Today we're going to talk about the real scammers. This actually happened to my sister.

Susan was on a dating site, I won't mention the names of the sites, when she met a seemingly honest man. He, as most do, said all the right things and it wound up getting pretty serious. He told her that he lived within 200 miles of her and they had set up a meeting the following Sunday.

The day before the meeting, Susan decided that she just couldn't make it due to her heavy schedule and called John to let him know that she had to postpone. He was very agreeable to that and went so far as to send her roses and a teddy bear and had them delivered to her at the college she attends. She was tickled that John thought so highly of her. She called him and thanked him for such lovely and romantic gifts. He told her that he couldn't wait to meet her but he had been called to Paris on business that morning. He told her that he would be back in a couple of weeks and they would get together. She was elated.

She called me right away to tell me her news of the new guy in her life and about the whole situation. I told her that she shouldn't have canceled the meeting. I had a bad feeling about him. She informed me that he was, in fact, going to show up but SHE was the one who postponed it. I tried to tell her that he wouldn't have shown up. There was something fishy about the whole thing in my opinion. She poo poo'd my warnings and continued an online relationship with John.

The relationship progressed and the words of love started popping up more and more frequently. She was totally in love with this guy who sent her gifts and talked of their future together. Two weeks came and went and still John didn't come to meet her. He kept telling her that his business was taking longer than he originally thought it would. She finally asked him what type of business it was. He told her that he was in an administrative position for several orphanages in Europe. When she told me that, all the bells and whistles went off in my head. I warned her over and over again to be very careful. She promised me she would but her heart won over the warnings.

As time went by, months actually, she started getting packages from UPS, FedEx, and I believe DHL. All of these packages had her name on them and of course she opened them. There were children's sandals, belts, tennis shoes, vitamins, children's and men's clothing, and even a laptop computer. There were thousands of dollars worth of goods being delivered to her. She contacted him and asked about these items. He told her that he couldn't have them shipped to him due to UPS, etc, not delivering in Europe and asked her to send them on to him.

She called me right away and told me what was going on. Now she was smart enough not to send them but wanted to tell me what was going on. I told her that he's a scammer and not to send anything to him. She contacted all of the delivery services and they came and picked up the packages. She also called all of the business who had sold the items to John, via the internet, and told them what was going on. Most of them were very pleasant and understanding. Then she called the police who put her in touch with a detective in New York who had been working on this very case with another woman.

The detective told her that the other woman reported that her credit card was being used for online purchases without her permission. Come to find out, the flowers and teddy bear, along with many other items, had been purchased with this woman's card. In the meantime, Susan found out that her paypal account had been hit also. John had been using all the information he was getting from my sister and using her account to purchase items on Ebay. OMG, my sister was between raging mad and devastatingly heartbroken. She couldn't believe that John, who professed to love her and planned a future with her, was nothing more than a scammer who had used her along with so many other women.

She was put in touch with the FBI who took her statement and told her that it happens all the time. They also told her that this particular man and his associates were on their list and they are doing everything they can, from this country, to catch them. They warned her to be more careful in the future with online relationships.

She contacted John and told him that she would not be sending anything to him and he actually had the nerve to get angry with her. He tried coaxing her, love talking her, begging her, and then got angry with her and tried threatening her life over it. She turned all the IM messages over to the FBI and they told her to forward anything she gets from John to them. He still tries to contact her even now to tell her that he loves her and it wasn't HIM who did all these things. He tells her it's his associates who are doing it and he's innocent. Thank God, she doesn't buy into it anymore.

The moral of this story is; If they can't meet you in person within two weeks of meeting online, dump them. If they're suddenly called out of the state for business, dump them. If you choose to continue a relationship with someone who is always in another country, be guarded. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION. They'll ask for your birth date, your address, your full name, and in some cases your bank account number. They do it slyly. They'll gain your trust and in most cases your heart but please don't fall into this scam. It will cost you dearly....