What kind of scam is this?

You may recall, my mother in law was scammed by Erica Campbell/Omolola Giwa and sent $100 to this supposed native of Philadelphia who just happened to be in Nigeria for business. After that, we had a long talk with her about the dangers of the internet, and (without her knowing) I look at her emails every week or so...

I notice she was talking to this one person David A. (no full last name), whose emails spoke heavily of religion (like Erica's) and of LOVE--he's so in love, wants to marry her, etc. All crap, of course, but she seemed to have taken the bait--though her emails to him are not nearly as floral as they were to Erica; she seemed a little hesitant.

Anyway, I gather she speaks to him over instant message and possibly over the phone, so I can't see their full exchanges, but I do know that one of his emails was in regard to a conversation they had where she agreed to mail him some stuff. The address is in Ghana, and he said that he is far too busy to pick up the package himself and that his driver would, and gave a different name (Accra something or other). From what I understand one of the items she was picking up for him is a flash drive. She mailed it last week. I do not know if there were other items.

What the heck kind of scam is this? It's obviously not right, I know that. But why would a scammer want her to send them a small, relatively cheap item like that? My fear is that he said that he would pay her for it and would send her the money, and that she give him her bank account information...has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

Some scammers do ask victims for electronic goods, but usually expensive ones like mobile phones and laptops. Perhaps he's just starting with something cheap now, and will ask for something more valuable later.
I do wonder if it's the same lad that targeted your mother last year. $100 was also a small amount for a scammer to ask for.

Hi Arnold,thanks for the reply. The other guy did ask for more than $100, but $100 was all she had. He hit her up for more cash right afterwards, but we had stepped in by that time and he told her no (we also blocked his name from her account, though she does not know that)

I will add that goods that are cheap in the western world - especially technological goods - can be very expensive in West Africa. It also takes longer for new tech to be available over there, so it might be that he wanted a really large capacity one as a sort of status symbol.

It could also be that she mentioned she was scammed (or he noticed she was hesitant), so he's starting out slowly.

Please try to post any of the info you can acquire. It might also be time to have another little chat with her. I'm sure we can arrange for a warner to phone her if you'd like. Possibly even at a time you are there, so you can, if necessary, follow it up with a face to face talk and to make sure she doesn’t just dismiss it

I'm not really a fan of all the subversive action here, but I understand that it is for the best. Be sure not to mention it to her though. For many reasons, but especially as it will make her feel about as bad as realising she's being scammed again.

Please remember that you can only protect her from so much. Do not mess up your life by trying to fix hers.

I hope to hear better news from you soon.
Newdonym

Did he convince her to buy the flash drive for him with her money or did he order it and have her ship it to him? If he asked her to buy it, he is just starting slow with the electronic gift demands--as Newdonym indicated, scammers frequently try to get electronics out of their victims--cell phones, flash drives/hard drives, and laptops are common requests. For a scammer working out of an internet cafe, a flash drive is probably very useful for storing photos, fake passports, and all the other fun items in the scammer toolkit. He also might be testing her willingness to comply with his requests and to ship things to him, so he can move on to reshipping.

It is not uncommon for romance scammers to use victims as mules or reshippers (i.e. the scammer buys an item, has it shipped to the victim and asks her to forward it to him)--and when it comes to reshipping, the items the victim is being asked to ship will be purchased using stolen credit cards or hijacked paypal accounts. Ultimately, when someone identifies the purchases made with the stolen account, they will trace right to the victim they were shipped to, and the victim could be charged with receiving stolen goods.

Without any details anything we can tell is going to be an educated guess, my theory would be as Dotti mentioned

He also might be testing her willingness to comply with his requests and to ship things to him, so he can move on to reshipping.

If you could get us any information including email address and some early emails we may be able to find the complete script and get a better insight.

From everything you have posted, it would be hard to think it is not a scam but we certainly cant say for sure so far.

There is even a good chance it is the same scammer, if yo uare able to get the Ips of both this person as well as the last one it would be quite easy to be able to tell you with a pretty good certainty

The IP address he has been using is: 212.85.206.25, which is in Ghana according to the locater sites. In looking through the emails there are a lot of missing links due to the fact that there is evidence that they converse on both IM and on the phone.

Here is one email, the second email she has from him:

It is very important for me to express to you how much you really mean to me. I wish I could do this in person while holding you in my arms and gazing into your eyes. But since we are physically separated by miles of emptiness, this expression must come in the form of letters such as this.
Barbara, I know it is difficult for you, as it is for me, to be separated for so long. Life seems to be full of trials of this type which test our inner strength, and more importantly, our devotion and love for one another. After all, it is said that "True Love" is boundless and immeasurable and overcomes all forms of adversity. In truth, if it is genuine, it will grow stronger with each assault upon its existence. You are my enchanted Princess, and I am your devoted consort Prince. Until that moment arrives, I send to you across the miles, my tender love.

here is another doozy--different IP address though (41.210.5.165)

Baby, I know we are miles and miles away from one another, but I always believed that as long as our souls are connected to each other, the flame of our love will burn forever.I love you so very much sweetheart. You are the love of my life.I have a hard time explaining how I feel. I have never felt anything like this before. You are always there to talk to me and make me feel happy again.You are the most loving,caring, kind and absolutely most beautiful woman that I have ever met. My darling you holds a special place in my heart.I never thought that was possible. I want to marry you when i come home, I want to be your husband. I want to share my life with you; that is the most awesome experience, nothing compares to that.

Thank you for always being there,I want to spend the rest of my life with you as your husband, lover, and best friend. I have never in my life been so very happy. I feel much loved, beautiful and very happy.Thinking of you has become a hobby, Looking at you is like watching a TV, Hearing your sweet and lovely voices is like listening to music.If I ever saw an angel,it was in your eyes. Only God's creations can compare to the beauty that I see in you! My love for you is infinite, without limits.


The greatest gift to my eyesight is having my eyes set on you. If you've found the one you love then you've found the rose in a forest of thorns.you're my rose; I'm your thorns, clutching and protecting you. In love, the hard times will surely call and no lover is without their flaw.But you must have rain to see the rainbows,and endure the thorns to be the rose,If you stand in front of a mirror with 11 roses,you'll see 12 of the most beautiful thing. there may be many flowers in a man's life, but there is only one rose. you are the one i have picked as my rose and it will be forever.I want you to know my darling that I chose to love you in silence, for in silence I find no rejection. I chose to love you in your loneliness, for in your loneliness no one owns you, but me.I love you my darling. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY...LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER TILL THE END OF TIME.


Her daughter emailed him and tried to scare him off...my mother-in-law contacted him (she doesn't know that we know all of this); he emailed her back saying he got the email that we forwarded his IP address to the government, etc...she of course has no idea what he's talking about. we sent her links, etc talking about scams in Ghana and Nigeria. He also said that he is travelling on business and is now in China (the IP address for that email was 58.63.63.76--which is, indeed, China).

She emailed him saying she doesn't know what an IP address is and wanted to talk it out, and gave him the number for her second cell phone (she has one on a plan with us, and one pay as you go...I guess so we can't track what she's doing!) and said to call there, that way her daughter won't see his number on the phone bill!!!!!

We need to have a discussion with her, but--we did this after she got scammed and she is doing it again, AND being sneaky behind our back!

newdonym, would that be possible, to have a warner phone her? She won't listen to us; we went through this a few months ago with Erica Campbell, and now again with this one. We already sent her links and she emailed back and said "I'm not doing anything TRUST ME!"--which is bull, obviously.

Oh, this guy David's email address is [email protected]

Well, we thought that was over, but I just saw in her email today that she sent him $100. This is so frustrating!

Would you like one of us to try and get her to see the light.

Going by memory we have quite a bit of information on the scammer here and we may be able to find more if needed

I understand how frustrating it can be when the truth is so obvious yet it is continually overlooked, it happens that we deal with that often here