Facebook "Love" for money scam...

by Sarah
(Canada)

A friend of mine was contacted via facebook by a man claiming to be a Italian man living in Scotland, looking for love. He was very charming and quickly started talking about being together and how much he loved her. He would call her and chat, grooming her, telling her he was a widow and father of a 10 year old daughter.

After a month of so of chatting and calls, he claimed he was going to Malaysia for business (he told her he owed his own business based in Scotland). Everything seemed fine, the chatting continued and so did the sweet words he would tell her.

Suddenly he started complaining about having no money (stating he couldn't gain access to the vast amount of money he had in his bank account because Malaysia didn't have his bank). At first he just asked for a small amount, a couple hundred dollars, to help feed his daughter and get him through until he could get access to his banking. By this time she was smitten and agreed to send him the money through Western Union.

He started needing more money for living and such then asked for money for plane tickets to come stay with her in Canada. He claimed it was very rough in Malaysia and the locals were out to hurt him and his daughter, made it sound dire that he leave... all the while claiming to pay her back as soon as he arrived in Canada.

He called her the day he was to leave and come to Canada, claiming him and his daughter had been beaten and mugged on the way to the airport and they were in the hospital. He made it very convincing, even having another person call claiming to be a Doctor. These calls went on for a couple days, both from him and from his "doctor", until he was "better" and able to leave the hospital. He then asked for money AGAIN to replace the tickets she had purchased earlier.

She sent the money Western Union, again, and when it was time for him and his daughter to come he suddenly had problems with customs. Seems every time he was to come to her something costly happened that he needed more and more money. He scammed my poor friend out of thousands of dollars and broke her heart.

Please don't fall for this! If someone contacts you on Facebook and you don't know them, be very careful!