ScamVictimsUnited.com

This is regarding a possible scammer in eharmony, with a user name of Tam.

Her page is listed below.
http://www.eharmony.com/singles/servlet ... =897051442

I have been talking with her for a quite a while now, after meeting through eHarmony. Things were going well and she seemed really nice. After a few weeks, she said that she needed a little help because of financial problems and needed $300. Now, $300 was not much since I had just gotten my signing bonus. I was concerned about it being a scam, but I decided to take the chance and sent the money.

A week and a half later, she was saying that she got into an accident and needed $1960 in hospital bills before she could be discharged. I was suspicious, and asked if I could see a picture of her at the hospital, and she provided one. And it was the same person that I had seen in all of the previous pictures. I was an idiot and sent her the money. When she was in the hospital, she had me send the money to her pastor (or so she claimed), whose name was Victor Michael. Her name was Tamsin. If these names sound familiar to anyone, watch out.

Backing up a bit, she was saying all along that she lived with her Grandma and that they were getting ready to move back to the states from Nigeria, but that she had to wait on a few minor issues regarding her previous business. And, if she is a scammer, she is a good one. Because we talked about everything...and there were no major glaring issues except for the fact that her profile said that she was from CA. When I asked her about that, she said that it was where she was originally from before she moved overseas.

Now, today, she told me that she needs $565 dollars for another problem, and to send it to a Samuel David, because she will not be able to get in to pick up the money herself, so he is going to get it and take it to her. I told her that I was going to see what I could do to help her out, but I am getting to the point where I don't think this is legit, so I am not going to send anything. I did email eHarmony about it to have them check into the situation.

So now I am out about $2500, which is about 1/3 of my initial payment on my military enlistment bonus, so it sucks, but is not really a big deal. But I wanted to warn other people also, just to watch out. I will update this if eHarmony comes back.

And the hardest thing about this is that I really liked the "girl" a lot, and even got to the point where I was falling in love with "her", as much as you can without actually meeting them. I tell you, if she was a scammer, she was good...

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Well, I talked to her a little more today and plainly explained that I would not be able to send any more money for at least 2 - 3 months (kind of a stretch, but I am leaving it at that), given that she is supposed to have her business taken care of in less than a week, then be here a month after that.

She claims that it does not matter, that she will find a way to pay her bills at the storage area to get her good out, and that it should not slow her down from moving here...so I guess we will see. I guess that it is possible that she is legit and just has really bad luck, but I will remain skeptical until I see her. I am just playing along with the "I love you" stuff for now. But, if it does turn out to be true, I am sure that things will work out when we meet. But, again, I am staying on guard from here on out and won't be sending any more money.

New update:

eHarmony just got back and sent me an email saying that her account was closed for an "undisclosed" reason. I e-mailed them asking if how many people she achieved "open communication" with, and she said I was the only one. Another possibility was to check the IP to see if she had multiple accounts. So I am guessing that they found something.

I talked to her last night and explained that I could not get any more money to send right now, and would not be able to get anything for a few months. By that time, she is supposed to have her business squared away and already be moved over here, so there would be no need for any more money to be sent.

She said that a friend loaned her the $565 that she needed for yesterday and that everything went well and she would be ready to move in about a month. She said that she should not need me to send any more money. So I start to think that just maybe this is legit.

She tells me today that her "friend" was beating on her door this morning, saying that her mom had gotten sick and needed money for medications, and was demanding for her $565 back, so she needed me to send her the money. I explained, still, that I cannot send any more and she asked me if we could talk to figure out some way that she could get the money. I sent her an e-mail saying to take her US passport (which she says she has) to a bank along with an invoice of her assets, to see if she can get a small business loan of some sort. She has not responded back.

Now, I am pretty much positive this is a scam. She told me how badly she needed the money yesterday, but she got the money so easily from a friend. Then the next day she needs the money again? I really don't think so. Granted, I am kind of lying myself too, at this point, to protect myself from the scammer. I could get the money still, but am not going to because I do not think that it is legit.

So, yesterday I get tired of the games and just send an email saying that I have caught on, to stop contacting me unless she wants to return my money, and that if she returns my money, I will consider not calling the Internet Crimes bureau that eHarmony referred me too.

I told her how Nigeria is the #1 country for these scams, how it always starts with a beautiful woman, who soon needs money for internet. Then has some other bill come up that she needs money for, but promises that she has a lot of money coming in soon (in this case, $2 million in goods from her business that had been burned and her remaining merchandise placed into storage) and I went on down the list. She claims that there are people in Nigeria who do those things, but swears that she is not one of them. I explained that, until we meet, I have no way of knowing that. There is no possible way for me to know she is telling the truth. She said that she was really upset and crying and did not know what to do. I told her that if she promised me that she would not ask me for any more money, I would keep my mind open and greet her with open arms when she gets here. She kept avoiding making the promise, but I was insistent. I told her that if she made the promise, even if it took her a little longer to get moved over to the states, I would wait for her here. So she finally agreed. So we shall see. If she asks for money again, I am going to break off all contact. But, if she does keep her promise to not ask me for any more money, perhaps she is telling the truth and just has really bad luck...

So I will wait and see, for now. But I made it perfectly clear that I will not send any more money.