Hello friends. Today I'm going to talk about an incident that happened recently.

An acquaintance was e-mailing and chatting with a man who actually told her he was in Nigeria/Ghana working as an engineer. She talked to him daily and honestly fell for the guy. He said all the right things and went so far as to call her on the phone and they spoke for about 30 minutes. According to her, he had a British accent so she believed that he wasn't a scammer.

As the weeks went by, he told her that he was in love with her and she accepted this as gospel. She believed him when he said he'd be "in the states" within a few weeks time and they would be married.

A few weeks passed and he told her that the job was running longer than he expected. This sounded feasible to her so she accepted it and continued phoning him on his cell, chatting with him online, etc.

Then one day he told her that his son's birthday was coming up the following week and he had not been paid yet. He told her that his son would have nothing for his birthday. Low and behold, she ran to the bank and sent him $150.00 via Western Union. He thanked her and told her of his undying love and admiration.

Another couple of weeks went by and he told her in an instant message that he needed some medication for Malaria. He told her that he had contracted the disease while working. Unfortunately for him, her son, 40 yrs old, was there while she was chatting away with this guy. She was telling him all about Mr. Wonderful. He read what the guy had written her and basically came unglued at his mother. He told her the symptoms of Malaria and informed her that, if the guy was in fact infected with that disease, that he wouldn't have the ability to chat with her on the Internet. The son then asked her for her debit card and check book. She actually handed it over to him without a complaint.

I know that he probably shouldn't have gone that far but he honestly was looking out for his mother since she was gong to send this scammer more money.

When she told the scammer that she couldn't send him any more money, he shut down the chat and never spoke to her again.

Beware, be guarded, be safe, be wise...Never send money to anyone you chat with on the Internet.

My way of dealing with scammers is this:

The received e-mail:

I have been looking through many partner recommendations lately and some of them even looked interesting, but yours was one of the few that looked special! Your personality, your interests - we might get along really well.Moreover i was really impressed with your profile and will like to know more about you if you won't be bothered about that. What do you do for work? If you like to socialize with me or feel the same way, just write back, I think the two of us should give it a try!Feel free to email me or add me to your messenger so that we can chat:mns_20@yahoo.com.Hoping to hear from you very soon.am online now

Read this carefully. If you really read it, you can see where the scammer has no idea of how we speak or write. They always seem to fall in love or just know that you're right for each other. They also always add their messenger ID.

My reply to scammers. It's an outright lie but it seems to work.

Hello,

Thank you for writing. I enjoyed your e-mail. As for what I do for work...I work for the federal government as a scammer hunter. I find scammers, ping their IP address, then send all the information to the FBI. I love my job and it keeps people safe from all the scammers on the Internet. Hope to hear from you soon....

Now this may be a lie but it's effective. I never hear from them again. I suggest that more people out there use this type of message in reply. It really does work.

That's my advice and story for the day. Thanks for stopping by.