Nigerian dating scam

[chrisrob]

This may be rather a serious topic for this thread but didn't know where else to post it.
A friend of my wife is being drawn into a scam and she is so much "in love" that she cannot see it.
She "met" someone on line months ago who has been carefully grooming her. He said he was for Haiti and living in America. (She lives in Canada.) By the time he admitted he was actually Nigerian and living near Lagos she was hooked to the extent she has left her husband and daughter to enable her to continue her relationship.
From all we've learned from researching the net and emailing the British Embassy in Nigeria, it is following a classic pattern. The scammers target religious dating sites because they feel the women on them are more gullible. They like to find married women as they are less likely to tell anyone until it is too late.
First they use stories to try and get money sent. If they find the person has no money, they move onto other tactics. Through subterfuge they get their target's email password so they can acquire email addresses of friends and family for later use. (He told her he was having trouble with his internet connection and suggested it would be easier to use hers at an internet caf� � which she fell for!)
Then they get them to fly to Nigeria (She's going out for Christmas.) where she can be kidnapped and held to ransom from all those family and friends they have the details of.
My wife is scared for her but she won't listen saying she trusts him and God will take care of her!
What can we do?

[squarebear]

Absolute madness. This is a scam without a shadow of a doubt. For her to leave her family for this con trick is crazy.

You MUST try and persuade her not to go. Try googling Nigerian scams and show her some horror stories from people who have lost everything to these people.

[chrisrob]

Sorry. This was intended for another thread. However, my wife has sent her details of the scam including many internet links. She knows this is likely to be read by the scammers, too and she's saying she's changing her own email and not telling her friend her new one as she doesn't want to be contacted by the scammers herself.

[Barmaid]

You absolutely must try and stop her leaving. Of course it is a scam and these are dangerous people.

Unfortunately, your friend is an adult and as yet no crime has been committed so I can't see that she can physically be prevented from leaving. Unless the day before she is due to fly her passport strangely disappears..........

Check this site out http://www.419eater.com/ - someone there may be able to suggest something.

[chrisrob]

Thanks, Barmaid. Will pass that on to my wife.

[eastern]

Just read this and you have described exactly what happened on a TV programme in the UK last year, this story is virtually identical, you really MUST do something positive and by positive I mean some kind of shock treatment maybe even notifiy the authorities to see if someone can talk to her and make her realise she has been groomed. I dont know what it is in the Nigerian psyche but they are without doubt the most untrustworthy race of people on the planet, I get 10 e mails a day trying to scam money. Type 149 scam fraudster into google you will find hundereds of sites. Good luck and I hope you can help her before xmas.

[Lastmanjack]

These are all scams of 1 sort or another, unfortunatly these people are very good at their job, as this is what they do for a living, sit her down at a computer, type in the search bar "Scams" or internet scams there is a site that will come up SCAMS SCAMS SCAMs, make her read them,
if she is still stupid enough to go ahead there is nothing you can do, these are the kind of women who never go for nice guys as i can testify being single for a while now, & all the women i have wanted to have a relationship with have all had bad relationships & once out of them prceed to do it all over again with another idiot. hope this helps