HELP!~!~!~! I HAVE BEEN SCAMMED!

Hi guys, I NEED HELP ASAP! i have been scammed by the scammer on gumtree. Scammer using the name "DIANE LAMB" and said she was a marine engineer and wanted me to send money to her pick up agent via western union. I was very hesistant but I really wanted to get rid of my items so I trusted the scammer.
I would like to know what I can do now? or is my money in thin air? Please someone advise me and help…. I feel so stupid as my gut feeling was ringing bells left right and centre and I somehow still continued with it all.

My bad experience is as follows:

First I got an SMS stating she was interested in my item but then I asked her which item sale I was selling multple and she couldnt say and the bell in my head rang already! but I never experienced a scam before so I replied… sigh

HER: Hello,thanks so much for getting back to me..what is the condition of item and last asking price , i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now. I am buying this for a close family member as a gift. I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i dont have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payments and and how much are you giving it away for me, and if you dont have a paypal account yet, you can set one log on to http://www.paypal.com.au it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payments has been sorted, l will be waiting for your reply asap

HER: Thanks for your mail..I will proceed with the payment immediately.Kindly end the auction immediately since you have decide to sell the merchandise to me and also get back to me with your paypal details for the payment to be made and also your home address so i can forward it to my shipping agent for the pick up

HER: Hello mate,I have just made the payments now and i expect paypal to have emailed by now,check your paypal email address if you have been messaged yet, i sent $1900.00 in all including the paypal charges, paypal said they would be holding the funds because of the excess payments of $650 added meant for pick up commission fee and due to the fact that i emailed them about the excess payment i made, until they get the western union information from you,this is being delivered to my son in NZ, i will need you to send the $650 to my pick up agent Headquarters via western union money transfer(this can be done first thing tomorrow morning from the post office, as they usually have a western union agent there) or do it via western union online , i added extra $100 to cover the western union charges which shouldn't be more that $20-10 but just to be sure i added $100, Here is my pick up agent Headquarter info needed to get the money sent through western union money transfer:

Name.. Jing Shen
2 Zizhuyuan Road,
Beijing, 100089
Beijing China.

Please kindly email the necessary details to paypal :the mtcn which you will be given at the western union after the $650 has been sent as well as the sender's name and address used to send the money through western union, so that i can forward it to paypal or better still you can email it to paypal directly,that is fine with me as well for the money i sent to be credited into your account after they might have receive the information they needed to release the whole money in your account. I will need your address where it will be picked up,and my pickup agent will contact you after they have received the payments in order to book a time for the pick up to be done.

Cheers!!

ME: Hi Diane,

So sorry for the late reply. Had a long day.

I have checked my email and paypal account. There is no details of any transaction.
Which Paypal department do I send the required information to? or will they give me an address to send?

The address was in one of the previous emails. It is 29 Damon Rd, Mt. Waverley, 3149.

Well, there is still no details in my accounts just yet, so we might have to give it another day for them to process the payment.
I will let you know as soon as I see any details of the transaction on any of my accounts and like wise, if you can keep me posted on what's going on on your end that will be fantastic.


Cheers

THEN… I agreed and sent the $650.00AUD via western union and then got an email from her saying Paypal incorrectly deducted $1000.00AUD from her account and wants me to send $1000.00AUD thats when I got annoyed and started questioning.

HER: Hello Xxxxxxxxx,
PayPal has made a mistake deducting an excess money from my account,i
just checked my mail now and i found their message, they inform me
that the total amount of $2,900 was the real amount that was deducted
from my account................I asked them that you should send the
$1,000 to my shipping company address via western union, please kindly
bear with paypal as it is just a server error has indicated by
them.They should have notified me earlier with the real amount that
was deducted so that this can be sorted out even before now...I want
you to kindly get the money sent right away and get back to me as soon
as you sent the money.Hope to read back from you asap.

Thanks.

ME: Wtf?!?!?!
So what do you want me to do now????
Please what is going on??!

I don't have that much time to do this stuff... Every day I've been doing this for a week!!!! How serious do you want to buy the items?

HER: All you have to do is going and send the $1000 so that everything will be good, am dead serious because money has bee deducted from my account already, if am not serious, i wont be emailing you
thanks

You need to understand that am a very serious buyer because i like your item and i understand how stress you are and am still keeping to my promise of giving you the extral $250 , please try and understand my plight, my account has been credited already and once you send the $1000 everything will be fine and good , my picker will be at your place , please reply asap
Thanks

ME: What do u mean $1000?!!? From my pocket first again???!!!

HER: YES, BECAUSE THERE WAS ERROR IN THE INITIAL PAYMENT I MADE, SO YOU NEED TO SEND THE $1000 , SO THAT THE TRANSCATION CAN REFLECT IMEDIATELY, WE ARE ALMOST DONE WITH THIS , PLEASE LETS SEAL THIS DEAL
THANKS

and she goes on acting all innocent and stuff. But at this point I wasnt going to send anymore money but I was not 100% on whether shes genuine or not but then I told her I have contacted people in China(the address she gave me for the Western Union transfer) that they will be visiting that address and I didnt get any emails since.

Please help I have given her all my savings. I dont know what to do coz I tried to stop the transfer a few hours after as I thought there was something not right but it was too late. They had taken the money. Western Union told me to call the police but I know they cant do ANYTHING. PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!! I have no money for rent now coz of this low life scammer.

Added quotations. (BW)

@Jay-Dee,

Sorry that you had to visit here under these circumstances. The emails are from a scammer. You will not get your money back. It is best just to stop all communication with the scammer now.

You may in the future receive an email from someone promising that they can get your money back. This to will be a scam from the same scammer using a different email address, fake name and title. He will want you to pay fees to receive the fake promised money.

You can help others avoid this scammer by posting the email addresses they used including the one from the fake Paypal. Also post the phone number used for texting.

I am sorry to let you know your money is gone. There is absolutely no way to get it back. These scammers are in other countries where nobody cares about anything. Do not contact them again. ALSO BE WARNED many times FAKE law enforecement will contact you saying they will get your $$ back (for a fee) it is FAKE....if you can post the persons email/phone# who scammed you that will help other victims. I am so sorry you were scammed, but now you can feel better that it will not happen again