SCAMPATROL

[ladywolf]

Hi,
I am on an internet dating site called Abundant Love. I
received a very nice e-mail from a member with the ID Sydney Cole. I
answered him back and then began conversing with him on yahoo.
We had nice conversations and when he found out I worked for a wolf
sanctuary, he wanted to donate money. He asked if he could
transfer/deposit money into my account for the donation and a little
extra so that I could wire it to him in Nigeria. (He supposedly lives
in Georgia and is working in Nigeria. When I asked him about the town
he lives in, which I used to live near, he seemd to know what he was
talking about) Anyway, I contacted my bank and asked if it was safe
for him to transfer money there. They gave me the information they
said was safe, so I gave him the info and the transfer was made. He
transferred in 1,000.00 with instructions for me to keep 100.00 for
the wolves and to wire him the rest, less the western union fee. He
gave me this information to use for western union: Crowther
Olasunkanmi was the name and it went to Lagos Nigeria. The weird
thing was, when I looked at the transaction for my account online, the
name on the account the transfer came from was Bryan Jones. Now, I
have already completed all of this and we are still talking by yahoo
messenger. His ID there is sydneycole0802. This was all done on
Monday. Yesterday, he told me he had been robbed...all his money and
his cell phone were taken. He had given me his cell phone number and
he has my home phone. I have spoken with him and he has a very nice,
English accent. Ok, today...he asked me if I could lend him some
money and he would pay me back. I had already become really
suspicious by this time and told him I do not have the money to lend,
which is not a lie. He backed off without any problems, though. He
said he understood. He has been talking about flying me to Nigeria
until he comes home in 2 weeks so we can be together. He has also
talked about visiting me here in North Carolina.
I went to
the bank and worked with the branch manager on my account for
quite a while. The deposit that was made into my account, came from
the account of a Bryan Jones, who opened the account in Florida, but
lives in Missouri. The manager got the account information of Bryan
Jones and he too, is a Bank of America customer like me. The manager
went through his account and saw another 1,000.00 withdrawal which was
transferred to a lady in Florida. He also saw on her account where
she made a 800.00 withdrawal the next day. <sigh> Her account is
closed, so I think she is wise to him now. The thing is, if Sydney Cole somehow
got Bryan Jones account info and made these transfers, why is Bryan
not wise to it yet? Both of these withdrawals happened this month. I
closed my account and opened another, but what I am worried about is
if this Bryan guy was ripped off, then he will file a claim and it
might come back on me. I don't know if there is anything I can do
about it. Please help!
Deborah

[Captain Igloo]

Hi Deborah, thanks for reporting this. This sounds indeed very fishy...
We know some guys in the banking business, and i'll pass your story on to them and ask them whether they have any ideas on it.

[frazzle]

[M_Saeed_Al_Sahhaf]

ladywolf

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but what you have described is a classic scam. Unfortunately a lot of the online dating channels have been infiltrated by scammers who assume those using these services are lonely and vulnerable. They also take advantage of people's good natures and I'm afraid that a caring sensitive person like yourself fits their victim profile.

It is likely that this Bryan Jones was tricked into sending the money using an online auction scam as payment for an item or something along similar lines. You've been fooled into acting as a money launderer for the scammer to get his money clean and out of the country.

Other scams they will try and run could involve them buying goods using stolen credit cards, forged cheques or other methods and having them delivered to your address. They then ask you to mail them to Africa.

They may also send you a cheque or money order. These will be forged or stolen. They will ask you to pay them into your bank account and the cheque will appear to clear but up to 6 months later the bank will discover the fraud and demand itsmoney back.

The best advice I can offer is to speak to a lawyer and go to the police. If you're open now they will probably accept that you're an innocent in all of this. Do anything to try and conceal this and they will assume you're involved.

I would not as one poster suggested contact Bryan Jones and offering to share the loss. That may well be interpreted as guilt or an attempt at fraud. I will contact that person and suggest they remove that statement.

[mirakl]

I would agree you should go to the police and definitetely NOT offer to share the losses with Bryan.

[ladywolf]

Ok..thank you all for the advice. I really feel so stupid. I am a very trusting and caring person, I guess they saw me coming, huh. Should I go to my local police? Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.

[Murdockh]

Your .local police would be the best bet, yes. If they are able to take action, they will call in other agencies if/when needed.

-M-

[ladywolf]

Ok, I talked to the local police. They are coming out tomorrow to take my statement. I also talked to the branch manager of the bank and he checked bryan jones account today and one more transfer to someone else has come out of it. Sydney also contacted me today. He professes innocence. He tells me he has a social. haha

[frazzle]

Others have suggested that my advice was bad. That offering to cut a deal might make it look like you're a party to the fraud. They may be right, but I'm sticking with it. Below is my reasoning...

Admitting that you are a victim is not wrong. It's honest and realistic. You made an honest mistake.

But, I think you have taken a risk in sending $900 overseas to someone you never met. IMHO you've now got to be responsible and accept the consequences.

I would say the same to Bryan... I'm assuming that he has been equally risky in putting his $1000 into the bank account of a person he didn't know.

Apart from the ethical considerations I've described above, there are also pragmatic considerations.

If you try to avoid losing the $900 you sent to Nigeria and $100 donated to the wolves, you may need to defend your actions in court. There will then be lawyers' fees, probably into several hundred dollars. You may even have to pay the legal costs of the other party, which could become thousands of dollars. No matter whether you win the case, you will lose if you go to court. Courts are the happy hunting ground of lawyers -- its where they get rich. And they get rich from clients.

Play this in your mind and ask yourself what Judge Judy would say: Bryan stands up and says that he's put money into your account by accident or con. The money doesn't belong to you, even if it is in your account. Now he wants it back. What would Judge Judy say?

If you're really lucky, you might win, and not have to pay anything to Bryan, or his bank. I'd say the chances are less than 1% of that, depending on what Bryan did. Possibly, your lawyers might agree out of court with his lawyers to split the losses 50/50. 20% odds? Or you might end up being forced to repay the entire $1000 to Bryan. This is also most likely if a bank's lawyers are opposing you. 79% probability.

Even the best of these scenarios would see you lose several hundred dollars, and involve a whole lot of stress and angst and worry.

So it is best to try to get a settlement without lawyers or court cases. I think that a 'no admittance of guilt, without prejudice' offer to reimburse some of Bryan's money might achieve that.

Given all the above, I think that you should be happy if this only costs you $500

[jez]

Point taken Frazzle, but Ladywolf IS being responsible and accepting the consequences here. She needn't have gone to the bank nor the police - she could have just accepted she lost the money, felt stupid and kept quiet like some victims do - and waited until the police came looking for her.

And as yet no-one knows Bryan's full story - he could be a (albeit unwitting) money launderer for the lads, paying in their fake cheques and drawing on them for these payments. If so, he's likely to be in even more trouble than Ladywolf here!

@Ladywolf: being a trusting and caring person is NOT a crime - the only criminal here is your "friend" Sydney. Scammers are professionals - they are very good at what they do. There's no need to feel stupid - just treat it as tough learning process, and if you can talk about your experience to others then you might just stop this from happening to someone else.

[crowther]

Please lady wolf , my Name is Crowther sunkanmi and i need to be sincere here , i dont know anything about all this u have written , am not in any way involved in any scam , dont know who is Sydney cole and i cant even recollect ever using a yahoo messenger before .
please i need you to make corrections about this accussation

[mirakl]

If you look at the date of this post it was nearly a year ago, it's unlikely Ladywolf even visits here anymore.