SCAMPATROL

[dujy42]

My Boss is involved with some 419 scammers. She has already put out a lot of money. She is dealing with two or three of them. At the beginning, when they first contacted her, I tried to warn her. I gave her links to check out, I read articles, etc. to her. We used to be very close friends. I do the books here at the office. She has tried to keep it all from me, but I have come across documents both in the office and on the computer, and in the ledgers where she has tried to cover her tracks. I am foremost worried about her well-being and her businesses and secondly about losing my job and my friend. I don't know what to do. Has anyone got any advice?
Feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer them when I can.

Thank you,
dujy42

[Q]

Hi and welcome to SCAMPATROL!

I wish I could welcome you under better circumstances.

I'm not sure what we can advise you to do other than to talk to your boss and point her in the direction of this site. Unfortunately for your boss all the money she has sent is lost. There is no way of recovering it. This unfortunately is what keeps many victims on the hook throwing good money after bad. They just don't want to admit they've lost what they've already sent and begin to believe that if they send just one more payment everything will turn out ok and they'll get those millions. Unfortunately they are just prolonging the torture to themselves and losing even more money by doing this.

[noxy]

Is your boss the owner of the business? Is it her money she's losing? If not then you need to act fast and go to the authorities.

[jez]

As Q said, the money she has handed over is now unfortunately lost. All that can be done now is damage limitation - stop her handing over any more.

Does she have a partner in the business? If she does, would it not be prudent to tell them what is happening - after all, it's their money she is handing out as well as her own.

Do you think a warning from a third party - one not concerned about her business or her friendship - would get through to her? There are plenty of people here experienced in warning victims and we've had some good results with victims who have appeared a "lost cause" at the start.

I'm happy to get in touch with her if you think it might help. PM me her email address - please don't post it here. (To send a Personal Message, click the PM button at the bottom of this post.) You say you have access to her computer? Any information (names, email addresses) about the scammers she is in contact with would be useful. Your identity would be kept confidential, but she might realise that you are involved so you would have to consider this carefully.

Lastly, the reason she is keeping it all from you is because scammers urge "confidentiality" all the way through the process. Obviously this is to stop anyone warning the victim that they are being scammed, so don't take it too personally. Try and stay on friendly terms with her and don't be judgemental - difficult, I know! - so that she has someone to talk to if and when she needs it.

[M_Saeed_Al_Sahhaf]

Glad to see you made it over here, happy to help if we can.

[dujy42]

Thanks for all your responses. I will try to answer your questions.
Yes, she owns the business; actually she owns three businesses. One is real estate, another is paver sealing, and the other is sort of computer/real estate related. She is using the latter of the three to fund these scammers. I do the ledger posting checks written and deposits in the accounts for all three.
She has already given them a lot of money (I figure around at least 15k) and has sent them a pic of her corporation papers and her driver license and her bank account and routing numbers.
I would love it if someone could warn her. But it would have to be in a way that she would NEVER suspect me of being involved. I even have signed her up for Scambusters newsletter, using her email address, but I think she probably just deleted anything they sent. I fear losing my job if I even mention anything about scams to her again.
Once she wanted my to notorize her signature, shortly after this all started, and she only brought the signature page to me. I asked what I would be notorizing and she told me I was just witnessing her signature. I told her I felt funny about doing it that way. I asked her if she was getting us into anything we might regret later. She 'hit the roof' and said "Are you questioning my integrity?". She was mad at me for two weeks after that.
She is a very independant and headstrong businesswoman, but I feel that she has erred in her judgment here.
I just don't know if there is anything I can do. Oh, I forgot to mention, I not only work for her but she is also my landlord. So you see I have a lot at stake here and why I have to walk on eggshells.

[jez]

dujy42, that's a terrible situation to be in - you have my sympathy!

I'm sending you a PM - click the link at the top of the page to access it.

[Former Member2]

We can understand why your involment should be kept secret and will do so. But before we can help we need the details Jez has asked for. Please send them to her, or me, by private message and we will do our best for you.