Virtual Fraud

Ok, my turn to let a little something out. Over five years ago I hit several adult dating sites and entered my profile looking to find someone with my interests and passions to help fill a “lonely” and “desperate” life. I got little response… until lately!

We all hear of scams taking place online, and I would like to bring to light one I recently have begin encountering. On Jan. 5, 2007, I received an email from some one claiming to be a 27 year old redhead living in Nigeria. Said she was born in Nebraska, but was moved by her mother to Nigeria when her father died… she claimed to be a Dentist there. But she had a deep attraction to me and really wanted to start a conversation to get to know each other better.

Well as previously stated on this blog, I am a sucker for redheads, and started communicating with her. The very first statement to her was, “find it unusual for a 27 year old to have an interest in someone so much older than you. Believe me I am only hoping that you would have an interest, but I really figure I am simply adding an email to a list and will recieve a ton of spam to this account, but decided it was worth taking the risk.” I gave an old yahoo email address.

I hope you can see I was already suspecting something “evil”. She quickly added me to her yahoo messenger, and we had a nice conversation that night… although there was a lot of broken English involved.

Then on the 8th I received “Happy Sunday am looking forward to talk with you …soon” I wasn’t online… nor was I on the 9th, 10th I did leave a message saying I am sorry I missed her. Missed each other again from the 11th through the 15th… each day I left a message saying sorry I missed her. She sent me an email on the 15th. Now remember every message she had left me on IM was in very broken English. here is the email.

Dear Harold,

I don’t know what happened to me whether I was crazy or just lonely, all I know is I was sick of being deceived, mistreated, and unloved. Then you came along… I don’t know why. All I know is that I felt a connection on our first chat, something I had never felt before which at first made me feel uneasy, stupid and even a bit childish, which made me go through all kinds of emotions as we chatted and began finding we had a lot in common. I felt like we had known each other from an unknown past.

At first I was scared and a part of me wanted to ignore and just believe that you were just someone who was playing a game being that we were both behind the screen. I was thinking I was crazy to have the feelings I was beginning to have for you. I was really upset with myself and became very angry with the way I was feeling. I didn’t want to admit to you or anyone else that I was falling for someone I had never actually met. I thought I was becoming insane myself - damn it - I tried to fight these feelings off but they were just too powerful for me to ignore! I tried to convince myself that this can’t be for real; that you couldn’t REALLY be feeling the same as I was… I was going insane!!! No matter how hard I tried - I just could not fight the feelings I was having for you.

I was scared of being disappointed the first time we met, but the magnetism that I was feeling was so strong that I could no longer fight it. Our chats became an good thing and the feelings just would not go away no matter how hard i tried.

when we finally first met I knew then there was no way I could stop from loving you. I thought that if we met, these feelings would just go away, but they didn’t. I tried so hard to convince myself that there is no such thing as true love… but you have made me believe differently.

You have become a part of me that I will always cherish. I love you with all my heart always and forever, You have brought me so much happiness.

Love always,

Anita

attached were these pictures.

Again she left me IMs on Yahoo the 17th, 18th, and 19th. Finally on the 20th we made another connection… shown here.

Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:34:54 PM): i miss you so much am sorry i was not able to come online this morning to day hello to you but am sorry i won’t be able to come online tonight mylove
Harold (1/20/2007 1:35:13 PM): how about now?
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:35:38 PM): am fine am online now it just alittle hard for me to come online tonight co i have little time now that why
Harold (1/20/2007 1:36:03 PM): ok I understand
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:37:54 PM): thanks
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:37:57 PM): so how was your work
Harold (1/20/2007 1:38:33 PM): tis fine, although I do little in the way of work
Harold (1/20/2007 1:38:46 PM): one of the benefits of being an old man
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:39:11 PM): ohh oksy
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:39:14 PM): i wish am there
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:39:19 PM): cos am so lonely now
Harold (1/20/2007 1:39:49 PM): I can not imagine a girl with your beauty ever being lonely
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:40:10 PM): ohh wow well am lonely and never want to move around with any men
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:40:17 PM): so am waiting for the right person
Harold (1/20/2007 1:40:32 PM): do tell me more
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:40:50 PM): ho
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:40:51 PM): how
Harold (1/20/2007 1:41:45 PM): your a dentist…. it takes intellect to become a dentist, I am certain you are capable of understanding the question
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:42:34 PM): thansk harold
Harold (1/20/2007 1:53:09 PM): yes
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:54:24 PM): what you doing now
Harold (1/20/2007 1:54:42 PM): writing an article for a blog
Harold (1/20/2007 1:54:53 PM): what are you doing?
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:55:27 PM): noting
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:55:32 PM): just checking my e-mail
Harold (1/20/2007 1:56:21 PM): I see, so tell me more about why you feel so lonly
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:56:33 PM): hon am so lonely
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:56:44 PM): and i will not be able to come online for about 3 week
Harold (1/20/2007 1:57:10 PM): I see, and why would that be?
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:57:29 PM): but you know i said it cost me to come online to talk wit you hon
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:57:41 PM): and am using my last time to talk with you online now
Harold (1/20/2007 1:58:03 PM): oh, I see
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:58:13 PM): yes hon
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:58:19 PM): and i never want to loss talking to you
Harold (1/20/2007 1:58:27 PM): Well I guess I won’t see you online for a while
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:59:20 PM): yes but hon can you help me alittle
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 1:59:33 PM): so i can be able to pay the cafe man cos i never like to miss talking to you
Harold (1/20/2007 2:00:02 PM): LMAO do you really think I was born yesterday?
Harold (1/20/2007 2:00:17 PM): I knew early on this was a hustle…
Harold (1/20/2007 2:00:32 PM): you are probably not even a female
Harold (1/20/2007 2:00:54 PM): I allowed this to have another article to write on my blog
Harold (1/20/2007 2:01:00 PM): get real!
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 2:02:31 PM): ohh okay
Anita Larry (1/20/2007 2:02:34 PM): anything you say
Harold (1/20/2007 2:02:38 PM): you are trying to take advantage of people’s loneliness… gullibility’s, and desire to find the good in people! You will be exposed! Better find you another name to use, which I know you will do… cause this one will not be of much use to you in the near future

I have given this some thought and wonder how many old fat guys this person has hit up for 20, 50, or 100 Dollars to buy time for her/him to talk online. When would be the time to ask for hospital bills for her/his mother? Maybe finance a trip to the US to meet.

Fraud comes in many forms on the internet, but somehow this person feeding on the lonely, gullible, desperate older men and women, I guess there are plenty younger ones also, particularly disgusting.

I just had to get it off my chest!