A very romantic man: Tieri Giovanni, from Elk Grove Village IL

by Vicky
(Milwaukee, WI)

I was not looking for a serious relationship, just a companion. I found Tieri Giovanni on Coffee meets Bagel and the only reason I 'liked' him is because of his profession, an archaeologist.

The next day he responded, and it was not long after that he was telling me of an archeological dig in Yemen of a museum that had been bombed and he was contracted to search for any relics that may have survived the bombing. So far his story lined up as there was a museum bombed by Saudi Arabia in June of 2015. He was to be gone for only 2 weeks.

During this time we texted back and forth, proclaiming his love for me, missing me and wanting to spend the rest our lives together, keeping in mind we have never met yet. There was a romantic element of which he would send songs to me (Youtube) and write poetry, as well as sent me exerts of Twin Flame, which is basically about soul-mates meeting.

After the two weeks, he begins to tell me there is a huge problem he needs to deal with before returning, but not telling me the problem. Finally, he lays it all out there that the company who contracted him to do the work transferred all the money he was paid for the job for his fee as well as the money that was to be paid to the locals who he hired to help him with the dig into his personal account in the United States and because Yemen is a red flag country his bank would not let him take any of that money out.

The union officials were furious, demanding the money for their workers to be paid and the contact man would not allow him to leave until they got paid. The total was $22,000. After a few weeks he managed to contact friends and relatives to help him as now the total was $12,000, then $9,000 and eventually it was down to $4,500. He never asked me for any money, so I volunteer to send him the remaining amount. But it was not sent via Western Union rather it was deposited into a Wells Fargo bank account, company name; ABE Consulting Inc.

He was so grateful, and of course would pay me as soon as he returned home. However, a new problem, since he did not pay these people on time they insisted he pay an additional $4,200 for interest. Here too, I helped him out depositing the money into a different bank account through Chase with the company name; Kemlot Global Associates, this time I looked it up. They deal in international banking (I mention these two companies for information only if your scammer should chose to use these companies to deposit money).

Throughout this period he is proclaiming his love for me, sending me more songs and poetry, but as I would question him on certain things he would never answer. He claim to have a 31 year old daughter and 6 year old grandson, I wondered why she could not help him; he said her credit was bad and could not get any loans.

Now a new problem came up, his contact agent still would not give him his airline ticket demanding Tieri pay for services rendered. My red flags flew up as I accused him of being a scammer stating "how is it you traveling somewhere and not have a return ticket, plus how is it, you a world traveler, not have some kind of credit card to handle situations like this?"

I told him never to contact me again.

He replied insisting that when he return home that he would repay all that I have 'lent' him, and reminded me that all his travel arrangements from the very beginning were handled by this contact man and the only way out of the country was to make his own arrangements. He made me feel that I had misjudged him. The ticket was $3,200, but I made no attempt to try to help him, all along I had made it clear to him that I had strong misgivings about this online relationship so finally I demanded he show me some kind of proof that he is who he claimed to be.

I asked for his home address, at which point I was going to drive there and find out for myself if he really lived in Elk Grove Village, IL and I requested he snapshot several texts between him and his daughter from the week prior. He did not comply to any of my requests and I have not heard from him since.

His story, his profession, him never asking me for money, he appeared well educated using proper English and proper punctuation in his texts, and there was no mention of Nigeria all appeared to be different than anything I had been reading about online dating scammers.

The only similar qualities to this story and to those I read were the quickness he proclaimed his love for me, sending songs and poetry. I, of course like everyone else feel shame, betrayed and extreme hurt.

I will not let this person destroy me, but I will not let this ever happen to me again.