Errorflynn,

Wow!!! What a story. I am glad that it somehow had a happy-ish ending for you. It certainly could have been worse, I think.

I've been touting off about dating scams on this website for a long time, and was upset when they shut down the forum for being "inappropriate." You resurrected the need for it.

That is a frightening statistic about 2 men on each and every plane, but likely it is higher than that.

Thank you very much for sharing. I plan on linking your story to my recent blog.

Barb

Thanks for your posting.

i was wanting to no, that the pic that the men show of themselves young and fit, one i was talking to was very light skinned and he said he wanted me to come to ghana, accra, i asked for a address and he gave me p.o. box, and he says he is a us citizen and with flght and visa and passport for him and his child the cost is 4500 and he has paid 3800 and needs my help with a 1000 help

If he is a US citizen, he doesn't need a visa to get back to US. A r/t trip flight for an adult is about $1200, for a kid it's 75% of that. With more than $3000 that he claims he has, he should have been back in the US already. He is lying.

Barb

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for this info! I have been targeted many times on Black Planet by women who claim they want to chat and after a few minutes they begin telling you that they love...next it's send me some money. It is a big game to fleece the men who surf dating sites and other social networks! Men Beware!

mvapeanut1

i think this is happening to me as we speak....

i love to chat and surf the net....which often times includes dating and(other) sites....

within 2 days the gal in ghana was(is) in love with me...

I am not an unseasoned traveler or internet user...

I am sort of going along with the flow...she asked for my full name, which I did not give, but, I probably made the mistake of giving her my business' website...

she says she is Aussie and her mom is from Ghana and thats why she is there...incidentally...she said she recently lost her job, in the families, GOLD business...how curious...

more to follow....

Glad to hear that your antennae is up on the Aussie chick. Why don't you string her along for a while and keep her busy -- the longer she thinks she's got you "hooked" the less chance she'll pull in some poor, uninformed, misguided sucker, er, soul. ;-)

Barb

Just tonight I was almost scammed by a "Rubben Dellings" - rubb.dellings@gmail.com - whom I met through eHarmony. I was suspicious from the start but every objection I raised he seemed to surmount. I could find nothing indicating he was a scammer on the internet. He posed as a native of Germany which was an excellent cover for his poor grammar. He seemed in such a big hurry to build an attachment that I nicknamed him "Monsieur Lu-uhve" when I spoke of him to my friends, but eventually I became convinced that he truly cared for me.

That is, until this "international contractor" damaged his laptop and needed me to send him an HP Pavilion dv 6500. The PO Box he gave me to send it to is one for that looks like a list of contractors for a ministry:

P.O.Box OS 1529 OSU ACCRA GHANA

WEST AFRICA. I can only imagine they'll be as displeased as the office of immigration.

He named "Solomon Nutakor" as his supposed assistant, and had given me the phone number (209) 487-0928 in hopes of getting my phone number from me. I called him while we were online chatting and he said, "u calling," so for some reason he gave the correct phone number. I give you these details to alert you, if you are in contact. I have given them to the FBI and want to get them to the US Consulate in Accra and the Ghanaian police, if I can figure out how.

In our internet communications, I sometimes got the impression he'd forgotten what he'd told me. Looking back, I can see some lessons to be shared. Here are some signs that you are talking to a scammer:

1) Their reply to your e-mail gives no indication they've understood what you just said. Don't excuse their poor command of the English language; assume that, at best, they are not able to communicate well enough with you for them to get to know you or for you to get to know them or that, at worst, they are scammers. Either way, not a good candidate for a meaningful relationship.

2) The more torrid their professions of love, the less likely they are true. Don't bother calling them on their exaggerated or hurried exclamations of love, they'll just repeat them until you believe them. Any human being, if they hear something repeated enough, begins to believe it's true. You don't need to be looking back asking yourself how you, a smart person, could be so dumb.

3) Don't count on the dating service's security measures. One scammer from months ago (whom I had the good fortune to avoid because at that point I believed internet chatting was for sneaky people) had his identity verified by the dating service to brand him as legitimate. How that happened, I don't know.

4) If their dating profile or match is suddenly closed without explanation, don't ask them about it.

I did, and he said it was because he'd already met the love of his life (yes, me) and he didn't need it anymore. Someone else has probably already complained.

I was once contacted by a man who claimed to be a contractor from the states working for a few months in Nigeria. He says his name Is Micheal Christopher and said his wife died 5 years earlier in an automobile accident and that he was left to raise his 10 year old daughter on his own. He has multiple pages on mysapce, myyearbook, facebook and hoverspot.

As my own husband had been killed in an auto accident 6 months earlier I was leary and began to ask questions of him. His story was just too much like my own. I gave him my yahoo ID so we could chat but no other personal info. One night he contacted me asking about me...all things I had answered in the past although vague about the details. This time I gave him false info, changed my name, age, number of children, state I lived in, etc and found out he was a scam artist. This time he told me he was divorced form his wife. I tols him he was a liar and told him not to contact me again. 5 months later he contacted me again and I just told him to leave me alone...He said ok.

I have since met a nice, honest, sincere man in Ghana. He has not asked for any money or gifts. He talks to me on my webcam. He sends me gifts to my po box. And one day I am going to go there on vacation. I am taking a friend along so that I will not be alone and vulnerable to a potential scam artist. So although there are creeps and scam artists out there I think you can find true, honest people as well. Good luck to those of you looking to make new friends. Just be careful. Ask a lot of questions and trust your gut instincts. Don't give out your personal info. And if something seems fishy it probably is. You can find new friends and have fun too. Just be safe and smart about it.

J K-Lewis

ok i need to know i have a girlfriend in Ghana . She says we need a marrage certifacit in order for her to go thru immagrations here in the states . they are telling me it cost $4.000 can you tell me anything about this i have been talking to her now for four mounth now . we plane on getting married her flight has been delayed four times now it cost me $150 each time. now they are telling me no more delays . but we dont have the paper work we need . oh yes she was born in the USA her mother took her to Ghana whin she was four years old is she a us citizen and if so what rights does she have . thank you