ScamVictimsUnited.com

My gut is telling me this is a scam, but I wanted to run it by you to see if anyone has heard of this specifically. I've been frantically doing research for the past day or two, been to probably all the scam sites listed on here, and can't find anything that is exactly this guy (no photo like his) or exactly this request. Many things sound suspicious, but others don't....guess they're all like that though!

After going through the whole chemistry.com process, we started IM'ing on yahoo. This went on for about a month, but not every day, sometimes even a week would pass without hearing from him. Supposedly, he's in Nigeria, diagnosing problems with oil rigs and will be back in the States in July. Then a few days ago, he told me he needed to send someone he could trust (didn't say me) money orders to be paid to people in the States who have supplied him with parts while he is down there. That's when all the red flags began going off! He says it will cost him $100 each to mail what he needs to mail from there and $2000 in total.

I told him that I was leery and asked why he didn't have an attorney or accountant who could do that. He said he didn't have one at the moment. I also told him that I didn't want to be an unknowing accomplice to anything. As I understand it, he wants to mail me the money orders and then send them to who needs to be paid. He has mentioned nothing about my needing to deposit them to my account, my keeping any portion of the funds, or sending anything back to him. He did not get offended when I told him I wasn't sure about doing this because of scams.

His grammar is good, his spelling is fine, and he did not push the issue when I hesitated, but I do realize these guys are patient.

I've decided I'm not going to do this for him; I've never met him. And who's to say that he wouldn't accuse me of keeping the money even if I did send it to whoever he asked.

I guess I'm just wondering
-- If anyone has heard of a request like this before.
-- If I should notify any authorities (but I assume they couldn't do much)
-- If it does cost and how much to send money from Nigeria.
-- If this is a newer twist on the scams, or what?

Any opinion/advice is appreciated.

It's a scam, 100% definite. Cease all communication with this person.
Under no circumstances give this person your address, or any other information that can be used to trace you.

He wants you to be the middleman so that the other victims of his scam will receive money orders from someone in the U.S., making them look legit. Look at counterfeit check scams and you will see examples of this being the case. This could get you into trouble if you do send them on because they are fradulent money orders. The United States does not bother to prosecute those who scam from foreign countries but they may get a hair up their butts and choose you as the person who sent the money orders to go after, once they first try to get the person who would try to cash them. Run from this like it is on fire. Ignore this person and they will go away. They have personal information about you so best to just stop all communication and block them from your im. If the money orders do arrive by some chance take them to the police or burn them.

I agree with pasttired . . . he is trying to make you the middleman and you should not do it!

Here is another thread where we were just talking about the whole "middleman" connection. http://scamvictimsunited.com/phpBB2/vie ... php?t=2388