Have I been scammed

Several months ago I met a gentleman on match.com, James Boyd, who claimed was a widow with one son, who lived in Atlanta ga. He told me he was self employed buying and selling gold for large companies. We spent several weeks emailing and im's back and forth when one day he announced he would be busy all day as he was bidding on a contract. Thenext day told me he won the contract and was going to Ghana. (yes bells went off). I spent a lot of money t rying to do back ground checks with nothing conclusive. After he got to Ghana, a couple of weeks went buy with nothing happeing, other than us going back ad forth becuase I did not believe him. WOUld get angry saying if i didn't believe him goodbye etc. I had even told him on several occassions I was broke, had been broke, had no money, owed more peopl ethan I couild count-thinking okay if this is a scammer he will move on as he knows I do not have money. He said that did not matter, as he had money. After he had been in Ghana for a couple of weeks, he contacted me saying his son fell at the motel, and was in serious condition. Then the money requests started: needed money to pay the bill so he could brig his son home. As that was getting resolved I decided once and for all he was a scammer. So i contacted yahoo about his yahoo accunt saying how he was scamming me. Apparently there was something there in this accunt that caused them to close it based on their TOS violations. Through all this, every discussion/argument we had, he assured me once he got home he would pay me back. Sai not wo worry, etc. Even when we called it quits he would say it said he would contact me when he got home so he could pay me back. A couple of days after I contacted yahoo, james called me asking me what I had done. Said he needed his yahoo account because all his business docuemts were there and he needed it to prove to this company (I cannot recall the comany's name but did findthem online before) he had spent their advance money for the work. Apparently because of this, he was not able to come home on 5/20, as when his plane tickets were for. Then it was money for the tickets, as he could get an extension. Then it was delays, and more dlays, then one day he called me and said the company had arrested him for theft--becuase of the documents. Oh-and all through this, he kept saying how it would take weeks for his bank to transfer the funds to him personal account from his business account: then it was the bank had a freeze on his account because the company had pre-paid him for the trip. And he needed more money. Then Monday he got things settled, and was to call Tuesday to let me know when he was coming home, For almost 2 days I heard nothing, no answering of his phone, the yesterday, his son got online and told me his dad had had a car wreck on his way to the hospital and was in Manna Missions Hospital, and had had surgery. All he said at that time was his dad wanted me to know where he was, and that he loved me. Didn't ask for anything else. Then this morning his son came on line again and said his dad wanted me to help so he could get home. I kept trying yesterday and today to get his dad to call, but today his son said James could hardly tal becuase he was in pain. Asked for money to pay his bill--$300 so he could get home. Now, this morning I kept trying to get an answer from the hospital, as to whether or not James was there. I had sent flowers, and when I called to check on them, they said James must have been discharged as they could not find him, I finally convinced them to go look and see for sureand after I called them back, all they said was there was one James there but they did not know if he was my james boyd. So after a few hours, James actually called me, at the same time his sone im'd me saying his dad wanted me to call. And James sounded very bad. Could not hardly talk--coughing, in pain. Told him what the hospital said, but I also know they sounded like they did not know much of anytbing.Anyway, he is wanting me to send him the money so he can get out and come home.

So much of this sounds like a scam, but so much of it does not. Like how he keeps in contact with me, knowing do not have lots of money. Yet he also keeps promising me he has the money and can pay me back once he gets home and gets things straight, He told me once to mail him a watch I bought for his birthday to the Atlanta address, which leads me to think he is real as why would he want soemthing at an address he did niot live at? I know I did call him before at a US number, but also know you can get those from Africa.
This is the local numner 719-646-3254 which when I call just says there is no answer at the extyension. The cell number in ghana is 00233249932215

And the addresses are this for fed ex
issah rahman
10 pig farm street
Accra,Ghana
00233

this id for the post office..
issah rahman
p.o.box os 229
osu,Accra
Ghana,00233

Issah is supposedly his assistant in ghana.

James Boyd
2025 Peachtree Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30309

Am I being scammed or is he for real?

Hello ladybgjk,

I hate to have to tell this to you, but I am quite sure you are scammed. The odds all of that happening is very small - and then I'm not even putting into account this is all happening in Ghana, one of scammer's heavens. You said he was sending you from a yahoo account, can you post up the headers of one of his FIRST mails, when he supposedly still was in the USA? We can track down where they are sent from, and the odds are huge that they will be sent from the exact same location as the last mails..

I am sorry to hear that this bastard managed to put a feeling of guilt onto you, but remember, there is no son, he is not in the hospital, he is just trying to steal as much money as he can. Everytime something else will come up, he will need money for a plane ticket, his mother might get sick, anything. He will do whatever he can to puch those guilt and compassion buttons, just to get more money.

I am sorry to hear this has happened to you

The list of excuses and requests for money are far too long for this to be anything but a scam. Anything, but 0 is too long for me.

You seem relatively safe financially, but emotionally, I'm not so sure. Please try not to invest too much into this man, he is a scammer and will only hurt you.

Also, you should be aware of cheque scams. If a love scam doesn't progress in the normal way (with the victim sending money) then the cleverer scammers will turn it into a cheque scam or may even get the victim to become a mule. That basically means, you would receive a fake cheque, cash it and send some back to him via instant money transfer. The cheque would be declared a fake at the clearing house and you would be liable for the whole amount.
If he ever tries to get you to cash a cheque for him, or receive/send parcels, don't.

Hi ladybgjk. An effective way of proving to yourself that it is indeed a scam is to take a look at the email headers from "James Boyd" from the very begining. If you copy the entire full header details and paste them into this handy little tool http://headertool.apelord.com/ it may help to identify his location. It's very likely that "James" has always been in Ghana, even when he claimed to be in another country.

If you need help to get the email headers, please let us know.

So much of this sounds like a scam, but so much of it does not. Like how he keeps in contact with me, knowing do not have lots of money. Yet he also keeps promising me he has the money and can pay me back once he gets home and gets things straight, He told me once to mail him a watch I bought for his birthday to the Atlanta address, which leads me to think he is real as why would he want soemthing at an address he did niot live at? I know I did call him before at a US number, but also know you can get those from Africa.

I'm afraid it all looks like a scam to me. The fact that you aren't wealthy, doesn't matter to him. He'll ask you to take out loans if necessary. And he's likely to be scamming other people, and possibly finding it more profitable than real employment.
I don't know how he got the watch, but it isn't proof it isn't a scammer. Did you send it by a method that can be tracked onine? It might throw some light on it.

[AlanJones]

Another angle on the watch is that it was probably being sent to a mule (an innocent victim), who receives goods for the scammer and then mails them on. The mule thinks that he/she is working for a legitimate US citizen who is currently out of the country on business and is just being paid to forward their post to Africa.