Assistance Desperately Needed!!

My best friend was recently e-mailed by a person, he calls himself Barry, through Myspace and they started talking. Within the first couple days this person has confessed his love and says he wants to be with her. He states he is currently working in Nigeria but will be coming home soon. He has asked her for money and she has sent it to him.

I started questioning some of this but since I am not her I don’t have much place to say what she should or shouldn’t do. I started checking out some of the stuff he has said and none of it matches. I looked on-line and low and behold his e-mail shows up on a couple scam websites. His Yahoo ID is singlebarryseekingtofindher and his e-mail addresses are [email protected] and [email protected]. He has also used the ID "singlesheart19" on several dating sites

I have pointed these things out to her but she does not fully believe me or what she has seen on-line. He states he was going to be flying back to the states yesterday but somehow his flight reservations fell through. He claimed that he could not get seats (claims he has a son) but had said last week that it was all planned out. Then he told her that he was flying out today but my friend looked up flights leaving Nigeria and there was not a plane leaving at that time. She has been in contact with somebody who claims to be a doctor and that he is making all the arrangements and that he had given the wrong information earlier. This Barry guy claims to have been robbed earlier and broke his ankle that is why he has been asking this doctor to help him out.

My friend is very strong willed and she believes this guy s real even after many lies and half-truths. She detests people who lie and yet this guy has done nothing but that; yet his sweet words and declarations of love seem to cloud it all.

I don’t want to see my friend hurt anymore but I do not know what to do to get it through to her that he is not who he says he is. I also don’t want to lose my friendship to her because she thinks I am being pushy or jealous. Please help.

At one point when my friend was ready to end this and she stopped talking to Barry she was contacted by somebody who knew him from the hospital he was supposedly staying at. The person's Yahoo ID was "lexydonproxy." Imagine my surprise when she looked his name up and was directed right to this site. That has still not deterred her from talking to Barry. When she told Barry about it he seemed genuinely surprised by this little fact. I on the other hand expected him to act that way because that would have really ended the whole thing and I know that is not something they would want.

I have a couple documents that she was given by him, however, I don't want to post them just yet.

There is no doubt that she is communicating with a scammer. 90% of these scammers, claim to be from some Western Country but always end up somewhere in Africa for work. They then fall into finanical hardship and will need help. Often the help will be in the form of fake checks, sent by someone who owes him money. She will cash the checks, send the money via Western Union (the scammers preferred method), and when the bank discovers the fraud, she will be responsible for repaying the money.

In this case, the Doctor will hold him hostage at the hospital until she sends the money needed. Of course, the robber also took everything he owns, so your friend will be asked for money to get back "home". She should send him to the American Embassy, as if he is real, they'll provide all the help he needs.

The sweet words and declarations of love are very common. These scammers are good at what they do. They first make sure the victim is in love before asking for money. Often these declarations are copied from the internet as are the pictures used by the scammers.

Please have her take a look at the following links:


http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewto ... b857c3c668

http://www.dotsilver.com/dating-scam/20 ... age-4.html

Seeker

I am so sorry .... I accidentaly edited your post when attempting to respond. Destroyed it

Please check your pm box.

Luckily my magic back button brought me back to this topic, to a point before The Seekers post was accidentally deleted, they said:

She knows about both of the sites you have mentioned and yet she still does not believe this guy could possibly be a scammer. I know she has seen them because I showed both of them to her. I even posted in the forum section of romancescam.com and one of the moderators said I should come here for help. She has suggested that he go to the Embassy, however, he refuses to; he says he doesn't want to seem like a beggar. For some reason, though, it is okay for him to ask a complete stranger for help.