is this a scam?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420529#Comment_119420529

Do you know the man with two brains? Could you get his autograph?

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420576#Comment_119420576

Don't be ridiculous, brains don't write!

sniperman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420141#Comment_119420141

thanks,i think you see where im coming from,as you say im neither thick or gullible, i think im more along the curious side, and i have taken on board alot of whats being said,and maybe this thread will give a heads up to someone thats maybe/might be falling into one of these traps,anyway ill post the next reply soon as i get it,id say there are a few on here waiting

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420777#Comment_119420777

Look at it this way, you had the gumption to ask for opinions rather than continuing on despite your doubts. A lot would have carried on until they ran out of money.

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420576#Comment_119420576

Did you here about the guy with 5 penises?

His nacks fit like a glove!

gameoverdude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420529#Comment_119420529

Hmmm. Possibilities.

gameoverdude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420570#Comment_119420570

Quandriconolousless?

laoisgem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119419743#Comment_119419743

That deserves a Thread of it's own 😀

mumo3

@laoisgem I love scammers, when they call the job they get passed to me ….. we do time how long I can keep them on the phone for before they get pissed off and hang up ….. does be the highlight of my day 😂😂

gary550

100% a scripted scam and you are probably one of hundreds or thousands who received the very same email after initiating communication

The whole idea is to find man who will be taken in by her troubles and will step in to solve them with you guessed it - money baby!

You can tell the people behind the scam probably aren't the most experienced as they put it all on quite quick, every checkbox was more or less checked in the one email (I.E she doesn't feel wanted, she doesn't do much, she doesn't have much and she doesn't like dishonest people and people who break promises - this will be played upon later as the scam progresses if any objection to her request for money is encountered). The parts about her not doing much and how boring her life is is more or less an attempt to find commonality with potential marks who are more than likely men who haven't much going on in their life, they are much easier to manipulate from a scammers point of view.

Experienced scammers, particularly experienced romance scammers would draw that process out more and get the person more emotionally involved first before laying it on a bit thicker.

If it was me I'd probably carry on and waste their time until the inevitable request for money comes, but OP you'd be better off just ceasing contact and moving on.

Please please please don't ever send anyone money who you meet online!!!

By and large scammers are the most deplorable people on planet earth and are devoid of morals.

sniperman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421778#Comment_119421778

thanks,i have no or never had any intentions of sending money,or gifts,i heard about scams before,but i was never targeted before, ill just let it go on for another while and see what the person says next, abit of fun/attention in my otherwise boreing,pennyess,kidneyless mentally unstable life :-)

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421874#Comment_119421874

Might I suggest you let @mumo3 give you responses to emails?

You post the emails you receive here and mumo3 gives you suitable answers. It could be an epic thread!

B.A._Baracus

This just in... water is wet.

Because everything you just said op. It's a kin to asking a silly question such as is water wet.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421896#Comment_119421896

Water isn't wet, but it has the potential to make other things wet.

https://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=6097

sniperman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421887#Comment_119421887

ill post the next reply i get as soon as i get it,then ill see what more advice /comments ill get

sniperman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421896#Comment_119421896

i dont think so

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421874#Comment_119421874

May I suggest maybe joining a group or club near your home, you might met someone there

B.A._Baracus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421925#Comment_119421925

Please tell me your joking. I'd get it if it was a joke. Because if you are not. Then God help you.

.... there's splitting hairs then all that...

sniperman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421962#Comment_119421962

thanks,but im not desperate yet,i joined a dateing site a few weeks ago just to see whats out there/test the water so to speak,ive been on my own for 4 years,and im doing ok so far,im kinda shy when it comes to meeting people,hence the dateing site,

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421992#Comment_119421992

There's fact and adage, I was being pedantic.

corner of hells

Guys , I've figured it out , the OP is the scammer , he's no money , missing a kidney and lives a lonely life , any day now he's going to ask us for money.

irelandrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421992#Comment_119421992

To be fair, if you are going to be condescending, then make sure your own statement is correct.

Kimbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422236#Comment_119422236

I bet you we will have to pay to unlock future emails :D

sniperman

hi folks here is an update of the latest email,what do ye think,has not directly asked for money,but evan i can see its coming,ill let it go on for another while until the money request comes,then ill tell her/him in a few words where to go...................Hello my dear ******** How is your mood? How is your health? Thank you

for your reply  and for your attention to me) I paid

money for making photos.that i sent you,I haven't work now and I still look for my son sake, I feel myself not good, I

think I got little flu as it is already cold weather here. I hope soon

I will get better. I glad that I have you in my life, I can

communicate with you and share with you everything I have in my heart.

I feel connection with you and even when we know each other not so

long time I glad that we met and I have this feelings to you.I already tried learn English with my son's book) I know English is

International language but learn it in my age isn't already easy) I

wish that we will have more deeply speaking and communication and I

really want speak with you directly when we will plan meeting in

reality. I dream about meeting, really. I simple don't know how

organize it. Now I can't do anything and pay for anything,I haven't

work as you know. I do everything to find some work but still

anything. I hardly have enough for food to me and Andrei and if truth

it is hard for me pay for using the net cafe. Today my mother sent me

half of her pension that we will not die from hungry and I feel shame

because of it. It is I must help her not she to me. don't want give you false promises or tell you that my situation

with money will be better soon as I haven't any work and it is hard

plan something. But don't get me wrong, i don't ask you anything. I am

not scammer, I will not use anyone for help. I simple ask you be

patient, wait when for me will be possible pay for meeting with you,

it can take months and you need be ready for it. if I will not be able

pay for our letters I will tell you directly, I never hide anything

from you but I really want be with you and hope I don't make mistake

that chose you. You really very dear to me. Have a good day)

Your Yuliia

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422422#Comment_119422422

OP , you're going to have to rise to tge challenge with that one .

Send her back an email saying you've no ears and can't read her emails asking would she be able to send you money to buy a giant magnifying glass.

Kimbot

Tell her that the net cafe you use is costing you a bomb and you may have to delay writing back to her next time......

emo72

Poor Yuulia and Andrei are having a rotten time. My heart goes out to them

alexandriya

good information

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422458#Comment_119422458

She is actually very happy, no need to feel sorry for her.

"My son asked me why I smile so

much and why I am so happy last days and I told him that I found man on Internet" 

B.A._Baracus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422249#Comment_119422249

Believe it or not I wasn't being condescending (one could argue getting back to the expression "water is wet" with a technical answer is condescending... irony there. We all know what the expression means but this is boards.ie silly me) but to the op, you and everyone else you have to have a head on your shoulders when it comes to internet usage. Especially online dating.

There are a million scams out there. In fact, one of the most popular now among young people is for a person to talk to a fake profile and through conversation they give out their Instagram, then later nude photos and then get hit with a 'give me money or else your family and friends sees the nudes' - over on Reddit advice section people every single day are posting a thread about it. It's that wide spread. Another popular one is to talk via WhatsApp to a person and all they mention is this new crypto trading app. It's a bot.

Going back to the op, "if in doubt..." - that's the biggest defense. The very second he THOUGHT about creating the thread let alone making it was his answer.

sniperman

again thanks to you all for your replys,i will deal with it in my own way now that i know its a scam,with a few unpublishable words,but ill let it go on for a while longer,or until i get asked for dosh,then i dont think ill get any more emails,so for now ill post any more emails i get,and maybe it could help/educate someone that coud be in a situation like this

It’s on the less sophisticated scams but principles of all scams basis is earning trust from someone who has demonstrated some level of emotional vulnerability- and by that I mean, simply someone looking for love, could be classed as open to emotional manipulation

On the upper levels of sophistication, you have the likes of new boyfriends moving in, spending the hard earned money of the woman and living rent free or people pretending they’re millionaires with a cash flow problem scamming wealthy widows etc

Its all about believability and manipulation and if you give money once, it’s very hard to refuse future requests

gary550

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422661#Comment_119422661

exactly it

the people in the emails above are looking for low hanging fruit

monseiur

Three Nigerian men were before the court in Navan last week in relation to a romance scam. They defrauded a local woman (she was in her 60's !! ) of her life savings of over €250,000 + €50,000 she borrowed from a friend. They sent the money to fake accounts in Turkey and Vietnam where they bought goods / products, had them shipped to Nigeria where they sold them. They will be out of jail in less than a year to continue their lucrative 'business'. Of course they should be deported immediately after release......but this is Ireland where deportation is a dirty word.

HazeDoll

So far it looks like you're just getting the script. There is nothing in those emails that looks like a response to anything you have said to her.

In your next email give a little information about yourself that's a little ridiculous and ask a specific question.

"Yesterday I went to help a neighbour who has an peacock farm. It's a difficult time of year for him as the peahens are laying their eggs so he needed help collecting the eggs before they get damaged. I had to go up a ladder and bring down the eggs from the holly trees where the peahens lay them.

How about you? Have you ever helped out on a farm? My uncle is ill and he has a small sheep farm near the town. He might ask me soon to take over the farm if his health doesn't improve. Do you think you and Andrei would like to live on a farm in Ireland?"

If you want to really push the boat out you can change 'peacocks' to 'aardvarks'. The important thing is to see if there's any response to your plans to move to a sheep farm. Chances are nobody is reading your responses.

If you get a response that ignores the sheep farm question, refer them back to the question until they answer it. Then it's up to you to spin an increasingly stupid story that requires their responses. This wastes their time, which means they have less time to scam other people, so as well as amusing yourself you're doing some crimefighting.

HazeDoll

I kept a chap on the hook for ages, telling him I was tired of life on a bleak Irish spaghetti farm. I was learning to speak English so I could get a better job and buy a donkey. Then I would be able to to go and see a town on the other side of the hills. I had heard that the town has streetlights and a shop that sells food that is already cooked.

I used to ask him questions about English grammar, such as "What is the future tense of the the verb 'went'?" ('I am wenning,' he said.) and "Which is correct; 'My footfingers' are cold or 'My feetfingers are cold'?" (His response to that one was that it depends on the tense.)

If he didn't answer the questions I kept referring him back to them, and then asking supplementary questions. All the time I was hammering him on Words With Friends, as he struggled to play 2 letter words.

He wanted to move the conversation from the Words With Friends messages to gmail. I asked him to set up an email account for me and let me know the passwords etc. I kept getting locked out (changing the password) so he had to keep setting up new ones.

The fun is in making them waste a disproportionate amount of time coming up with responses to your messages and waiting for them to figure out that they have been baited.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422929#Comment_119422929

The example used by the OP is very basic- I’d say they’re doing a formulaic approach and likely targeting 100s at any one time

HazeDoll

One more thing...

When they've figured it out and they're accusing you of wasting their time, or you're just getting tired of the whole thing, tip them over the edge by using the word 'Alaye.'

It literally means 'Information' in a Nigerian language but it must have some other, more subtle, meaning because it always gets a furious reaction.

Also, try to work in the number 419 somewhere towards the end of the jape. Strictly speaking it's the code for the Nigerian "You've won a prize, send money so we can send it to you" scam, but it can refer to any scam.

HazeDoll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119423052#Comment_119423052

Right, and the purpose of responding in a way that requires their individual attention is that it means they have less time to respond to people who are likely to fall for it. But you have to demand responses to specific questions to make them abandon the script and compose individual messages.

mumo3

@sniperman just cut it off at the knees on this one!!

Go straight in and ask, how much the photos cost and how much she borrowed off her mother, be a bit diplomatic and romantic about it. Let them think they have you on the line, they'll no doubt be a bit, no I don't need your money, but play along, it wont take too much longer once they think they have you before the requests come and then just cut it off.

Once you cut them off, they'll probably get aggressive and tell you sh!te like they've hacked your computer and downloaded your files Blah Blah Blah don't worry about it and move on, but keep an eye out for other requests from them pretending to be someone else.

Best of luck x

New Home

Or pretend to be your own wife, who just happened to come across this correspondence after "her husband" forgot to lock his computer... this could be fun.

In all seriousness, there are websites dedicated to name and shame online dating scammers. I'll see if I can post a few later.

Patrick2010

Used to find this good for a laugh, stories of the scammers being scammed.

https://aff.419eater.com/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=d2f4c7f31292833c200ee8515cc7cc64

One guy managed to link up two African scammers and had them trying to scam each other 😀

mumo3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119423625#Comment_119423625

I can sense myself going down a rabbit hole later 😂

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422558#Comment_119422558

As another user pointed out above - it is quite likely when they realize Scam 1 failed they will move on to trying some Scam 2. Partly because you engaged long enough with them that they have you pegged as someone who might yet fall for something somewhere. You showed - even if you came out of it in the end - some temporary gullibility so they will see you as susceptible. And you may be.

So replying to them with "unpublishable words" could lead them to - for example - suggest they will report you for threatening or abusing them. So they will threaten to go to the police maybe.

Or they - as the user above pointed out - might claim to have your IP address or home address or some other hacked information. And threaten you directly or indirectly with this.

Of if you gave them any personal information and they used it - for example on face book - to find you and maybe find out you have some relative or other person they identified - they might threaten to contact people you know to say you have been grooming or predating women on dating sites.

Or or or - basically every message you send them - no matter how innocuous you might think it to be - is potential material for them to throw back against you. So think twice about writing back at all - let alone in any aggressive, insulting, or retributive tone.

You may feel some sentence or email you wrote has nothing in it - until it gets thrown back at you and you suddenly see it in a new light. And if you find yourself writing yet further emails to dig yourself out of some hole - youll likely just be digging it deeper.

So all in all - you should probably just not reply any more at all.

sniperman

thanks all again, am i allowed to post email address of that scumbag here?,maybe someone could have some fun with it,as im not answering anymore

I would advise against that for the same reasons I just wrote above. You get people on here to send emails to that address - they themselves might get hit with Scam Route 2 - or something else.

But in general I think posting anyones personal email address to "out" them on this site is against the rules. So yea - don't do that.

What might be cathartic for you is to look up the "professionals" who go after scammers. People who are much more clued in on how to protect themselves - their personal identity - their computer identity and so on. I find "Jim Browning" the best. Trilogy Media is another good one. Kitboga is a little - sensationalist for me but some people like him. And so on.

But in general I would recommend not keeping up contact with them - and not exposing anyone else to contact with them either.

sniperman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119424400#Comment_119424400

thanks never thought of that,ok i wont post anymore details,but if someone has a link to a site that might be able to track the scum down,please post it here,ill foward them the address,thanks to all for help,advice,hope others that might be a target will read this forum and be aware

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119419986#Comment_119419986

Can't burn it any more, gotta plough it.

gameoverdude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119424926#Comment_119424926

I have a feeling I'd like this comment, but I don't understand it.

laoisgem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119425098#Comment_119425098

I'm guessing it's agriculture related 😉