Original contact with this person was on Zoosk.com
Queja 1863 Detalles

  • Fecha cuando ocurrió 06/27/2013
  • Daños Reportados: $40,000.00
  • !

The complaint is against an online dating profile

The complaint is a listing fraud posted on public forums or sites against an anonymous entity

The complaint is mobile text spam or smishing related against an anonymous entity

The company or person contact no longer exists

International boundaries

There is no exact single date that this occurred but this occurred over the course of several months (beginning in approximately November of 2010). I met this woman on Zoosk.com which is a dating site who goes by the name of Melony or Mel Yonah. We established contact initially through the website through which she provided an e-mail address through which to contact her ([email protected] and [email protected]). After some introductory chatting which we did on Yahoo Messenger, she expressed that she and her "mother" were living very poorly and convinced me to send her money via Western Union to help her out. This was probably the "baiting" period to see if she could completely sink her hook into me. After some time, she told me that she was in possession of a sum of gold that her father had left her as an inheritance but that it was not in her name and required a lawyer in order to have it placed into her name. This required a lawyer's fee of $2500 which I sent to her. After that, she then told me the gold was in a security company and had accumulated fees during their possession in the amount of $25000 and asked for my help in paying for it. I resisted for some time saying that I could not pay that kind of money as it was not available to me. After some time, she then said that her lawyer negotiated with the security company and cut the price in half and said that her lawyer was able to obtain $5000 (I have the e-mail that was sent to me from him about this request) and over a period of time convinced me to pay for the remaining $7500 which I did by a check from a cash management account I possess. Over the next few months, she was trying to find a way (supposedly) to make enough money in order for her to travel to the US in order to be with me (this woman lives in Accra, Ghana) and during this time I was sustaining her by sending money in the amounts ranging from $300 to $700 from time to time. She told me her plan was to ship the gold to the US for "our" mutual benefit and told me that a diplomatic courier was required and would cost $4500 which I wired to her bank account from my own. On May 1 of this year, she supposedly arrived in New York City at JFK and was detained by customs for non-payment of customs fees for the gold she was bringing with her. I was in communication with someone who called himself Jim Smith who said he was a customs administrator and said he was contacting me personally and off the record to satisfy payment of the customs fees required by the Ghana customs people. (I have e-mails from him including attachments of supposed documents sent from Ghana customs and his ID badge). I was told that the Ghana customs required $23000 of fees which over the course of several weeks (a month and a half actually) I was conned into sending to Melony's "mother" and Melony's bank account via Western Union and wire transfer. After that was satisfied, I was then told that her visa had expired and she needed a total of $1900 to take care of that which I wired to a name Melony gave me via Western Union. After that, the customs agent next wanted me to send another $700 for an airplane ticket to my place of residence and it was at that point that I called a halt to the whole thing and have not heard from these people since that time. As you can see, this was a long involved complicated process and I was asked for money for many different scenarios (different angles I guess for the same goal). Through this entire process, she professed being a Christian and assured me I would be paid back, etc etc and now I have finally been convinced that this was a very well put together con game.

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Comentarios

  • Brenda
  • Brenda SBID #N/A
  • Publicado 06/28/2013
  • Wow, that sucks. You must have really liked this girl.....she had you hooked at "Hello". Sorry for you....
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  • Rosa
  • Rosa SBID #N/A
  • Publicado 06/28/2013
  • WHAT WERE U THINKING>>>..? oh my gosh... unfortunately in your case you were a willing participant and continued to pay these sums of money to a random unkown person.. Is there even anything that can legally be done?
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  • Gregg
  • Gregg SBID #N/A
  • Publicado 06/28/2013
  • To Rosa...As to what I was thinking, I thought I was being a compassionate Christian and she apparently knew enough about Christianity to convince me that she was as well (which goes to prove how good of a con artist she was). I don't know how "willing" I was...throughout this process when I was getting more reluctant to provide funds, she'd come up with an argument that would convince me that she was sincere and honest and really was going to repay me at the end of it. It was becoming much like a gambling addiction...you'd get in so far and almost hate to quit on it part way in since you had spent so much on it already and hoped that there would be repayment of what I put into it in the end. I take comfort in knowing that I can have a clear conscience in that I was not trying to profit from a promise of lots of money at the end (I was trying to help her acquire her inheritance in order to make things better for her and her mother). As to whether anything can be done legally....probably not. My main purpose of submitting it on here was to warn others about her and this scam which was hard to convince myself to do. I have an idea of what rape victims feel like; you feel ashamed and stupid for having fallen for the con and almost hate to say anything because of what others might think of you. However, I felt it was the right thing to do to let others know she's out there and to watch out for her, her scam, and the group that works with her.
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  • Rosa
  • Rosa SBID #N/A
  • Publicado 06/29/2013
  • No punn intended gregg.. It is amazing at the amount of things people are pulling today. I almost got dragged into 2 scams over the past month.. 1 for work online and another for a loan.. It is rediculous how far advanced things have gotten..
    Even the place that i now work has mysterious callers/emailers wanting to book reservations with my cmpany in return they request that we send money to them... CRAZY..
    I wish someone would easily hand money over to me.. :) but criminals have jobs too.. best cons and criminals in the world are millionaires... billionaires even.. just by knowing how to cover their a** and when to pull the strings..
    But hey you can send some of that love money my way.. JK JK .. i really do hope that you find a way to recover the finacial burden that was played upon you...
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Resumen del Perfil de la Empresa

  • Original contact with this person was on Zoosk.com logo

EstadÌsticas de la Empresa

  • Queja Contra Original contact with this person was on Zoosk.com
  • Quejas Presentadas: 1
  • Daños Reportados: $40,000.00
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