luck and God bless..this is to make all youths to know.
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