Online dating scam
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Melanie Hamer was in the midst of a divorce, with two children when she set out to escape from her loneliness. Like millions of people, she signed up to an online dating site hoping to find someone special.
Shortly after her details appeared on the site Melanie was contacted by an American man who called himself Bendon Jones. He said he was about to move to the UK, and like Melanie, was also a single parent. At first, Bendon was the perfect gentleman; suave, intelligent and romantic. After several weeks of emailing they began to speak on the phone, several times a day. To the recently single Melanie, it was a thrill to finally meet someone who seemed attractive, interested and keen on her too.
But after a while the relationship changed; Melanie received a text message from Bendon's son, asking for a birthday present. Melanie refused but felt guilty, a feeling compounded when Bendon rang to tell her his son had been taken ill and was in hospital. Instead of coming to the UK, he'd now have to travel to Nigeria, where he said his son was at boarding school, to be at his bedside.
Over the next two months, during countless conversations Bendon manipulated Melanie into sending him money; for his son, for medical bills, for presents and ultimately for his flight tickets to join her in the UK. In total, Melanie estimates she could have sent him as much as £10,000. Money she could little afford.
Bendon insisted he'd pay all of it back when he got to the UK, but Melanie realised she had fallen for the wrong man. Far from being the perfect gentleman, Bendon Jones was in fact the figment of a Nigerian conman's imagination. Former Metropolitan Police Officer Tom Craig is an expert in fraud. He says whilst you might think you'd never fall for such a con, it can happen all too easily. He told us: "Take it from me - anybody that falls for these scams that we've dealt with has not been stupid. We are talking about lawyers, bankers, self-made millionaires, lots of people with lots of sense."
Melanie isn't the first person to have been taken in by an online admirer. But what made this con so sinister is what the scammers did next. Melanie contacted the official body set up by the Nigerian Government to tackle fraud like this - the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC. Just a day later she received an email from what appeared to be the head of the organisation. To Melanie, it looked very official, particularly as she'd emailed the organisation only the day before, but the email was a fake, sent by a conman.
The person behind this latest part of the con was now suggesting Melanie send more money out to Nigeria so they could catch Bendon in a sting operation. Reluctantly Melanie agreed to finance the sting. But instead of catching Bendon, she ended up giving more money to the conmen. Melanie had not only been scammed by a man she thought loved her, but also by people she thought were helping her.
Since then Melanie has been receiving several calls a day from various people trying to take money from her. Nicky Campbell confronted Bendon to try and stop these calls, but Bendon, the ever professional conman, stuck to his story, word for word. He said he loved Melanie and promised to pay all the money back when he came to the UK. He even agreed to come on Watchdog - provided, of course, we send him the money for a flight. Funnily enough, we didn't think this was such a good idea.
In a statement to Watchdog, the London based Nigerian High Commission stated that the Nigerian authorities are running a number of anti-fraud initiatives attempting to "combat the threat, which the prevalence of economic and financial crimes had engendered on Nigeria's national security and international image". The initiatives include terminating over 2,800 telephone and fax lines used in fraudulent scams, as well as the freezing of over 500 bank accounts involved in laundering the proceeds of such fraud. They also stress that it is important to exhibit due diligence when dealing with individuals and organisations and carry out "careful checks on bonafides".
We also contacted the EFCC who said they are currently investigating Melanie's case. They stress the email address used by the people impersonating the EFCC "has no link with the EFCC".
The EFCC are aware that people have been impersonating their agents and have placed adverts in the Nigerian media. Anyone who has a similar experience should check the EFCC website www.efccnigeria.org for guidance as to how to report the incident. They are also keen to stress that "the EFCC does NOT ask for money from anybody to investigate any matter". Crucially, any correspondence from the EFCC should be checked carefully. Fake emails can look very convincing and care must be taken that the email address, particularly the root address, matches that of the website. Any correspondence bearing email addresses not linked to the website should be ignored and deleted immediately and no personal details should be given in the correspondence.
Further advice for using internet dating websites:
When using internet dating sites, do not give out personal details, including personal contact details or addresses.
As soon as you receive any requests for money, be immediately vigilant, even if you have known the person for a number of weeks by that point.
Do not sen money and immediately report the person to the website.
Always remember that if a situation or person sounds too good to be true, then they probably are.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~33~RS~)
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This story highlights how many gullible people there are. I receive numerous emails regarding various banks or organisations ect wanting my bank details or money. What do I do IGNORE THEM.
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I am self-employed and have received recently a couple of emails from a girl I did some work for and she has sent me an email saying she is stranded abroad and asking for money!
I have also had a customer in the past (around 5 years ago) also Nigerian who tried to implicate me in a large-scale fraud!
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Bendon Jones is already a known scammer with multiple identities.
http://www.internet-love-scams.org/forum/photoplog/search.php
http://www.internet-love-scams.org
Is a support site for victims of online love scams
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Sure visualdarkangel, everyone knows best, eh? I don't give out my details either. However, I too lost money from someone 'who went working in Nigeria'. I didn't bother to report it to anyone, I couldn't have stood the 'know it all' 'stupid women'type comments such as yours. Lonely people are a very vulnerable group.
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Where can we report these types of spam emails and letters etc. to? Does Watchdog have an email address we can send these to, or is there some organisation where these can be passed onto to prevent others falling into the same trap (fortunately I didn't get caught out but older and vulnerable people may well do and can end up losing everything).
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I would never give someone I have never met £11,000.
I have no sympathy for her whatsoever.
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Babyduck...she wasn't a diamond trader stranded in Moscow after being mugged was she. I had that this week. Hope it was a scam...she was quite cute!
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I understand how she feels, because it also happens to me. Hope the Nigerian Authorities can do something to lessen those kind of crimes.
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scam is a popular issue now and people should not only relate it to dating,or a particular country; whatever and whoever requests for your details, no matter how seemingly harmless or minute,must be double checked particularly in this period when everyone is looking online for deals and bargains to cut spending.BEWARE, my own principle has been more of a seeing is believing issue.
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I met an "American" so called, wanting to move permanently to London, who also landed up Nigeria.
His main aim was trying to get me to open a bank account in my name, as he could not use his American bank cards in the UK, when I said that was strange, I was told that I new nothing about the banking systems. Once the account was opened I should post the debit card to an address in the UK, to Chinese person.
I told him that I suspectected something was not right, he got very annoyed.
Thank goodness it is all over.
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Currently it's estimated that 1/3 (yes 1/3) of the nigerian economy is dependent on these scams (called 419, after the section fo the nigerian penal code which outlaws them).
The Nigerian govt is complelety riddled with corruption and the economic crimes area is no exception. A number of chiefs and staff have been jailed.
Take ANY Nigerian govt claims to be doing something with a large pinch of salt. Almost all enforcement actions in the last decade have been driven by foreign goverments and 419 scams have skyrocketed since the USA FBI office in Lagos was closed.
There are nigerian mobsters operating in the UK too, including love fraudsters. Be very careful....
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This love scam is nothing new. I have seen various iterations over the years. They are good anti-419 sites out there which you can search for on Google. All i can say is be careful and use your initiative. If the guy says he is an American and then sounds like an African or if he asks for money before you even meet, then you know it is a scam.
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Tbh i dont not think my MUM is stupid or anything else you want to call her. i would love to see you go though what she has been though before th scam and not fall for some one who is kind caring loving towards you. So many people this has happened too people have been killed because all people want is some money!
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you would have to be so gullible to fall for a scam like this. Who would give money to a stranger?Its about as obvious as the nigerian car scam. Very shocking i can't believe she gave away 10 grand.
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i just feel sorry for MRS Hamer i have been in the sitaution where i saw these conmen 'spin' their pray in Nigeria.It is a common occurence in several cybercafes in Nigeria where students 'twist and turn' their tongue all to speak the black american english so that they can con their pray.As a nigerian the Nigerian Government should target the cybercafes because that is where these YAHOO-BOYS(thats what they are called in Nigeria)operate from and they realy live large after they have suceeded.Watchdog should post some of these investigations on the net so often.
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Hmmm. I wish people would get a grip and think about what's going on around them. We're warned time and again about this type of scam and more often than not the scams seem to be mixed up somehow with 'particular' countries'. I would say - don't give it if you can't afford to lose it!
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I don't think that any person who falls for these scams is stupid or gulable. unless you have experienced being in this situation then you really should'nt make assumptions that women who fall prey to to these 'scammers' are of little or no intelegence. I called a day on my 'relationship' with a Nigerian scammer as soon as I realised what was happening and that he asked for money. His story was very plauseable. dont ever belive 'it wont happen to me' it could happen to anyone. Those people that think she deserved it or was gulable are obviously very fortunate. Unless it has happened to you please dont be quick to judge!
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A person contacted me claiming to be a lady aged 32 and living in Holland. We chatted for a couple of weeks but I knew from almost the outset that I was going to be asked for money. The story was that she had a Dutch father and a Nigerian mother and that she was living in Nigeria with her sick grandmother. After a couple of weeks I was contacted by another with exactly the same story except that she showed a photo showing her to be of European appearance. It turned out these two even knew each other. Right from the beginning I knew it was a scam but the first one was playing clever & trying to get me to suggest sending money so that she could come to me. Of course the photos wouldn't have been of the real person and probably wouldn't even have been a woman. It's just a pity that there are people preying on others looking for love, even more of a pity that some people are so desparate that they fall for it. If only people would/could stop for a minute and ask themselves, how can it be love if you haven't even seen a moving picture.
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Am I missing something here?
The lady has a photograph of a caucasian individual apparently an American living in the USA.
She then speaks to the same individual who Nicky speaks to on the programme numerous times and doesn't realise he is a West African without a trace of a US accent!
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evo102 is right!
He quite obviously has a Nigerian accent and made no attempt to hide it.
I am amazed the BBC chose this case of all of them to broadcast.
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