I was scammed

I feel really stupid, but have been victimized by a very sophisiticated scammer. I am an educated well-travelled person but obviously too trusting. I have read everything I can on scammers in the last week and I'm pretty sure he's Nigerian. I met him on match.com when I first was separated from my now ex-husband. He portrated himself as a construction engineer from the UK living in Georgia, but about to travel on business to Africa. I'm sure his photos were stolen from Match or another victim, since the man in these photos is white. Of course, there were constant delays, which prevented him from ever coming back. Recently he said his friend's girlfriend was moving and asked if I could keep a couple of boxes for him at my house. (Yes, stupid me gave him my address and cell phone number). In one of the boxes were 5 blackberries, along with a funny assortment of men's and women's shoes and clothes. I am in contact with the woman who sent them to me and she is obviously a victim too and I have figure out he and his friend are the same person, since it's obvious from the writing. She told me the phones came to here from a "Chinese company" a couple of years ago. I'm sure they are somehow stolen. This scammer knows I am suspicious but does not know I am completely on to him. What should I do with these phones which I'm sure are untraceable at this point? I'm tempted to just throw them away. What do I do about this man who has my contact info and my cell phone number and is pressing me for $3,000 to get home? Break contact with no explanation? I have his cell phone number. It has a South African prefix ( his contract was supposedly there) but I know he has connections to Nigeria and has been there in the last year at least twice.
I feel very stupid. For anyone else who is afraid to speak up about being vitimized, I don't have a low self esteem, nor am I unattractive. I did not consider myself naive either. I have learned a big lesson from this.
I would apprectiate any advice about how to deal with him and those phones. Thanks.

The email address he is using with me is [email protected]. His alias "Bob Richards"' email address is: [email protected]. He pretends they are "friends" I have pictures of both of them. I got Bob Richards' picture from one of his victims. She's still in denial about him being a scammer though. I have both of their "pictures", which I assume are from their victims or just stolen from somewhere.

Another alias used with this other victim I'm in touch with is "Chris Wigan" and his email address is:
[email protected]. They all have exactly the same strange writing style and it's obviously all the same person.

The phone number I have for him is +27741563469. Sorry about all of these separate posts.

Rather than throw away the phones, this is one situation where I would recommend contacting the police before doing that. It is possible that the phones will be traceable.

As far as the scammer goes, it is best to cut off all contact. Posting some of the letters you received may help others to avoid being scammed.

Interestingly, one of the email addresses comes up in another context: registration of a website, attached to a different name.

Domain Name.......... bobaboveus.com
Creation Date........ 2010-12-12
Registration Date.... 2010-12-12
Expiry Date.......... 2011-12-12
Organisation Name.... Tressie Mellekas
Organisation Address. 215 Pineda street,
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Suite 137
Organisation Address. 32750
Organisation Address. FL
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

Admin Name........... Tressie Mellekas
Admin Address........ 215 Pineda street,
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ Suite 137
Admin Address........ 32750
Admin Address........ FL
Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
Admin Email.......... [email protected]
Admin Phone.......... 4077882121
Admin Fax............

Thanks. I wonder if that's his real name or just another fake name? I have cut him off but he is still trying to call/text me on my cell. I'll change my number if this doesn't stop soon. [email protected]. is the email address he always used with me. I will post his first letter on here to show people how he started with me. I'm in contact with another one of his victims and she has cut off his alias "Bob Richards". She said he also used the name Armstrong. Following is his first email with my name removed:


Hello ____________
Thanks for your message, its ok to communicate through email messages, am glad to read about you and to know what your family is like, i believe that with good communication, we will be able to grow in friendship and then see what we both want from the friendship, thanks for believing in friendship.

Hmmm....so I guess I will tell you a bit about myself. My full name is Justin James Williams, I was born on February 14 1965 in the United Kingdom, although i did not have British accent because i stay some years in Spain even though i can no longer speak Spanish very well, but i am British and can speak my language, I was born to a British father and Spanish mother, Both of my parents are really in love till the demise of mum and dad still find it hard to believe, that is why he went back to Spain where he had met her some years back, he sent a message to me long ago, that he feels better in Spain than in the Uk since mum's death, so i think he will continue to be there..

I was in Canada for some part of my education and it was there i met the woman that gave me the lovely daughter that i have, i really care for her and will never do anything to hurt her, but she hurt me and herself.. Anyway i believe that its not right between us that is why it didn't work for us.

I'm single right now and I've been in a few serious relationships but have never been married before, i believe that happiness is more than just saying "we are married" there are many people that are happy and having good relationship without been married, although i did not mean that its bad to be married, but never marriage or anything like that. Both of my longest relationships were for 2 years. I feel that this part of my life is empty right now, and I would really like to fill this part of it. I miss having someone to talk to, or lay next to, or share things with. I am happy with what I have right now, don't get me wrong, but I miss this part of my life immensely. I am a passionate, intimate person, am caring and i can say that am romantic too, i just need an understanding partner, someone that will also care for me and be ready to love and be loved, someone that will love me for who I am, and what I do. I want to be able to do lots of different things with them, whether it's cooking dinner, watching t.v. (sports on occasion), going to a movie, being active like going to the gym, or golfing, playing other sports, or anything like that, i wish i could be able to hold my partner hands in hands while we walk along the beach, i wish i could be able to kiss her in the public and show her love, i wish to be able to do a lot of other like with her and makes her happy, things like going to the park together, going to fish together and a lot of other things that will make good memory for us and makes us happy.

I need to be able to trust my partner, be able to talk to them about anything and be able to be honest with them. I believe you need to forgive and forget if there is any disagreements, especially since they're usually about nothing serious anyway. I want to be able to live life with them, but also have my own life. I believe that absence makes the heart grow fonder, so I think it's healthy to spend some time apart and not spend every waking moment together. But when I spend time with my partner, I would want to make the most of it. So that's about it for the relationship part!

So my hobbies...I like cars, a lot. I want my career to take me toward cars, especially high performance tuning and modifications, and racing. I've been around cars my whole life, since my dad owned a car dealership. I love sports, I've played them my whole life... soccer (or football over there), basketball, tennis, golf, baseball, volleyball, etc. I was Male Athlete of the Year when I graduate high school. I still stay active now, I'm hoping to play baseball and golf this summer, and I go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week to work out. In the winter. I like BMX (stunt biking), I have been riding for a few years now, and I enjoy going to the skate park and riding. It's a great sport, but it's hard on the body. I do enjoy it though. But music is probably my biggest love right now. I couldn't imagine a world without music. I have been into music since I took piano lessons when I was younger, then I played trombone in high school concert and jazz bands, now I play drums on my spare time. I taught myself how to play. I listen to a lot of hard rock music, I also listen to some hip-hop, rock and roll, jazz, funk etc. More or less, though, it's rock music that I love the most. I believe listening to a good variety helps you grow as a musician though.

About my job, am a construction engineer and presently filling document to secure some contract, although i have a contract that has been awarded already, but am still pursuing another one which i think will be better, the contract i won at the moment is out of Europe or America, it will be executed in Africa, it was awarded by a company that is from China, they want to award some relief construction to Three African Countries and also there is one part of the contract that is also in Asia. But the one am pursuing/filling documents for at the moment is a US company based in the UK and i will go for the contract in Canada.

Ohh yeah, less i forget, i like the ocean too, and i enjoy swimming a lot, its cool here on the Atlantic. You take if for granted when you aren't near it, especially if you grew up next to it. The ocean is very powerful, and it means a lot to me. My parents are actually building their new home right on the ocean before i lost my mum and dad decided to sell the stuff. It's an incredible view.

From your better known friend
Just.

It's another fake name, without a doubt. The admin mailing address actually belongs to a sign company.

After seeing the first email, I would definitely agree that the person in contact with you is Western African, very likely Nigerian. The specific English mistakes make that pretty clear. I

I'm going to call the police tomorrow to tell them about these phones. I doubt they will be able to trace the origin, but maybe they can somehow be donated to charity. I traced his IP address from his last email to me (July 17th) to Pretoria, where he claims he is, and it showed the actual building he was in. His very first email was from Athens, Georgia and the following ones were from Lagos, Nigeria, when he was claiming to still be in Georgia and after that South Africa. Hopefully he won't show up at my door, since it appears he can travel internationally.

Your email has several different parts that in many places don't fit together.

I was born to a British father and Spanish mother, Both of my parents are really in love till the demise of mum and dad still find it hard to believe, that is why he went back to Spain where he had met her some years back, he sent a message to me long ago, that he feels better in Spain than in the Uk since mum's death, so i think he will continue to be there..

WHAT IS THIS SUPPOSED TO SAY?
Other parts will be seen using google search for the text if you play with it.

Yes. It's all so obvious to me now. He threw me off by saying that his mother was Spanish, since his English is clearly non-native. I attributed the "am" instead of "I am" to Spanish speakers not using subject pronouns. His grammar is terrible for an educated European, since punctuation is really not that different amongst European languages. He uses present where he should use past tenses and uses commas where he should put periods. And he says "motherless home" instead of "orphanage". I googled that and it's African terminology. I speak a few European languages but knew nothing about West African language patterns. I was really naive.

Lying is what scammers do best. They will come up with a "reason" for anything including lying. This is one of the things we seek to explain to victims. The lies are usually plausible, but still they are lies. Thank you for helping to show the nature of scammers.

since it appears he can travel internationally.

Don't worry, he won't come to your country, I doubt he is travelling. He is just using a proxy (= re-routing trick) to hide his true location.

I went to the local police with the boxes of phones. He just said to send it all back to the person who sent it to me. I figured they would not be willing to touch this.

It's not surprising--but the important thing is that by going to the police, you have helped to protect yourself against being considered an accomplice later.

Pity phones can't become money to be sent to http://www.facingafrica.org/FA08/conten ... efault.asp.
Michelle knows all about this organisation, we got involved with destroying a scam claiming to be sending them money a few years back. No harm to plug the site. I love it because it gives back to West Africa what criminals steal and reminds us that we are directing our efforts against them and not against the vast majority of utterly decent and honest citizens there.