How Do you help a victim who won't believe that it's a scam?

Hi,

I found my way here from the other site.

I'm interested in learning how the more experienced people warn the victim, and how they manage to persuade them that it is a scam?

For example, what do they do when the victim refuses to believe he is being scammed?

I'm losing my current bait because the scammer thinks it was me who warned his victim. It wasn't, I just passed on the relevant information to a more experienced person, but I'm so frustrated that despite mine and their best efforts, this man refuses to accept he's being scammed, and keeps contacting the Scammer.

Any advice on how this works? I'm not intending to contact the victim myself, I'm leaving it up to other people with more experience but I'd like to understand more and wonder if you know of any online articles about this or have any words of wisdom you could share with me please?

Thanks

Hi, Daisy & welcome.

Sadly, a lot of the times, victims do not take our warnings seriously enough to stop paying money to the scammers. This is especially if they have been 'hooked' for a long time, have already sent many payments & believe the 'pot of gold' is just one more payment away.

Someone likened it to an addiction to gambling - where the gambler, having already lost money, believes it will be his turn to win next turn of the wheel - or the one after that (ad nauseum).

Occasionally, we have two or three warners contact the victim - & from that approach, many DO start to believe. Sites like this help enormously if we can direct the innocent person here to see proof of the scam. Phoning the victim helps sometimes, & in extreme cases, getting Law Enforcement involved to advise them of the facts.

We are not always successful in saving someone & have to leave them to make their own decisions, after we have given advice, evidence etc - basically, because thet have the right to spend their money however they want.

Hi Daisy,

Sometime we come accross a vic like this and as it turns out I have been dealing with one over the last week or so, I estimate he has sent $200,000 of not only his but borrowed money, now, being desperate to be able to pay it back he has been caught up in another scam, he insists that this one is legitimate and he is working for the UK government and MI5 in an investment, he is not a UK resident but believes the UK government would need his help and his money to sort out a problem which will make him enough money to pay back the people he has borrowed from.

I have spent many, many hours doing research, making calls and writing emails, I have managed to track down many of the people he has borrowed from with the help of google and a huge dose of luck but so far to no avail.

Sadly, I think the only way to hellp this man and those he has borrowed from is to report him to the police, while there is no law against sending your money to scammers, sending other peoples money to them without means of repaying it most likely is illegal

As Crispy and Ralph say, it can sometimes be impossible to convince a victim, they are to emotionally and/or financially invested and cannot face the reality of the situation. It sounds like you have done what you can and sometimes, sadly, you just have to let go.

Thanks for the advice. It is so so frustrating. I've created another email (gmail) and sent another email to the scammer but I'm beginning to wonder if he's changed his email address now and that's all I really had on him.

I have the ip address and quite a few names but sadly the only person who I am convinced is a real person with real pictures is only linked to the scammer by an ip address and for all I know hie might just have used the same computer in the cafe and be an ITP.

Oh well. I'll keep trying but it's not looking too hopeful.

thanks again for your input.

Hi,
I found my way here from the other site.
I'm interested in learning how the more experienced people warn the victim, and how they manage to persuade them that it is a scam?
For example, what do they do when the victim refuses to believe he is being scammed?

If you want help, victims warned , before she scammed, you can work in a international-fraud-hunter-group.

if you want this, contact me via pn.

georg

Thanks Georg. I'm not totally sure what you mean but I'll try and send you a pm soon and ask more.

I finally got back in touch with my lad. But I used an email that was from Eaters and I don't totally know what he means by his response.

Any idea's?

I'm C h a r l e s Ude and he is J e n i f e r Desmond.

I'm glad I've got him back on the hook but I'm not sure what to do with him now. I don't really understand what he means by that email?



does he mean that he wants to take the initial victim and then pass them on to me to follow up? but I think he wants me to supply the list of victims email addresses, and I don't feel right about that.

Would it be better if he were to source his victims himself and then pass them on to me... So I could 'follow up' for him...

how do I word this now? I haven't responded yet. The (my) initial email was a cut and paste and I don't know how to understand his response that well...?

You'd get a better response taking this one over to 419eater.com.
But yes, he's asking for your format and for a list of victims. You could try switching sides and try to get a list from him, but it's doubtful he'll give them up if he's anywhere down the line with them.

As for your reply to him, if you post your question over on Eater, you're bound to get a few ideas.

Thanks Chris, yes I already posted this on Eaters but I was just looking for as much advice as possible so I posted it here too.

For clarification:
the fraud -hunter-group kills fraudulent websites and trie to warn victims....before she paying or loose money

the 419eater playing a game with stupid scammers (scambaiting).

This is a difference...

George
Thanks for the offer of help, but that's what we do here. We warn victims and also have an affiliate for shutting down fraudulent websites.

Sometimes Daisy, it's just impossible to warn someone off... as Ralph said, some victims are in so deep that they just don't want to believe you. I have 4 victims I'm trying to work with at the moment who are many months into the scam, and they just will not believe a word I say.

There's only so much you can do unfortunately, some people will always fall victim. We can only do what we can, and save those that will listen to reason.

HI ,I HAVE BEEN SCAMMED BY A NIGERIAN FROM LONDON UK AND I 'M SURE HE IS IN LONDON BECAUSE I SENDED THE MONEY TO LONDON AND I DID TALK TO HIM MANY TIMESCAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME ?HE LEFT ME BROCK AND MY EMAIL IS [email protected]

Hi Ben,

If you have already been scammed, then I'm afraid it's too late and the money is gone.
The people who scammed you may or may not be in London, in reality many African scammers claim to be there and can make it look like they are by clever use of redirected phone numbers etc. Sometimes, they do have contacts there, but just because you sent the money "there" dosen't prove that... western union payments can be picked up anywhere.

Nevertheless, I can look at what you have on this person, and we can maybe dig up some good information that we can post publicly, hopefully saving others that are falling for his tricks.

I will send you an email with my contact details.

Hi Ben,
first one, i mean, it is better, you delete your personal e-mail adress here in this forum.
If you have paying via Western Union, the money is away.
If the scammer use a "escrow-fraud" -site, please post the name of this fake here, maybe i can help with informations.
And the phone-number in UK: i am sure , she is beginning with +44 70xxxxxxxx....a forwarding-number; the scammer is not in London.

greetings
georg