User:Ericmurrell87/My Scammer Story

Early last year on (February 17 2015), I was on Facebook and received a friend request from a girl. I accepted and it was a descion, I would regret for over a year. Her profile said her name was "Theodore Swan". Now, I would like to point out, that a lot of people would find that weird for a girl to be named "Theodore". It is a little strange but we live in a world where people name there children odd things sometimes and I actually did go to school with a girl named Theodore and everybody called her "Theo". Which is why i accepted the girls friend request, I thought it was the same one I went to school with. Now to get back to the story.... She said her name was Theodore and she lived in Long Beach, California, but was in Tennessee taking care of her sick uncle and was working for "AVON as a Pro make-up Artist & supply contractor for the company department". In the beginning we talked and she was very sweet or I should say "THIS PERSON" was very sweet. So much, in fact that even though we had just met online, we would talk for hours and sometimes day and night and we connected very well. So that quickly grew into more than just a friendship and soon after we officially started an online relationship. A week weeks later we made plans to meet for the first time. The plan we made was for her to drive here to where I live in Ohio from her "Supposed" uncles house in Nashville and she asked me if I would send her gas money. And she requested for it to be, only sent through "Western Union". I agreed and sent her $78 the very next morning which is also the day we planned for her to leave. After I sent the money early that morning I confirmed the pick up and Oddly I didn't hear anything from her the rest of the day, until later that evening. She messaged me and said she was sorry but she couldn't come and see me because "SHE JUST RECEIVED A ONCE IN A LIFETIME JOB OPPURTUNITY TO GO WORK AT A NEWLY BUILT COSMETIC AND HAIR STYLIST SHOP IN LAGOS NIGERIA FOR AVON". At the time I didn't have a reason to not believe her and I was very happy that she got this "Supposed" opportunity and I agreed that she should definently go, and she also said it would only be for a short period of time. "Probably" a few weeks and she would have to leave the next day to catch the plane. So a few days later she messages me on Facebook and says she Arrived successfully but there was a problem. She needed money because AVON wasn't going to pay her or her fellow employees weekly, bi-weekly or monthly or Provide any way for them to get their basic needs of food, clothes ETC..... and they would have to rely on family back home for resources. And she had told me previously that she had no family Alive except her sick uncle back in Tennessee "SUPPOSEDLY" so I was the only one she could have help her weekly. I had a pretty descent paying job at the time, so I agreed to help out as much as I could because, I didn't want "MY GIRLFRIEND" being in a foreign country and not having what she needed....  "I have to add also though, at that time I never had a reason to doubt or disbelieve her. I truly did believe everything THEY told me". Everything was good and fine and every week on payday I sent her money through western union right after work. And then, over a short period of time on payday it went from me sending her small amounts to her specifically asking for Larger amounts. Sometimes $500 and sometimes $1,000 or more, depending on what hours i was getting at work. And everytime she asked for these specific amounts she always had some kind of excuse, usually the same things like she needed "clothes or special clothes for work events or she needed a new make-up kit and other supplies or there was always some catastrophe at work or at her apartment or the church she attended needed major donations or they was gonna close down." Oh and she also told me once, she was supposedly a Catholic Virgin to I might add....  So, this continued for a few months and there was days that I went without food and the things i needed from helping this person, and i told them this many times, but i was so caught up in them and they had me believing that if they didn't have these things for work, AVON would fire her immediately without a way back to the states and no compensation at all. And I must also add she told me that "AVON promised her a large sum of money" in a contract before she left Tennessee. So i decided to tough it out until i could discover a financial change some how. Around the middle of last year she told me that AVON was gonna have renovations done and there would be work for a few weeks and we made plans for het to come back to the US and we could finally meet and plan our life together.... But she of course didn't have any money And wanted me to send her $2500 for a plane ticket. I didn't have that, so i went to my bank and got a loan and then sent it to her through Western Union. After i sent the money i waited for confirmation that she picked it up and oddly i didn't hear anything from her for 3 days and one night she messages me finally after me being Concerned and pissed off, She tells me that" SHE WAS ROBBED BY 2 ARMED GUNMEN ON HER WAY TO THE AIRPORT, THEY GOT IN HER TAXI AFTER STOPPING IT AND ONLY ROBBED HER NOBODY ELSE." Honestly i didn't believe her about that what so ever. I didn't know what to believe, i was very confused, because i never had a reason to not believe her. I just knew for sure i was pissed off and i then had to deal with a loan with nothing to show for it. One day she messaged me and asked an odd question.... She asked if she could "get my home address and give it to her work friend and then her work friend would send my information to her husband in America so he could send money through Western Union to my name and then I would resend the money to her friend there in Lagos". I agreed but only for that one time because I didn't want people I didn't know getting my information. I agreed and did this foolishly I must admit. Because ONE time of me doing that for them turned into, many, many more times, eventhough i asked them not to do that. And they said "i was the only one who was helping them and if i didn't they would Starve!" Well i felt lower than dirt and i continued to help them.... Soon after it turned from just being them to many more others that they supposedly worked with. The Senders of the money was Usually always from the US and the receivers was always either from Lagos Nigeria or Abuja Nigeria. And the information of the senders and receivers was always sent to me through her, my supposed "Girlfriend" but by then had turned to her being my "Fiancée" because she said she wanted to marry me when she got back to the States. I look back at that now and realize is was just another way to manipulate me into helping them and make me feel bad if i couldn't do something. I guess a sort of something more to look forward to. "In the beginning they only wanted me to use Western Union but shortly after a period of time, they wanted to strictly only use Money Gram." I don't remember all of the names, but i do remember 2 of them, mainly because they was the ones who supposedly asked her to ask for my help the most. Her supposed work friend AMINAH SMITH and a guy they supposedly worked with MAYOWA ABASS. And also i remember them quite well because soon after they switched to only wanting all funds to be sent through Money Gram, I went to try and do the usual for them and Money Gram told me i could no longer send money to those names. I now know though that all of those senders from the US are Victims to. Anyways, THIS WENT ON FOR SEVERAL MORE MONTHS. And then one day my search for that better Financial search payed off and i received a job offer from a better paying job. And after i accepted the job opportunity i told her about it. Oddly enough i never received another message asking me to help them receive money. I was happy about that and at the same time i honestly felt uneasy in a way because it had always struck me as pretty damn suspicious as to "why people living in the United States couldn't send money to Lagos and Abuja Nigeria just like i had been for nearly a year?" Everything was great and alot easier at my new job, work wise and Financially and i enjoyed it alot. I had been working there for a few more months and one day a few days before Christmas I get a message from Theodore and she said that she had just been notified by her boss that her time in Nigeria was up.... and they payed her $166,000 for time and work. there. I was ecstatic and happy at that foolishly believing we would have all that money plus her finally being back in the US and home with me and we would finally meet. But there was a problem. She said that they had put all the money on a "WALMART BLUEBIRD CARD" and there wasn't any Walmarts in Nigeria at all and she couldn't retrieve the money in any way and AVON wasn't going to pay for her plane ticket home. So she asked me if i could get the money for her ticket and send it to her. I agreed and had to convince my dad to help me with another loan through the bank and the bank put up our home as collateral. So i sent the money and a few days later on Christmas day she messages me and tells me that she is sorry but she "decided to go to Tennessee to be with her sick uncle instead" and there was a MAJOR PROBLEM! She tried to get the card working and nothing would happen. But she thought of A solution.....MIRACOUSLY.... She said that she had a "WORK FRIEND" named FRANK DEEGAN back in Nigeria who could fix the problem. So she supposedly sent the card to that guy and He called me a few days later saying he couldn't get the card working, but if he could get to NEW YORK he could go to the main office and fix the cards connection from there. But he would need $1500 plus extra for food. I didn't have that much money, but i also stupidly thought everything they told me was genuine and i truly thought we was that close to having that money. So i had to convince my dad once again to help me get another loan from the bank. And i sent all the money to him in Nigeria. A few days later he calls me and says Everything At AVON went great and all he needed was for me Text Theodore "but by then had switched her name to MERCY" all my banking details and everything would be sent, into my savings account. I texted her all my savings information and the very next day i got an email from a person calling their self "BOB AT AVON" saying that if i would kindly confirm all my banking details then they would wire the money into my account shortly. I sent a return email and waited for a reply.... I didn't here anything from any of "THEM" until the next night. And MERCY messages me and says she had been crying, because Frank and Bob told her they wasn't going to transfer the money unless we payed them $15,000 of the money we was supposed to receive and they wanted $10,000 of it right then or they wasn't going to send the money at all. I had no choice but to tell her that i simply couldn't that, i didn't have that amount of money and i couldn't get that because me and my dad had already gone into debt. After i messaged her that, i strangely never heard anything from "Frank Deegan" or "BOB AT AVON" again. And the only thing MERCY said was "WELL IT LOOKS LIKE WE JUST ARNT GETTING THE MONEY.... AND IM SURE YOU REALLY DIDNT MEAN TO FAIL US!!!" Im not gonna lie, I was pissed off. I was absolutely livid. And i realized how much of a fool i had been to believe that Frank guy. But admittingly i was stupid also because i still idiotically believed her, but never the less i was pissed off at everything that had happened. And i thought and searched the internet and i seen this add for GOOGLE REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH and i decided to reverse search the pictures she had sent me before. And once i did i got a few hits on it and I noticed they was all "Porn Sites". And i clicked on the first one and BAAAAM there was the pictures she had sent me. And they was of PORN STAR "HONEYS BUNS". My heart sank and my knees started shaking. I had then realized just how stupid and foolish and Blind i had been From The very Beginning!!!. As soon as i learned the truth i messaged and confronted her about them. After i seen that THEY had seen my messages, i didn't get no reply until later that night. And eventually she did reply to me and said That she had done Porn Photo Shoots before, but didn't want to tell because she had a romantic attachment to me and didn't want to lose me. I honestly didn't believe her and new it was all BULLSHIT!!! Because i realized everything she had told me before suddenly made no sense considering everything she had told me. And this person had called me before and had a strong Foreign Accent. But i was stupid and foolish at that time. So i once again asked her who she really was and made it clear that i didn't believe anything she had told me. So she told me "Supposedly the Truth". That her name was Mercy Theodore Swan. But by that time had changed it back to "Theodore". And she said she was really from Long Beach California and was really living with her uncle in Tennessee and did work for AVON. But moved to Lagos, Nigeria for work. And Has since then sent me pictures of a African Girl. And after i asked her some more questions she said "I DONT UNDERSTAND THIS SITUATION OR WHY YOU DONT BELIEVE ME". And has since blocked me. STILL TO THIS DAY I HAVE NEVER HEARD FROM THEODORE SWAN, FRANK DEEGAN, AMINAH SMITH OR MAYOWA ABASS AGAIN..........                                                                                                                                                                     All i have left now to take away from all of this, is multiple loans of thousands dollars and the struggle to pay it all back to my bank and a hard lesson learned in Trust and why no one should ever send anything to anyone they have never met and the real dangers of online scamming. (My advice that i give to you is this.... Never think it can never happen to you. Scammers are sly and try everything they can to try and make you believe their lies. Never trust someone you've never met and never send anything, money, pictures or your personal information to anyone that you don't know personally. The dangers are real people and scammers are becoming more advanced and so are their capabilities.) So if that person that you've always dreamed about suddenly messages you and wants to be friends, be cautious. They just may not be, who they say they are.