My mother

by Anonymous

My mother was contacted through face book about five weeks ago by a chap who claimed to be an orthopaedic surgeon working for the United Nations in Syria. My mother told me about this and said that she had started communication with him, although he was so busy in theatre pinning and plating back together.


He had been a doctor in the Canadian army, a widower with a fifteen year old son living with his parents in Ottawa. My mother is a very unhappy lonely lady in a miserable marriage to my father who is unwell and disabled. My brother visited last week to find her like a giddy teenager, in love with this man who is called prince Bernard, who also loves her. He is now planning to leave his contract with the UN in three weeks and return to Ottawa when he will be I presume expecting my mother to join him.

I am travelling home this week, it is a five hour drive for me and meeting with my brother and mother.

My mother is aware that we both believe she is the victim of a scam, but because no money has been asked for, she is adamant that this chap is genuine.

What do I do? I would be very grateful for any help.

Comments for My mother

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Dec 19, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Really a Doctor
by: Anonymous

This guy sounds like Bryan Wilson on POF as he did the normal love immediately and wanting a mother for his son. When I sent him an article for the internet saying there are no Dr. from the UN in Syria he said thats just what the internet wants people to think.

Made a date in Miami for dinner and he didn't show with several excuses. Called him a liar but he kept sending me messages and calling me until I said I will block him.

He's back on POF and blocked me!

Sep 26, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Kim Johnson
by: Anonymous

Hi guys, I'm writing with an update on my scammer named Kim Johnson. So Kim has a friend named Martine Silas in which I think Martine is Kim. They are claiming that Kim has been arrested and needs money to bail out. I'm like OMG, they scammed me out of $3525 and yet they are being greedy asking for more.

Everyone be extremely careful with anyone stating they are nurses working for unicef in Nigeria, it is a lie. If they send you pictures and they are Crystal clear, it's not them. Check them out on Facebook, Instagram and any other social media.

It's crazy how these people will go to the extreme to take what you have. My funds I lost, I just prayed that it went towards a family in need.

Hopefully some good was done with it.

Aug 07, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
TERRIFIC! Same Story Same SCAM
by: Anonymous

Reading of you experience makes me happy to know that by sharing my unfortunate experience has ALERTED OTHER women of this SCAM. We can beat this if we all ban together. My story was the same being wife died in tragic accident, left with 14 year old daughter who is staying with nanny.

What creeps.

SO PROUD OF YOU.

You were SMART!

Aug 06, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Dr Daniel Peterson
by: Anonymous

SCAM SCAM SCAM

He had contacted me through a closed facebook account. He has one and I checked the pictures on google photos and came up with this page. SURPRISE SURPRISE, his pic is there as part of a scam.

Daughter 15 in Spain with sister now. At first she was in Texas with a nanny. Emily needs a I-tunes card in order to speak with her father????? Hello I maybe blond but not STUPID.

He is supposedly in Syria, as an Orthopedic surgeon.

Red flags were there all along yet not easy to see.

Go search for a Dr Fernando Gomez Pinto on Facebook to find your real DR.

Good luck kids I pray they catch this guy.

Apr 20, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
For "My Mother"...continued
by: Anonymous

I also asked what schools he went to. Where he did his undergrad and grad schooling. What made him go into the medical field.

He was stumped when I asked him what his GPA was when he was doing his college degrees. He didn't know what that was. I work at a university so I knew what to ask him. There were quite a few questions he could not answer...did I take heed? Oh NOOOOOOOO, I was blinded by love!

I'm the stupid one...not him...!!!!
Please help your mom to get through this. I can't wait to see if he indeed comes to meet mother.

Good Luck, you're a good son!

Apr 20, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
For "My Mother"
by: Anonymous

I forgot to mention that he didn't want me to mention our relationship to ANYONE and suggested/told me to go to HANGOUT.

I never heard of it, but I did and there we did all of our emailing/texting. He wrote the most BEAUTIFUL poems...OMG...just absolutely beautiful.
After a while, a LONG while, I figured out that he was using a book of some sort. Now, I'm an educator you'd think I'd know better.

"Mother," I was BLINDED by love!

I too checked his identification and it turned out to NOT be him and the pictures that was sent to me turned out to be a Veterinarian who resided in Canada.

Now I totally fell in love with those pictures, and yes, it was so painful. It took me a while to delete those pictures. My heart was CRUSHED. The scammers will also find someone to play the part of the daughter or son.

Now, if you're not convinced by now "Mother," then you deserve to be taken advantage of.
They even had this sort of thing, (romance scamming) on Dr. Phil.

Good Luck everyone!

Apr 19, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
It HAPPENED to ME ASLO " Mother
by: Anonymous

He also was an Orthopedic Surgeon in Syria with a 14 year old daughter staying with a caregiver in Austin, Texas.

PLEASE "Mother" don't do this to yourself. It would hurt me so much if you allowed this to happen to you. Please I'm begging you. My story is identical to your story.

We MUST band together and work at preventing this kind of SCAM to go on.

I know you must be lonely, but you'll find someone who is worthy of you and the good person that you are. I too was lonely and he lit up my life if only for a short while but I was finally able to figure him out when he then asked for $12,000 thousand dollars for the plane fare.

He said he needed the money for a private car while he was with me and money for the hotel and other expenses.

THAT $12,000 was an eye opener. I knew then it was BS. No plane fare is $12,000 dollars. I have to stop writing as I'm getting angry. PLEASE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!

He is going to or already TEAR you heart out!

Apr 19, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
WATCH MOM
by: Anonymous

I went behind my family's back and made a loan and sent the iTune cards and $5500 dollars. My family still doesn't know that this has happened to me. I'm afraid to tell my sons as they would want to look for this person and I know there is no where to find him. It would only frustrate my sons to no end to not be able to find him.

I didn't go through Western Union, I went through my bank. When I went to Western Union, they told me that I was being scammed and did I listen? NOOOOOO, so I took my money and went to my bank and sent it out. To make matters worst I sent it to a back account in Georgia.

How blinded I was by this love. THAT was a red flag, but NOOOOOO I still believed him.

PLEASE MOM, it's going to hurt you. He isn't real and he will ask for money but right now he's playing it cool. My person didn't ask for money at the beginning. He made sure I fell deeply in love with him first and then BAM! He started to ask for money.

STOP it NOW "MOM" please, I beg you!

Apr 19, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
AWARENESS: PLEASE HE IS A SCAM "MOM"
by: Anonymous

I too was contacted by an individual saying that his wife died in a fatal car accident in Austin, Texas leaving him and his daughter. He said he was working with the UN on a peace kind of mission. He was an Orthopedic Surgeon and his daughter lived in Austin TX with a caregiver.

This was all BULL. First he asked for Itune cards so I sent him then he asked for $5500 so that he could come home to me, but he had to pay the UN Vacation office. I struggled to borrow the money to send to this low-life and I'm still paying for the loan and it's been a nightmare for me but I'm handling it.

It is a loan with high interest and it will take me three years to pay it off.

PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT! This is a scam. I'm not worried about the money, I'm worried about you heart, your emotions...that is what will hurt you most. It can be VERY VERY PAINFUL! but that too will heal in time.

Please love yourself enough to end this LIE. I pray that you finally see the light.

God Bless!

Apr 05, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
My mother
by: Anonymous

Things seem to have moved on and I am now at a loss as to what to do. He has proposed marriage, and my mother is going to ask my father for a divorce.

I have made friends with him and his son on Facebook, as they are now both chatting with my mother.

He contacted me, and said he was really looking forward to meeting me as he was coming to the country soon. I asked for proof that he was genuine, his Canadian pysicians number, where he qualified, etc etc. He became rather defensive, I stated that I could not find him on the UN database of physicians in their employ, or on the Canadian physicians website.

He offered a profile of a family doctor in Canada, with his name misspelt, no picture, no details on rate md.com under the name of Bernard brown.

This is obviously a scam, and he is now telling my mother that she should not discuss anything with me. She has sent him an iTunes voucher with some music on it, as he explained that he cannot get them in syria.

I have laid all the facts, and evidence at my mothers door, offered love and support, but stated that this is 100% a scammer, but she will not listen.

I am not sure where this is going to go, and I really don't know where to turn.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Mar 27, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Thanks
by: Anonymous

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with me. I will be travelling up to my mothers house tomorrow evening after work, and it has really helped with how I handle the conversation with her.

Partly I am cross, and am having difficulty accepting that my mother, who I consider to be an intelligent women is being duped by something so blatant.

Your advice to gain as much information as possible by being kind and gentle with her is very helpful, as at the moment I really just want to shake her!! I realise this would not be helpful in this situation.

Mar 26, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
MY EXPERIENCE
by: Anonymous

Let me tell briefly how it went with my scammer. Eight months after my husband passed, I changed my marital status on Facebook from married to widowed. Not realizing that all of my profile was set at public my 'widowed' status went out to the world.

My scammer was the first friend request I received and I accepted not realizing it was because of my fb status. We began to chat and for the next month talked everyday through out various times of the day. He drew me in and I began to believe the wonderful things he was saying to me and I began to think that maybe there was hope for a relationship much like my husband and I had.

After 5 weeks of talking, sharing my life with him, sending pictures to each other, sharing day to day life with each other, morning and nighttime love poems from him and on and on, he began to become more insistent about me being available to chat with at his convenience.

I knew in the back of my mind that there was a good chance that the other shoe would hit the floor soon and it did. He was orig from Germany, lived in Calif. but was working on oil rig as a senior engineer in Louisiana so something serious went wrong on the rig and he was responsible and needed money to fix it.

He insisted that if I loved him then I would help him and he would pay me back when he came to me after the problem was fixed and he got paid for his contract. Let me say right now that I did NOT send any money.

There were many red flags but I figured most of them were because he came from Germany and things were different there so I made excuses. The red flags were: fell in love very quickly, sent me a lot of pictures including a huge diamond ring and an expensive necklace, pictures of his house in Calif, told me about his wife and young daughter being killed in an auto accident, told me about his other two children, sent me pics of children and his late wife and daughter....and the list goes on.

I would suggest getting into a casual conversation with your mother about her 'boyfriend' and just let her talk.

Listen carefully and be encouraging to get the info you need. as he will only talk to you if she feels comfortable doing so and somewhere in the conversation ask if she has a picture of him so you can see what he looks like.

Don't be judgemental because she most likely truly believes what he is saying to her and for her it feels very real. Get his name and find out how they met and when. Then start doing research for his picture or by searching for his name. Check out Scamming websites for his pictures, which is most likely a stolen pic, and for other profiles he might have.

Then, providing you find other profiles, talk to your mom and show her what you found. Offer to help her set up a live video chat with him if he is willing and if so ask him questions so you know he is real and is the man in the pics.

Mar 26, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Thank you
by: Anonymous

The comments have been really useful. My mother seems to be clinging to the fact that he has not asked for money yet. It seems so ridiculous that she is not listening to sense and has total faith in this chap. I am not sure whether he has sent any photos, as she is aware of my view about this, I fear she may not be willing to tell me.

What sort of request for money should I make her aware of??

How will this manifest itself?

Mar 25, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
RED FLAGS
by: Anonymous

My suggestion is to get all the facts of what he has said to her first. Look for the red flags of a scammer like he falls in love very quickly, sometime within hours of chatting, he has broken words in the conversation and not comprehending what she is saying in the chat and usually is widowed because of a terrible auto accident or some horrible disease.

He also usually has children that are being cared for by someone else. The biggest clue can come from pictures. If she has pictures that he has sent to her do a photo search as thats how I confirmed that the man I had been talking to had numerous profiles and was a known scammer from Nigeria.

I would be glad to do a photo search for you if you like so send photos to my email
mbaker915@netzero.net

if you would like me to do a search. The only other thing I would say is to insist that she not send money to him as never send money to someone she has never met or actually seen in person or on a lengthy video chat.

Mar 25, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Red flags
by: Anonymous

Protect your mom and educate her on how scammers work. This and many other websites and utube document and expose cat fishers. It is NOT isolated to on line dating sites. Facebook, Instagram, words with friends all have these preditors in huge numbers. Arm yourself with intelligence and education because I know first hand how they operate.

There are tbousands of collages of affluent white men being used by Nigerian cat fishers. They are smart and ultra manipulative. To someone vulnerable and needy of this attention.

The FTC has a class action law suit against Western Union as many that have lost money to
Nigerian scammers may be able to recoup
Some of the loss sustained from tbis activity.

Good luck

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Nigerian Dating Scams.