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02-08-2008, 06:23 AM
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My Scam Story-Still Hoping To Find Answers!
In 2006, my worst nightmare was confirmed. I had fallen victim of a Nigerian American Gift Cheque Scam, which made my life a living hell and still does to this day.
I know how some of you must be feeling like right now. We think how could I be so stupid. These scammers are so good, that its too late by the time you even realize that you have been a victim. My story is rather long but I wish to share it with you all and maybe help in preventing other to you to fall for the same fate as me. I hope you read it all and can learn from my experience. It all started very innocently back in the summer of 2005 when I met a man called Frank Dominic on Zorpia.com. He contacted me for friendship and I accepted. Through out the last year and half, we become close friends and he was so sweet and caring. When he told me he was managing an orphanage in Nigeria, my heart went out to him as this is something that I could see myself doing. He talked about God alot and how he & the kids were blessed to have found me and how I was the perfect woman in God's eyes and that he was my protector. My sweet Angel he called me. He even helped me in not accepting a proposition I received from a woman with breast cancer who wanted to donate her 6 million $ to me to give to charities back in June. So I thought he's a good man him in helping me out of that possible scam. So yes I have been almost scammed b4 this happened. We chatted like this since 2005. In November of this year, he came to me with a proposition. He asked me if I would be willing to be responsible for the donations and cash cheques and send the money back to them and that this would make me feel good and the charity would be stronger and the orphans would benefit. I accepted without thinking twice as I trusted him. I did ask him why they cant cash them there and he made me believe that because of scams the banks wont cash travellers cheques. I received as promised 2 days later a package from UPS and in in were 5 American Express gift cheques with my name on them. $2500 in all USD. I then went to the bank to have them cashed and the tellers told me they would deposit the money into my account and would freeze my account for 5 business days. I agreed to that just to be on the safe side. 5 days later the money was unfrozen and I then went to withdraw the money and went to Western Union where I sent it back as promised. I thought to myself this went well. He received the money the same day. I actually felt good that I had done a good deed in helping those poor orphans. Frank then told me that they had received another big donation of $4500 and that they would send it to me once again. As promised, 2 days later I receive another UPS package with the cheques. On the same day I received them, I was talking with Frank and he started to ask me if I would cash cheques that his uncle had sent him for his personal use but that he needed me to send him $20 in order to have them sent to me by the UPS guy. I told him that it would have to wait until the second batch were cashed first. He then asked me if I could send half of the money to the UPS guy and gave me the name and hotmaill address and if I could send the other half to himself. I started to have red flags right there. He then gave a 2nd msn so we could talk more privately about this without the charity knowing what he was planning. I added the 2nd msn to my contact list. And I felt that I was talking to 2 different ppl. I decided to wait to cash these new cheques and made up any excuse I could and let it drag for almost 3 weeks. Well im glad I did go with my gut feeling because on December 29th I received a call from my bank telling me that 3 of the 5 cheques I cashed had been returned as counterfeit. I almost fell off my chair litterally!! I told her where I got them and what I did with the money. She asked me how I was gonna repay that back. I was in shock and in a big mess and thought how could I be so darn stupid!!! These cheques were so real that the tellers at the bank didnt even notice! I called the local RCMP and filed a complaint and while waiting for them to call me back, I then went online and saw Frank on with his new id. I automatically started to tell him off etc...as I was so mad! Then he told me that this was not Frank I was talking to. Now I was confused. He introduced himself as Dotun a former coworker of Franks and that he was the one who was talking with me posing as Frank that day he asked me to cash the cheques from his uncle to create a diversion and make me aware that something was amiss and that this 2nd id was his and not Franks. He then told me that Frank was a fake and his real name is Falade Folarin, that there was no charity and no orphans. That Frank had been using the same cyber cafe and that he had seen Frank talking with me about the cheques the day I had cashed them and that's when he knew I had been scammed. Luckily for him Frank forgot to sign out of his msn and Dotun took the opportunity to come and talk with me to try to warn me of what was going on. He gave me very good information. The name of the cyber cafe, phone numbers etc. He said to believe him and that he wants to have him brought down. If this Dotun is honest, hopefully with his help I'll be able to shut this guy out of business. But can I really trust him? For all I know he might be the one responsible and pinning the blame on Frank or they may be working together....By this time, the RCMP returned my call and I told them what happened and they referred me to Phonebusters with my file number. I called them and gave them all the information and now I am waiting for news from them as they investigate my case. I have spoken to Frank aka Falade Folarin on December 31st and played his game a bit and then told him about the cheques. He tried to smooth talk me into believing that these cheques were not a scam but sent unintentionally and that he is a victim as well..and that its the ppl who donated who scammed everyone. When I told him what I was going to do if he didnt comply, he told me he wanted to help me get my money back and needed to discuss with the other members. I sent him a copy of the cheques I scanned just so he could see that I am serious. He then came back and told me that he doesnt want to see me suffer and that they would send me back my money by tuesday or as soon as the banks reopened. I'll believe it when I see it of course. He told me that they would be able to give me back my money but through a wire transfer from the Charities Reserve Account to my bank account. OMG!! I told him that I would NOT give him my bank info and that I would only accept a transfer from Western Union. He became agitated and went offline. I have accepted the fact that I probably will never get my money back. He knows that I wont stop nor give up until justice is served. So I guess I will just have to wait and see what will happen. I have contacted the EFCC in Nigeria and hope they will assist me in investigate there. Here is some info on him: He goes by the name of Frank Roland Dominic, that he is white and from the UK. He tells that he manages 2 orphanages in Nigeria. He talks about God and his charity alot to lure people into trusting him. He used to have a profile here on Zorpia but I cant find it anymore. He may be using a different ID all together. He seems like a sweet and caring man that wouldnt hurt a fly. His real name is Falade Folarin and he conducts his business from the Kokocome Cyber Cafe in Ibadan, Nigeria. His msn id is bishopddt@hotmail.com and his yahoo ID is bishopdtt@yahoo.com (His nick there is FOBILL DESMOK). If anyone with these ID's tries to contact you, PLZ ADVISE ME IMMEDIATELY and PLZ DO NOT FALL FOR IT. AS NICE AS HE MAY SEEM. If anyone reading this can help me, or has any tips to catch this guy, I would appreciate it. I hope that my story has helped in any way. Please feel free to message me anytime and together WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Lets join together and fight!!Thanks so much for your time and yall have a great night!! Last edited by ~SeaMaiden~; 02-08-2008 at 07:51 AM. 
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02-08-2008, 07:17 AM
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SeaMaiden,
I'm sorry to have to tell you this but you were the victim of a common Nigerian scam, one that happens every day to thousands of victims across the world. Unfortunately the chances of your getting any of your money back are nil. And the chances that the scammer will ever get caught are about the same. Here's some food for thought: 1. You know nothing about the scammer other than the lies he told you in your internet conversations. You have no real identifying information on him. Trust me that he is nothing more than a con man who spends his days working in an internet cafe scamming dozens of people simultaneously. There is no way to find him. Email addresses can be created and dropped in a heartbeat...he is probably working this same scam using dozens of other email addresses. 2. The EFCC will do nothing. You have no proof of who he is. How are they going to find him? The scammers never use their real names. Any names you have are made up. So what information do you have to give the EFCC, other than untraceable email addresses (among millions of others) and fictional names? 3. The person who pretended to try to help you is almost certainly either the same scammer playing the part, or another scammer working with him - maybe even his boss in the gang. The only reason he pretended to try to help you was to win your confidence. If he'd figured out another way to get you to send money, he would have. Luckily you haven't sent any more - yet. I encourage you to DROP ALL COMMUNICATION with anyone connected with this scam. Anyone who contacts you is either the same scammer playing a different role, or one of his gang. And especially, watch out for RECOVERY SCAMS! This will come as an official looking email from some "agency" or "government official" claiming to be able to get your money back...and maybe even offering thousands of MORE dollars as "compensation". They CANNOT get your money back - it has never happened. They will simply win your trust, then begin to demand "fees" to get you your money back. Don't fall for it - no one has EVER gotten their money back from scammers once they sent it to them. Please do some internet research on "419 scams". Read all you can. You will soon see that you are one of millions of people who fell for a classic Nigerian scam. Education is what will protect you from it happening again. NOTE: I urge you to edit your post and remove your real name. NEVER post your real name on a public forum. Remember, the scammers can read this too -- and it doesn't take much to find someone based even on just the sketchy info you've posted here. Be safe. Last edited by Scam Fighter; 02-08-2008 at 07:21 AM.
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02-08-2008, 08:09 AM
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Thank you for your response Scam Fighter,
Thanks for the info and I agree with everything you said. I have long since figured all this out. Now my mission is to be an advocate in scam fighting. I may not get my money back or catch him but I wanted to post my story here to help others. He has tried to contact me again almost 1 year after the fact but I did not reply back. I know its useless and a waste of my time. He probably still works in that same two bit scammer net cafe to this day making tons of money off people like he did me. I have educated myself since then, using websites, such as this one and also created 3 groups to help educate people not to fall in the hands of scammers. You learn by your mistakes.
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02-08-2008, 09:34 AM
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Quote:
Welcome to this forum. This is the point, to learn. Your thread moved to General Scam and Spam discussions to be on top longer than the place originaly posted. You said that this story happened in 2006. and then you mention that Quote:
Are any news since then?
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02-13-2008, 10:00 PM
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Yes Mercenary, my scam happened in 2006. I was in contact with them a few months ago and still no new information on my case. Since there are so many scams floating around, it must be hard to solve these cases and yes, you do learn by your mistakes for sure. I still have not paid back the bank. They have threatened judgements against me but so far have not proceeded with anything. If they want to bring me to court, I'll fight back
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02-13-2008, 10:27 PM
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Quote:
I wish you the best but I am afraid for you. Read the following post to understand why Falling Victim To A Scam - WDTV
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03-07-2008, 09:14 PM
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3255
""~SeaMaiden~ " registered with IP 99.252.2.224 and after the last update of scam database found that is a scam Scammer Found ! (ID: 8761) IP Block 99.224.0.0 - 99.253.159.255 Country CANADA
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