Instagram dating scam

A random woman sent me a personal message "Hello dear (heart emoji)" At first it felt as if my heart was beating faster than the speed of sound. She looked amazing. i was thinking "OMG this beautiful woman is talking to ME".

i checked her instagram account and saw that it had several hundred followers (all men) and she had lewd images of herself posted. My emotions got the better of me and I engaged in conversation

I was somewhat skeptical at first asking her who she was. She gave me her name and asked for mine (I gave an alias). She started to flirt with me asking what I do for a living (I didn't reveal anything personal). She then said that she was from Montana and she is a nursing student who had traveled to Nigeria for a final project on Ebola (1st RED FLAG).

I smelt a rat.

She listed her hobbies of "listening to music, and watching wolf movies". I told her that I was a gym rat (again, not really) then she replied "oh honey, can you do me a favor please?" (2st RED FLAG).

I asked what she wanted and then she said that she wanted an iTunes card. I thought "odd, why an iTunes card?". I searched it up finding out that scammers will take advantage of people and ask them to send a photo of an iTunes code to be sold on the black market. I looked up other scammers and realized that she was probably a "he" who had stolen the identity of this woman. I was thinking that maybe I could get back at this person by trolling them. I agreed to send her a card, this was when things got weird.

I got an iTunes card and redeemed it (for my own use lol) then told her that I had gotten it (a small amount). During this time she was messaging me constantly how I was doing and all that crap. She asked for a photo of the card and I sent it to her, and she then sent me a picture of herself. She thanked me and then I had thought about what I had done.

I felt as if i was a criminal! Then I checked my iTunes account to see that all of the money was GONE. I Panicked, got myself another iTunes card and then saw, that the money was back. WIERD (I have no explanation lol). Then she asked why i sent a bad card (remember this is a criminal who I thought was using stolen images).

I told her that it should work. Then she had said that if i got a $100 card for her she should send me a nude of herself. Again i felt as if i was having a heart attack wrestling with the reality of who this person was and what "he" was posing as. I started to block my emotions and confirming to myself that this was a criminal probably some old person behind a computer.

I agreed to "her" offer and photoshopped a 100 onto a card. "she" then said that it was another bad card (and it was) and I then accused the scammer of redeeming the code before and then accusing me of giving her a bad card. I told her that i had spent over $100 on this card (I didn't) and she then told me to get another one.

I was not worried as I had spent no money whatsoever on this. i even planned on trolling "her" by sending a picture of 100 cents. Then things just got freaky.

I messaged her that I had gotten the new card. I also accused "her" of being a scammer. She put up an act saying "i would never lie to you about that..." i was thinking in the back of my head " I finally got this guy, he's gonna break". I told her to send the photo because I accused "her" of fraud. She then sent me a nude, she looked like the exact same woman I had seen in her profile picture, black hair, good physique and i was embarrassed. I had thought that the nigerian scammer was a man and it appeared that this was a woman. I had no idea what to think. I sent the picture of the 100 pennies, she thought it was funny and then i immediately blocked her.

In short, I should have just said no