I want to share brieflly an experience I had, and hope none of you go through what I did. I fell for one these Nigerian scams-romance style. I had met someone on another christian dating site, and everything seemed fine. she sent pictures and everything seemed good. She said she was living in Nigeria because her late husband was killed there in a car accident. She said she was a christian and attended a baptist church. I suspected something was up, but did not follow through. She said she was from Missouri originally. My desire to meet that special someone overtook the logic that was needed to see through this. Over a period of time I sent her some money to help her along, and it was her desire to come back to the United States. she played me for a fool over a period of a few months,then threw her "ace of spades" at me. She said she had an insurance policy she was going to cash in and had her "agent" send me several thousand dollars in moneygrams of which i was to deposit then send her through western union to come here. turns out the checks were all bogus, I checked some fraud sites, and eventually found her using somebody else's picture, which is what i learned they like to do, use somebody else's pictures to make you think they are your "dreamboat', when in reality they are nothing but low down scoundrels who prey on people. As it is, I have to pay the bank back several thousand dollars to the bank.
Hard lesson learned- believe what the bible says- proverbs 3:5-6-"trust in the Lord with you heart, lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." obviously I did not. So please be careful in all these areas, and please pray for me.
yegads. I couldn't scrape together 26K if my life depended on it.
Wry smile, I guess that is why scammers avoid me. I'm already involved with someone who is sucking me dry.....a university:angeldevil:. And that is LEGAL. Shaking head sadly.
I am so sorry to hear that you and others have found yourselves caught up in scams... But you hear about them all the time, and even media has warned us all about such sams. These scams even come in my email box often. Why would anyone who is expecting money from an insurance policy, need someone in America to cash a money order or check for him/her from their country, and deposit it in your bank account, and you send them the money. Stop being World Banks and Bank of Amercia for these scammers!
If a man or woman has a sad life story for you and asks for money at anytime, whether you're dating or not, you should know that this person is getting ready to take you for a loop. Especially, if you haven't known this person very long, and the long drawn out sad hardship stories began to unfold. They people prey on lonely people, and you hear tell of even the eldely getting all of their life savings stolen by the hardship lie.
Some people are users, and don't mean any good to even themselves. I mean, any Judge Judy has made these points very clear on her show, when such cases come before her. If a man or woman needs you to always help him/her, or to buy a cell phone, or car, or a house, or pay rent, or borrow money to pay child support, or traffic tickets or get him/her out of jail. You have serious need to getting it moving... because you are getting ready to be taken big time. These are money problems this person should be responsible for themselves, and not depend on you to give him/her a BAILOUT, you know they're not going to repay.
So Please stop being DESPERATE SINGLES... who settle for FINANCIALLY NEEDY MATES, to find your happiness. Never settle for LESS THAN who you are in Christ... This too, is a part of being equally yoked as God has required. If he/she is broke when you meet , he/she will be broke after you get with him/her, and you will be used as their bank... Wake up!
Real Love is never having to BORROW from someone you're dating.:winksmile: I pray for you and hope you have learned your lesson and will from now on be stronger, and next time a person you date needs money take him/her to the Welfare office or catholic Charities if he/she needs money....:laugh:
jezcie Thank you for telling us about the Missionary scam. I never would have thought of that. I have received the Nigerian scam...usually by email. I just forward it to the FBI. If I were you I would have reported that person too. In most states you have to be on file with the secretary of state to ask/take money for non-profits groups. If he did not have that....he can get into trouble. The next person who asks like that...ask if they have filed with their SOS and to see their files or reg. #.
I've also had an experience. This girl was from Latvia. she seemed ok when we started chating ane emailing. But as the frienship was developing she started talking about her problems, how she needed money for her med and the doctors didnt want to treat her. Like everyone else, I fell into her traps and send money to her often. when I didnt sent anything, she could called and tell me how the situation has been worse and her boy friend was being abusiveand she wants to move out but she cant afford the rent cus her job, bla bla bla... she even became suicidal.... I couldnt bare it anymore. and I just felt hin my heart that something was wrong... so i told her that I was going to cut every contact with her, i'll never ever want to hear from her again and that i leave her situation to God... and thats how I lost contact with her. She worte me some month later to tell me that she was geting better and that she had moved out. but i never wrote back cus I didnt want to give her the chance to use me again....
never send money,,,,never send flowers,,,,never send gifts to someone you have never met. anybody can post a pretty photo on a web site. scammers like to play on our loneliness and lust.
Sorry to hear ya got taken bro! There will be a day when people like that are going to held accountable for their actions and if they don't repent of there sins, then their judgment will be harsh.
A few months back i had a "Russian girl" wanted to be my girlfriend and was getting a passport to come to the U.S. and getting a work permit and all that. had even go as far as sending me her flight itinerary, which was legit, i went on the airline web site and there was a flight number that matched her departure time and time of of arrival, all that was true. we had corresponded for a couple of weeks, her sending me all these nice notes and pictures and all, then came the time she sposably was in Moscow to continue her trip and was $900.00 short,wanted me to help her out! Ding ding, a bell rang in my head, that's what ended all conversation at that point.
A few months later i get a e-mail from some other gal, was going to be moving to the area and was looking for friend. Behold, there she was, with the same pics and BS story that was exactly as before. this time she had a different name, but the same e-mails and pics, too the tee. If that was a her,coulda been a him as far as i know, HA! This time i sent my first reponse that I would send her $2500.00 right away if i had her name and address so that she could get here sooner. HA HA! no response and i haven't heard from them since. i was hoping to get some kinda reply to turn them in.
So ya, beware of those scammers, We need to pray for those that want to deceive us. God loves them as well as He love us that have faith and walk with Him. The evil one likes to hit us anyway he can because his time is very very short and he knows that and will try to hurt Gods people anyway he can, that is why my friends, we need to put on the Armour of God, so that we have protection against the devil and all his evil schemes!
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give us all strength!
I am very sorry that you went through this! I totally understand! I had a guy that started writing me and he was wonderful then he started telling me a sob story! Something started throwing me off and when he ended up asking for money that I couldn't come up with he started hounding me! He sent me mean e-mails and trying to use my faith against me! I broke it off with him.
Then the other day one contacted me from this site, it was great. He then started asking me to call him but that he was in Africa on a job. I looked up his information through a romance scam site and found his information there!
Thankfully the same things that they are using to try to cheat us we can reseach them!
I had the same guy write me, from nigeria, plus you wouldnt believe the email I get, Ive won the lottery from at least 3 or 4 countries, a lot of my mail comes from nigeria, I ust to right rude and crazy things back to them Than the Lord starting dealing with me about loving every one. So now I speak to them out of Love and tell about Jesus, at least some of them, THere are so many .
For alot of my life when someone would ask me for help, I would mostly turn them down, now their a few cases scammers, people using money for drugs or alcohal, and people that depend on others instead of the Lord(though I might help them a couple times, and thats it. Im open to helping anyone I can, that I personally come in contact with. It is better to give than receive, but our giving must be in wisdom and must be motivated by the love of God.Spirit led giving is the way to go. And as of now only the above mentioned for myself arent Spirit led giving nor would they motivated out of love. Beside how can I pray for those who despitefully use me, if there is no one to pray for.IF your like me and worry about who to give to, its not good to close your hand, at the same time, if in doubt ask the Lord, want he desires you to do in so many differnet cases, and IM shure hell give you the neccesary information.
Some advice for anyone thinking of visiting anyone overseas. In America we live like kings here, and many smaller impoverished countries believe we are rich when many are more poor in spirit.
I've been warned a few times around the web and wanted to present this information here - there are also people out there, perhaps pretending to be a woman that invite you to visit, say Brazil for example. When you finally fly there, you get robbed, beat up and killed by the boyfriend, husband, or person who was pretending to be the one your heart bonded with.
I've seen that nigerian scam on here too.. 10/10 times they use a yahoo email address, 10/10 times there was either a large inheritance and a family tragedy, 10/10 times they need to send you money in some fashion for processing. Just who today including many believers send a complete stranger any amount of money, large or small? They will always try to get you to communicate outside the site on yahoo as quickly as possible, then to get your last name, personal details, and more.
Ask them to scan their govt issued photo ID and send it to you for verification and your protection.. they will usually disappear quick. Log the conversation and send it to the board admins here and *poof* they are gone.
