scam!!

What convinces you she is being scammed? I must admit I would be wary but unless you have more than a gut reaction and a suspicious photograph, can you prove anything?

there is a yahoo group called "romancescams" a friend of mine started it to aid in fighting these scammers. They have a large section of pics of known scammers. your friend is probaly being scammed. The premise for this is simple for all of them. Mostly they say they are in Nigeria (or some other east african country)on business. They get women over here to fall in love with them. They then say that they are paid with money orders which they cannot cash. They then send them over for their "girlfrind"/victim to cash for them, then send the money back so he can return to the states to be with her. She does so, and never hears from him again. What she does hear from is the bank, and possibly the FBI for passing counterfeit money orders. I myself have spent a lot of time combatting this and other scams originating in eastern africa, notably Nigeria.

This is quite common on internet, people change their identities and make love and chat innocent girls, they ask for money and make lot of promises and reality comes only when the girl leave their country and traps. Don't talk to strangers on internet.

I am so sorry that this is happening to your friend. She has never met this guy and she sent him money! That could not be good. I hope you get her stopped before it is too late.

I am sorry that your friend has done such a foolish thing.You have tried your best to let her know she is making a huge mistake,however i know you cannot help but worry about her.It seems that you cannot always help those that refuse your help.Some people just have to learn things on their own,I just hope that whoever this person is,is not a serial killer..........I do hope she comes to her senses before it is too late.Anyone that ask for money is usually a scam artist..I am very afraid of people like this,I can only hope that your friend is not a victim.You can post the picture on the internet and tell what has happened,maybe he has scammed another person in the past and if so give you some information on him..You could also go to snopes or urben legends and see if his name or picture comes up...No your question is not stupid,you are concerned for your friend and you want to do whatever you can to see that she avoids this mistake.good luck to you.

if you are really worried you could take the picture to a police station. maybe it is the real guys picture and he could have a record. Tell them you dont trust the guy and you are worried about your friend. Or if you dont think it is the guy then keep looking for the same picture over the internet. Chances are the guy searched for another picture to use, and if you find it that could be your proof.

I don't think the picture is going to do much good. I'm sure it's not a real picture of him. However there is a slim chance that if he has used the same picture to scam many people then the police already know the picture. However I dont' know if they can run any kind of a check on a picture unless you live in one of those big cities with all the high tech crime investigating stuff. Perhaps with an email address or phone number and that it will get you further however I do believe you are right that it is infact a scam and she is going to get herself in big trouble. Please don't give up. Solve this mystery.

thats tough..when your friend is clearly in love with the guy...just try explaining her the pros and cons of online dating or whatever and give her some examples..giving money on the man is not proper..is she that rich enough to give?? or is shes desperate enough to marry someone outside the country..

Unfortunately a lot of people use the internet for fraud. If he really loves her he should should come visit her- at least for awhile. Getting married to this guy is not a good idea/hence living with him may be just that in another country. Since she doesn't mind sending him money perhaps she can send him a plane ticket

As far as tracing the guy from a picture, it's very unlikely, and since he lives in a different country, chances are police will hike it over to the feds, but such an investigation would have to be done in cooperation with the Nigerian Government as well due to international juridictions and so such. Depending on how they stay in touch, is it regular mail, email/internet? If it's regular mail, you'll have to check for a return address they guy is sending from. Investigators have a pretty strait forward path investigation wise to take such. If it's through email/internet, then they'll have to track such through his I.P. Address(which can be a trying process if they guy changes his I.P. adress a lot, but not impossible). Basically, if they guy's a scammer, which sounds very much like he is, unless you've got the know-how and finance to investigate him yourself, you'll want to leave it to the professionals, but even they'll need something to go on. Overall though, you should reenforce an urge in your friend to find out more about this guy. Point out the scam info that's been previously pointed out in this thread, point out the similarities between those experiences and the experiences she's going through, and point out especially that someone sending her $30k just so she can send it back sound very fishily like money laundering(if not a way for this guy to get a chance to find out her financial information).

i saw on my local news how a local teacher got scammed by a guy on the internet. this guy was from a foreign country and she sent money to him. i dont remember the whole story but at the end this guy got caught. i have myself gotten email from people wanting me to help them by sending me money then sending it back and i just delete them. how did your friend find this guy? wanting to amputate a leg just because he pulled a muscle doesnt sound right. when you pull a muscle takes time to heal but not a reason to amputate a leg. if she found him on a free dating site then you might look at other dating sites to see if his picture is there. i have been on other dating sites and have had foreign guys leave me a message and i just delete it. not looking for love from a foreign guy in a foreign country. hope everything works out with your friend.

Yeah this is clearly a scam. I completely agree with you. I don't mean to sound mean towards your friend, but if your friend is really willing to do what you are saying then that's just one of the most down right stupidest things they can ever do. It's not very hard to tell when something is a scam, and if your friend wants to get involved in this type of stuff it'll only be her fault when she gets into a whole huge world of legal trouble.

How old is your friend? If she's younger then eighteen then I would tell her parents. Actually, I would tell her parents either way. If you can't knock some sense into her they maybe they can.

Sorry I dont know if you can do that but I do know that your friend has to make her own mistakes and you have to let her but if you think her life is in danger than make sure you keep track of wer shes going and were she is and make sure you have 911 on speed dial!

Im sorry to say but there is nothing you can do from stopping her to be with this idiot. You can only give her advice and hope she takes it. If she doesnt she will wreck her entire life. You can take the picture to your nearest police station and see if they have anything on him. But thats about it. Its really her decision to make.

Oh wow I have never heard of tracing a picture of someone before but how about you take it to the law enforcements to see if they know anything about him. I do not think that this is a silly question though

from what has been said in this discussion, i think you should save your friend from this man! i think you can contact the embassy of nigeria, give 'em the picture and ask them if this guy exists and if he has any police records or whatsoever.

Honestly, I don't know if there is any way to trace a picture online or not. I would suggest taking the picture to a police station, but if the guy lives in another country, I don't know how much they can do, except maybe send a copy of it to the police department in whatever country he's from. This guy does NOT sound like a good person, but if your friend is that enamored of him, then she'll only be more determined to make it work while everyone around her says it won't. It sounds like she may get seriously hurt here. I would say just be there for her. By pushing the issue of him not being good for her, you're pushing her further away.

why don you just ask him for a web chat where your friend can see him!!!!!!!!! oh god this all sounds so scary! may god help your friend i will surely pray!

It is really hard to trust people specially when you haven't met him in person, i think your friend really is being scammed, let's be careful in trusting.