Oil Rig Scam

by Anonymous

I met a guy on Facebook - he is 10 years 6 months younger than I am. I am a widow. He said his wife died of cancer. He said his Dad and only brother were killed in a car wreck. He has a son and a daughter. Daughter is in boarding school - son lives on his own.

The guy says he is a drilling contractor on an oil rig. He sent me photos - one was photo-shopped. The first thing he asked for were Google Play Cards to keep his phone going. He told me a sob story of how a woman he became friends with stole $500,000 from his bank account and consequently, all of his assets are frozen until he can complete his contract and get off the rig.
Later his drilling machine broke down and he can't finish the contract until he gets it fixed. He robbed me of $11,000 for that. Then after the machine was fixed, he needed an additional $5000 for oil.

Then his daughter supposedly fell down stairs at her school and was hospitalized - I needed to send $2000 for her surgery fee.

Then he received a notice that a box he had in storage needed to be picked up - the rental fee he had paid had expired - he wanted to ship the box to the United States from Australia. He was going to ship it to me. I just needed to pay the $5200 fee. Then the box was held in another country until a $20,000 fee was paid - then it was held in yet another country until a $38,750 fee was paid. The box supposedly held $750,000 that he earned working in Australia.

The shipping fees supposedly were so high because the box was sealed and customs couldn't look inside. In between all of those requests, he kept asking for more Google Cards or Steam cards or even Walmart cards for his phone.

He's going to retire after he finishes this contract which he hopes to finish in another week - then he will come home to me - bringing his daughter with him. He has sent me photos of wedding dresses and houses he likes.

His daughter supposedly became friends with me on Google Hangouts (the same site he uses). Funny thing is - she was raised in the United States - he's from Montenegro - and she writes as though English is her second language. She writes just like him!!!

He goes by the name or Dan or Gary - on other sites he went by the name of Stephen. I am hoping to write a book about my experience to help others avoid the pitfalls of online dating a man like this. He writes very romantic messages - called me a few times - declared his love early on. Shared romantic songs with me - told me he was a preacher - even prayed for me.

My children were suspicious from the very beginning and did research - found him on other sites using other names in various languages. My son discovered that he was part of an Eastern Europe group that defraud people online.