He alone is responsible for his deeds.
I will tell you a little bit about what happened so that you can be warned yourself. We have to be fair, this type of scam could be done by a man or a woman. This person joined the dating site, as far as I have been told by him, about the same time I did. I was attracted to his picture as he wore a suit and tie and seemed to be put together well. He presented himself well in his profile, saying he was a sixty eight year old business man, still working on his side line business of buying and selling raw gold.
He also presented himself to be living in Orleans, Ontario which is part of the greater Ottawa area from what I understand. He also was a Roman Catholic Christian. That is an odd way to say it as well. Normally, people would say "I'm catholic". He used the name of God many times in his emails.
According to his profile, his education level was good as well. Thus, he met some of my criteria although I much prefer men who are not skinny.
We began to correspond via the site. I had only paid for one month and when things seemed to be going well, I told him I would be leaving the site. He suggested that we exchange email addresses which seemed a logical thing to do.
According to his many emails and his profile, his intention was marriage. This person seems to know how to push all the right buttons to attract a woman to him. I suggested we communicate by SKYPE but he ignored my two requests. Now I understand why. He did not wish to be seen in real life.
He kept putting off coming to see me and I understood that as it is about a five hour drive.
However, he did tell me he was going to Egypt to do his business dealings and after that he would come to my city to meet me and my children so that they will know that "he will take good care of me."
Here is a little bit more information on him. He was born in Paris, France of a French mother and an American father. They moved to the United States shortly after he was born. When he was 5 years old, his father died leaving both him and his mother alone in the States except for an French aunt and her American husband. The mother could not cope with living there and went back to France leaving the boy in the care of his maternal aunt. From what I understood, it was not a good relationship for the young boy. I did find it very strange that a mother would leave her child behind in a foreign country but he was able to explain that one as well. This person received all his education in the United States, which included getting a Masters Degree.
Another thing I noticed was that although he had many words available, he did not write as a well educated man. He finally gave me his cell phone number and one day I called him. The answering machine said "your friend will call you back". That in itself, was rather weird.
Any time I would question him about something, he would be able to give a reasonable answer or sometimes he would just ignore the question.
He even called me from the airport on his way to Egypt. I could hear the background noises of planes.
We communicated by email while he was there and then one day he emailed me to say he had been mugged and lost his money and his cards. Naturally I was concerned. He hesitantly asked me to send him some money and he would pay me back.His hotel bill was huge plus the driver's bill was a lot too.
I contacted my friend Mohamed who is from Egypt to get some advice. My friend did not hesitate to say that he thought it was a scam, He used to be with American Express and he found the hotel bill far too expensive for the length of time he spent there.
My friend was even going to send his son to help him navigate the legal system there.
We were going to test this fellow by sending him a small amount of money just for pocket money. I tried to send it by Western Union and did not succeed, and then I tried a bank transfer without success. I had his cousin's banking information but the bank needed an email address. He gave that to me but alas or in this case, it was well that my internet skills are not that great! I just had forgotten totally how to do it.
Thus, I was spared the loss of a little bit of money and I found out that this person is a crook and not who he pretends to be at all. I am thankful to my friend Mohamed for helping me out like that.
This person has since dropped me which is fine with me. I bet you that this man has a long history of taking women for a ride.
I called our city's fraud squad and reported him but since I had not lost any money, there was nothing they could do.
I also reported him to Seniors Dating site and to his AOL provider to alert them to what he is doing.
The police were great. They gave me many tips on how to avoid this situation again. It is a lesson learned, I was too trusting.
Here is a picture of him that he sent me. I now seriously doubt that it is his picture but he is using this for a profile picture.
It is my hope that if you read this blog, you will not be taken in by this con man. It was a good lesson for me and I am glad that I did not lose any money. The police said he could be anywhere in this world.
On that note, thanks for dropping by.
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