Information on romance scams and scammers.
#358950 by astrangerheart Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:49 pm
I'm in a bind. I've been talking to a man who has made claims I can't verify. Obviously, I've never met him (otherwise these claims would be more easily verified such as whether I'm even talking to the man in the photos). I originally asked to meet (he was aloof at first), and he has agreed now, but I believe he has no intentions of meeting. He has already extended our meeting once for something which, in normal circumstances, would be a legitimate reason (work-related). However, the reason came with a suspicious story and what appears to be a fake document that could have been created by an 8-year old with a Microsoft template. I didn't even ask for proof of his story, but apparently it was so unlikely he had to confirm it himself with the "evidence" in the form of the above-described document.
I have pictures and a profile from the website he contacted me through. We have corresponded mainly through text messages. He has called twice, but the connection was terrible, so we didn't talk for long.
I am 99.99% certain I'm being lied to. And I'm not sure why I can't let go of the .01% chance that I am talking to the person he claims to be (or to be in his photos). I'd rather not post details in the open forum until it's confirmed he is a scammer, but I have items I can share in private. Could someone please help me find out the truth? And I will go ahead and admit, I likely don't need the truth to realize there are too many red flags to continue, but I'm desperate for one undeniable sliver of truth that allows me to move on. Hopefully, someone can relate and is able to help.
Thank you.
Advertisement

#358951 by Bryon Williams Sun Mar 18, 2018 5:13 pm
I am not able to advise with very limited information. As with anyone if you can not see them they are not real. You can be who ever you want to be on the internet.

Please read the stickies in Romance Scams >>
viewforum.php?f=13

I'd rather not post details in the open forum until it's confirmed he is a scammer

Please contacta moferatorstor if you have a question or information about this post.



Please do not tell the scammer he is posted here.


Please remember the fallen. https://www.odmp.org/
#358953 by Bryon Williams Sun Mar 18, 2018 5:25 pm
Please do read what is green.

If you think you've been contacted by a scammer, this is the right place to ask for help. The more you can tell us about the email or contact you've had, the better we can assist.

Please start a new topic here in the help forum rather than adding to someone else's.

Here are some important points about posting which will enable us to help you more effectively:

Your Safety
Safety is our top priority here. For your safety was ask that you don't post your own personal details. Please remove your name, address, email address, and phone number from any emails before posting them.
Note: If your username is your real name, please send a private message to an administrator to request a name change.

Helping us to help you
When posting information about scammers, every detail helps! Please try to include as much of the following as possible:

  • All email addresses used in the scam, including those of the scammer and any other individual, agency, or company involved.
  • The early emails you have received, and any emails requesting money (important: remove your personal details first).
  • All phone numbers and fax numbers used in the scam.
  • Any websites the scammer has referred you to.
  • The pictures used (Click Here to learn how to post a picture). Note: Please do not post nude or pornographic photos.
  • A description of the scam
  • Usernames and profiles they use that you are aware of (for facebook or myspace pages).
  • The details, as above, for any other person (doctor, lawyer, banker, reverend, friend or family member) who you have been referred to as part of the scam. In all likelihood, these people will be actually be impersonated by the same scammer.

If you can, please post the headers from the email you have received. Headers contain useful information about the email and importantly, often show where it came from. If you can, post the header with the email and we will try to identify the origin for you. If you do not know how to find the header for your email, please check this list for the main email providers. If yours is not listed, let us know and we will check into how to find the header for you. These useful links may also help: How to read email headers
How to find the headers for your email provider

Please remove your own personal information such as email address and name out of the header and the rest of the post.

What if the person is not a scammer?
Many of our visitors may be reluctant to post the details of the person who is asking them to send money for fear that it may be an innocent person. We too are very concerned about ensuring that no innocent people are listed here. If there is evidence to suggest that someone listed here may be innocent, we will either remove or clarify the thread as necessary. If the thread is removed, it will be posted publicly if we do find that the person is indeed a scammer.

While waiting for a response
Please stop all contact with the people you have posted. You will normally receive a response from one of our support team members quite quickly, but occasionally it will take some time. Please keep in mind that our support staff consists of a group of very dedicated volunteers, but there may be times when someone is not immediately available to address your concerns.

While waiting for advice, please take some time to look around the site. You may find that the informational "stickies" in the individual sections of our site will answer many of your questions.

Please contacta moferatorstor if you have a question or information about this post.



Please do not tell the scammer he is posted here.


Please remember the fallen. https://www.odmp.org/
#358975 by astrangerheart Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:05 am
I'm sorry, I read that information before posting, and then proceeded to ignore it in hopes we could do this through private conversation. Probably more so out of embarrassment for me than anything else. I will remedy this:

Name used: Benjamin Adel Williams
email used: [email protected]
phone# used: 1-315-350-3500 (uses NextPlus app)

Information given from him:
-lives in Albany, NY and for several months out of the year Boydton, VA
-has a small construction business called Crystal Construction Company which has a main office in Albany, NY
-is a general contractor
-is 45 years old
-has 2 daughters, Thelma (10) and Ella (15), who live in Ohio with his ex-wife
-born and raised in Bremen, Germany
-moved to US 25 years ago
-says he is using an INO2 phone which doesn't have a camera
-doesn't fancy social media and isn't on there


Information I've found out:
-Does not sound 45 over the phone
-No fewer than 3 Facebook profiles that match a "Benjamin Williams" in Albany, NY working for or owning Crystal Construction Company. Different pictures for each, two only have 1 friend. One is Benjamin Adalbert Williams which has quite a few friends, but pictures which are completely different from the ones given to me.

Meetup Profile link: https://www.meetup.com/members/247226359/
Last edited by AlanJones on Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:46 am, edited 2 times in total. Reason: Removed broken images
#358977 by astrangerheart Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:17 am
Also have an email header, and re-posted images below because I think I messed up posting the first ones.
email header:
Code: Select allReturn-path:<[email protected]>Received:from pv33p00im-smtpin009.mac.com ([17.142.194.138]) by ms46544.mac.com (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 8.0.1.3.20170906 64bit (built Sep 6 2017)) with ESMTP id <[email protected]> for ; Mon, 05 Mar 2018 00:59:15 +0000 (GMT)Original-recipient:rfc822; Received:from mail-qt0-f180.google.com (mail-qt0-f180.google.com [209.85.216.180]) by pv33p00im-smtpin009.me.com (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 8.0.1.2.20170607 64bit (built Jun 7 2017)) with ESMTPS id <[email protected]> for  (ORCPT ); Mon, 05 Mar 2018 00:59:15 +0000 (GMT)X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details:rule=notspam policy=default score=0 spamscore=0 clxscore=139 suspectscore=3 malwarescore=0 phishscore=0 adultscore=0 bulkscore=0 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx scancount=1 engine=8.0.1-1707230000 definitions=main-1803050010X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version:vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10432:,, definitions=2018-03-04_14:,, signatures=0Authentication-results:pv33p00im-dmarcmilter002.me.com; dmarc=pass header.from=gmail.comAuthentication-results:pv33p00im-spfmilter001.me.com; spf=pass (pv33p00im-spfmilter001.me.com: domain of [email protected] designates 209.85.216.180 as permitted sender) [email protected]:pass (pv33p00im-spfmilter001.me.com: domain of [email protected] designates 209.85.216.180 as permitted sender) receiver=pv33p00im-spfmilter001.me.com; client-ip=209.85.216.180; helo=mail-qt0-f180.google.com; [email protected]:pv33p00im-dkimmilter001.me.com;   dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=gmail.com [email protected] header.b=QKkfhjjgReceived:by mail-qt0-f180.google.com with SMTP id n9so3655015qtk.6 for <>; Sun, 04 Mar 2018 16:59:14 -0800 (PST)DKIM-Signature:v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:from:date:message-id:subject:to; bh=OHeMLaeO6vt9QPWudmNykD9ot+4oQEFQu3CVIL6LvYo=; b=QKkfhjjgGVAy7jmDcWb3NJ5sjAIpznlwi4jDZYTML08X1nm7jNUdwgvD9GxOBn7BpZ 0DPd0Twi6u7AhS0/MJ0xyzVPaInQQfq/zVZdbba6zvOxutYY6ovQlhYb7Ja5+EuriB2o gcmZBUx41pSItFasDMyLbV1Jy4Wgly5QE+d6nGjJxzX+KQVi6Bv3onnHIqxohQI8ic2o BmNVbbNMgjtlehDvyCYYsGA03Ys/RVJ6lKRBkQvctbxBQWgL0KyzFpqnMMotwQIozofO Q9+yTsYRbAdylGJ+gm3fu3aX0eBwQS3PlwNUkOxXkCPF1xQ9HNm130pCXMeZ4nWlY4P7 Ed+Q==X-Google-DKIM-Signature:v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:from:date:message-id:subject:to; bh=OHeMLaeO6vt9QPWudmNykD9ot+4oQEFQu3CVIL6LvYo=; b=G0wEuNDphmIJQEW0bW43Kf1bjuScUBk0DffPkLAA9bf2XEuK9S2M9M13DujbaPyaZ2 P/4RS9OkKbwI1O8+DrkmaA9CJt4u60J/evrAZJMHiOobNgmuGRGP4qoe8rK4b2pZKtI/ aCAM4O99Y1rMTS8rMz/zJEvqcjFaBcENnbvtdBrEGqw5XJAEe0UzFK3Ijv2WJ0+3Dltj 9WD1EkHa6nfn1QfNee6dzb7uuSgrF3dTcFiJbbAnzeSfYs6UFRR4MsGXcg0ADOkimv6K ZEij4CgV4p9W3q23U8z0YXbFXRUusLR+3D4cJeJ+xpCHEhC1WaItu4IpgsSF3K/njEUP fKQg==X-Gm-Message-State:AElRT7E13Lj+ZsH7Iwp49oN4SuJXypDmcl7cRJRzEWWZdo7taXB3ZhlP TdhYxhUJaD6AHJV86UvJtadlZFLKrpIqgrsqy6s=X-Received:by 10.200.34.1 with SMTP id o1mr20747217qto.103.1520211554058; Sun, 04 Mar 2018 16:59:14 -0800 (PST)MIME-version:1.0Received:by 10.200.23.212 with HTTP; Sun, 4 Mar 2018 16:59:13 -0800 (PST)From:benjamin Williams <[email protected]>Date:Mon, 05 Mar 2018 01:59:13 +0100Message-id:<CAMszy+DvzK1ULVYtU=rgsBDAxqzi7=iHLRJ5L9W_hgqa0iu7MQ@mail.gmail.com>Subject:HiTo:Content-type:multipart/alternative; boundary=001a11406d7ea9c73405669fd5d6x-icloud-spam-score:3331331 f=gmail.com;e=gmail.com;is=yes;ir=no;spf=pass;dkim=pass;dmarc=pass/none/none;gdwl=absent;pps=ham;clxs=ham;clxw=neutralX-CLX-Spam:falseX-CLX-UnSpecialScore:NoneX-CLX-Score:139X-CLX-UShades:NoneX-CLX-Shades:NoneX-MANTSH:1TEIXWlwZGVoaGkNHB0tNT0ReQ0QeGRofEQpMQxcbHQQbHhgEGxMfBBkYEBseGh8 aEQpMWRcbGRMRCllNF2RFRE8RCllJFxpxGhAadwYbGxNxGx8eEBJ3BhgaBhoRClleF2treREKQ 04XRHBQU3NSfWd/G19eZmZIY0lrYWNhHn9mU0MefR8SGEYRClhcFxkEGgQZGAdNGU4TTxMZGAU bHQQbHhgEGxMSBBkSEBseGh8aEQpeWRd4GkBYAREKTVwXBx8bEQpMWhdoaU1daxEKTU4XaWsRC kNaFxgaEwQSHwQYGxwEGxIaEQpCXhcbEQpCXBcbEQpeThcbEQpCSxdjU2NrexNYfhpfXhEKQkU XZ1hbT3pMRkEBcn8RCkJOF2NTY2t7E1h+Gl9eEQpCTBdjbWZaW2VzYmISZBEKQmwXa2BJW0ZAc 0dYSWMRCkJAF2hbHX54HRlPZ0ljEQpCWBdlclhdchJFWn9GXxEKTV4XGxEKcGgXYG59fWYde3h Pe08QGRoRCnBsF2IBcgF7eEdQchxPEBkaEQptfhcbEQpYTRdLEQ==x-dmarc-info:pass=pass; dmarc-policy=none; s=r1; d=r1x-dmarc-policy:v=DMARC1; p=none; sp=quarantine; rua=mailto:[email protected]:AG47ELs42jl9+YomYtItJEuYGKtRcQWb7gAes+K5CBBr7OmObeXb4aPU3UAwQnB5JFpf6Pxavjj8puentOKpJ/mogJM=
Last edited by astrangerheart on Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:42 am, edited 2 times in total.
#358987 by AlanJones Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:39 am
I've removed the unwatermarked images - I will re-post them for you in a while.

He shows all the classic signs of being a scammer - he is using a VoIP number, not a mobile. His job of "contractor" is designed to allow him to have to go overseas and have an emergency and his claim of being mixed nationality will be used to excuse his strange accent.

Please do not tell scammers that they are listed here - it will take them seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be listed for any future victims to find.
#358988 by AlanJones Mon Mar 19, 2018 12:43 am
Image Image Image Image Image

Please do not tell scammers that they are listed here - it will take them seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be listed for any future victims to find.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 67 guests