Topic : 11/23 Love Scams?

THE EMAIL SHOWN BELOW ARRIVED COMPLETE WITH ALL THE PAYPAL LOGOS & TRIMMINGS - ALTHOUGH IT APPEARS TO BE A LEGITIMATE REQUEST FROM PAYPAL THIS EMAIL IS A FAKE!!!

 

THIS EMAIL IS ACTUALLY FROM ANOTHER CON-ARTIST TRYING TO OBTAIN ACCESS TO YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION WHICH STORES YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT AND VARIOUS CREDIT CARD NUMBERS WHICH YOU HAVE REGISTERED ON YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT.

 

PLEASE NOTE:  ALL "PHISHING" AND IDENTITY THEFT TYPE EMAILS SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION FRAUD DEPARTMENT AT:  SPAM@UCE.GOV 

 

 

 

Notification of Limited Account Access

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently noticed the following issue on your account:

Unusual account activity has made it necessary to limit sensitive account features until additional verification information can be collected.

We have been notified that your account has been compromised, or that there were additional problems with your acccount.

Case ID Number: PP-071-362-996
 

Click here to verify your account

Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.


If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporary suspend your account.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department.

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, update your preferences here

 

 

Highlight, cut & paste the following "Federal Trade Commission for the Consumer" web links into the address field in your browser - then save to your Favorites menu for future reference.

 

 

HOW TO REPORT VARIOUS TYPES OF INTERNET FRAUD FOR INVESTIGATION:

 

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm 

 

 

 

HOW TO REPORT VARIOUS TYPES OF IDENTITY THEFT FOR INVESTIGATION: 

 

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft// 

 

 

HOW TO REPORT CHECK OVERPAYMENT FRAUD (SELLER BEWARE)  FOR INVESTIGATION:

 

If you think you’ve been targeted by a check overpayment scam, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). For more information on buying or selling via an Internet auction site, visit www.ftc.gov/onlineshopping.

 

 

Hope it helps!

 

The Federal Trade Commission is very committed to investigating internet fraud.  Because your brother's penpal Chelsea is using the internet for her scamming, I encourage you to use the contact information below for assistance in finding the correct department that can help you:  

 

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them.

 

To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261.

 

The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

 

Hope it helps!

I was very intrigued by the show as a I received a very similar message from a man in Africa the very same day I watched the show.  I saw the same Yahoo IM background that he had suddenly decided to use for our corrospondence was the same as that shown in the clip and a story about being a widow raising a 9 year old on his own. The initial contact came via MySpace. When I reviewed the profile all the "friends" were single women in the mid 40 thru early 50's. I immediately told my kids (adults) about this guy and how stupid he was to think I would fall for his crap. I had already caught him in a bunch of lies and my questions were getting very vauge replies. In the past few days he has had his "son" emailing me with pleas of PlayStations and other expensive items for Christmas. I don't usually respond to his IMs but last night I asked him to send me a photo of himself and his son together==guess what--None but he did send an "updated" picture of himself. Same one he sent DeeDee! The picture of the kid he sent was from an advertisment for Adderall that I had seen at work.

 

I was thinking I should send him the link to Dr. Phil's show!

 i was a recent victim as well. Met him through yahoo personals..we seemed to fall inlove almost instantly,or so i thought. it wasn't long into the relationship he had been robbed?? he neede money to get home, He would never answer any questions about himself or him home or his business he supposedly owned.After awhile my family and i sent hime money for what was suppose to be for his mothers funeral and his plane fare home,what a load of bull. We are out almost $6,000.00 because of this man and my phone was shut off. How can i enjoy the holidays now? this just happened about 3 weeks ago and the f.b.i and everyone says there is nothing that can be done to catch this man, i refuse to beleive that. If you have any advise i'd love to hear it. god bless!

I met 'him' on line. he said he was a widower, his daughter convinced him to join and he was ready to quit when he saw my picture.  I was very careful at first , his english was good, he said he was from England but moved to NH for his wife's family.  His daugther was in England going to school. We chatted for 3 weeks. He said he was an artist, and wanted to meet. made plans to meet in town at an art museum. Switched cell numbers, he nver showed, I gave him the wrong number, but when i tried his number , generic voice messge. He was getting ready to go on a n exhibition to Paris the next day, so I thought he was so busy. Wrote himoff. Then he im two days later apologizing and to make a long story short he sent me flowers , two dozen roses, chocolates and a stuffed animal. A little much, but thought he was really sorry. we chatted about different things, he even called me and left a message on my home ;phone number. He was supposed to come home and he emailed me tellingme the job he was on was not done because of a special "instrument' that he needed to complete a picture.  Here he was in Paris, and had to order from Sweden a special oil?   then the grammar changed. I noticed the nouns were Capitalized, the adverbs in the wrong places and simple words were getting mispelled.

I did the following:

Checked his cell phone number- they can get local numbers that allow them to get messages to their computors anywhere in the world through NETZERO

He sentme a song- googled that one, and found it to be a Nigerian singer named Paul Play.

He said his daughter wasn't coming home till the day he was coming home, changing international flights so fast? 

Checked his name in NH, called the number at the address he gaveme, and found a male american voice on machine. left him a message regarding the scam as a warning.

Clues that are so easy to pick up now that I can look back.  I live in a wealthy community, so he thought that a little show of money, ie the flowers would keep me on track. 

told him I was on to him, that we recorded the voice , had numbers etc. He responded, well it is over so good bye. One of the things that stood out was the fact that when i would ask him a question, stating that my friends encouraged me to question everything, he told me that my friends were jealous because I had a boyfriend.. A boyfriend, and I havent' even met him.  And told me over and over, that "men don't like women who put their friends first over their man". God, they are so stupid, and we have to be very clever and sharp.  Wake up, ask many questions, and find out who they know, and who knows them.

 

 

I have the photo saved, would like to share it so others can beware..Can someone let me know how to post it? thanks

Update to my other post...I have totally disassociated myself with these men.  One tried to get me involved in a cashing money orders scheme.  I have now blocked him and the other one, who was out after cyber sex, from my list...By the way, DR Phil, if you read this, I so agree that cyber sex is the dumbest thing I ever heard of, and perverted, in my opinion!!!!

I had this to happen to me just a few weeks ago...a guy who I met through Yahoo personals sent me an IM saying he needed to talk to me.  He wanted me to cash a payroll check $3700 and send it to him via western union.  He kept wanting my home address so he could have the check sent to me.  I refused to give him home address but told him to send it to a PO Box.  He said he didn't think it was safe to send to a PO Box.  Then he told me to keep $250. for myself and send him the rest.  I DID NOT DO THIS.  Then just a couple of days ago, he contacted me again and wanted me to loan him $250. I told him to send me the information to my email address which he did.  I had a friend to check out his email address and he told me is was from Nigeria.  I knew the guy was trying to scam me especially when he said he knew by looking at my pic and profile that he could trust me and that I was the only one in the United States that could help him get his money so he could come home.  He gave me a companys name in England that he supposedly worked for but, I couldn't find the company when I done a search for it.  His profile said he was from Calif. and that he was in the "militery" and showed a picture of a white haired guy in army fatigues and said he was 50 and retired.   The last contact I had with him when he "told" me to loan him money I asked him "who the hell he thought he was" asking me for money.   Haven't talked to him since.