This is quite long, but I've included lots of detail!
In June of 2010, I moved out from the home that me and my soon-to-be ex-husband had shared. After settling into my new home and new life, I decided it was time to start having some fun again, so I joined Match.com and a man named Christopher Campbell soon contacted me. His profile name was “LoverBoyDaddy” and even though I thought that was a little cheesy, his picture was of a very handsome guy and we soon began chatting on Yahoo Messenger instead of on the dating site, almost on a daily basis.
Since his profile said he lived in Houston, I was very excited to meet him but Chris told me that he was an international businessman in the import/export business and he was currently in Dubai, returning home the following week. His two kids Lisa and Kevin who were 8 and 6 at the time stayed with a nanny named Bukola Jim, while he was out of town on business. He said that he was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 19, 1964 and that his wife Mary had been killed in a car accident on January 13, 2006 in England. His mother was 69 years old and resided in the UK and had been diagnosed with breast cancer. He said they were Catholic.
At one point, he sent me a photocopy of his California Drivers license, where he’d supposedly lived before moving to Texas. The drivers license number was in the name of Christopher Leonard Campbell, birthdate 19 August 1964, address 1 Ironside Dt, Marina Dl Rey, CA 90292. The license number was E2827018. The address on “Ironside Dt” was probably a typo error that should’ve been Ironside Dr. so that caused me to wonder about the authenticity of the document. License details were that he was 6’1” tall and 173lbs, brown hair, hazel eyes. He also provided a photocopy of the picture page of his UK passport, issued 12 March 2009, same name as the drivers license, same birthdate and SAME photograph as on the drivers license. The passport number was P02874135. (After the scam happened, I took that photo to the local British consulate who said they couldn’t give me any information about British citizens. I explained that it was most likely a fraudulent passport and they agreed to make a copy to keep in case that passport number was reported stolen.)
I had given Chris my cell phone number and soon we were also communicating by text messages multiple times a day. The cell phone number he gave me was 817-522-3917, which I found was an area code from Fort Worth, Texas and I thought was strange since he said he lived in Houston. He explained that he’d gotten that cell phone when he was working for another contracting company who was based in the Fort Worth/Dallas area. We spoke by phone one time. The connection was very bad but although he had an accent, he didn’t sound South African to me. I wouldn’t have said that he sounded like a black man or Nigerian, either. When I asked him if he spoke any Afrikaans, he said no, which I thought was strange if he really were a native of S. A. He told me that his father had been British (he had passed away years before) and that his mother was South African and he’d spent most of his childhood in England. He said he was an only child, no brothers or sisters.
After about 2 weeks of very enjoyable and romantic discussions, beginning to call each other pet names, and making plans to meet when he returned to Houston, he began telling me that he had been delayed in Dubai because his shipment of ladies clothing and raw materials had been delayed at Customs as the shipment was leaving the country and he would have to delay his departure until this matter was resolved. Since he worked as an independent contractor, his employer was unable to help him resolve this export issue as he was expected to take care of any and all problems himself in order to get paid. He said that he hated to ask me but he only needed a small amount of help from me so that he could pay the customs taxes and duties the government was requiring to get his shipment out of the country, and then he would be coming home and we could finally meet in person.
I had recently sold my engagement and wedding ring set for cash to start my new life and so I had a small amount of cash at home and I believed that he would be paying me back when he returned to Houston. The first amount I wired via Western Union was for $2550 on 28 July 2010. That wire went to the name of David Speer, the hotel Manager at the Emirates Towers Hotel, 106 Sabikah Rd, Deira, Dubai, U.A.E, where Chris was staying, and Mr. Speer would see that Chris got the money.
The next day, 29 July 2010, Chris said he needed a little more in order to settle up his hotel bill as he was staying at quite an expensive hotel and had depleted all of his funds in order to give more to the customs agents and Saudi government to try to get his shipment out. So, I wired $1000 to Mr. David Speer once again the above address. Mr. George Foster was the hotel accountant and he would be able to verify for me the amount of Chris’ total outstanding hotel bill.
On 2 Aug, 2010 I wired $2200 to Mr. David Speer again at the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai. When I started to get suspicious of who this man was and whether or not Chris was even receiving this money in the first place, Chris gave me a phone number on which I could talk to Mr. Speer directly. That number was 971.559.283.873 and I did speak to a man with a British accent at that number who verified Chris was a guest there and that he had been receiving the Western Union transfers.
On 3 August, another wire went to Mr. David Speer in the amount of $1400 via Western Union. Apparently, Chris had gotten in an argument with local customs officials about his shipment being delayed, had been arrested, spent a night in jail, and then needed bail money and “payoff” money for various government officials to make getting his shipment out of the country a little easier.
However, at this point, I had no more ready cash left and Chris’ “boss”, a man named John Hawkins came on the scene. He began calling me and texting me, sometimes alone and sometimes in 3-way conference calls with Chris. Chris said that he’d told Mr. Hawkins that we were married and that I had been trying to get him home but was out of money. He assured me that Mr. Hawkins would know what to do and was going to help us. Mr. Hawkins (who said he was Dutch but didn’t sound at all Dutch to me) asked me if I owned my home and if I could get an equity line of credit. I didn’t own a home. Then he asked about my credit cards. I told him I had one American Express card and a Master Card that was currently maxed out at its $20,000 limit. Mr. Hawkins said he would pay off my credit card balance for me and then I would be able to take out a cash advance on the full $20,000 to send to help Chris out of his current situation so he could fly home. At the time, I thought it was risk-free to me since they were going to pay off my card first. They said that this was money that Mr. Hawkins owed Chris for his work for him…we were just taking the paycheck a little sooner than usual. Chris said that Mr. Hawkins would owe him about $100,000 when Chris returned to the US after this export job in Dubai.
So, one day over the phone, Mr. Hawkins provided me with a Bank of America checking account number which he said was in his name that I should use to pay off my $20,000 Mastercard balance. When the payoff was cleared, I could then take the cash advance on the card for the full $20,000 and wire it to help Chris get home. When I asked on a few occasions why Mr. Hawkins couldn’t wire the money himself directly to Chris, the answer was that he was currently on vacation with his family in the Caribbean and that “it doesn’t work that way.” (Now I know what he meant!) The routing number of his account was 1130000023 and the account number was 488024324041. I was able to make the payment online to pay off my Mastercard balance and the transaction was confirmed. Mr. Hawkins even provided me his social security number in case I should need to enter it for identification (467-93-9704) during the online payoff process. He said that the Bank of America account number he’d provided me had a current balance of $136,646.53. He also provided me with another account number, a money market savings account at Bank of America with the account number 5774630497, with a current balance of $241,086.06 and a money market account number 5865042295 with a current balance of $376,258.04. Of course I had no way to verify these balances or account numbers without account PIN numbers or passwords.
So on 9 August 2010, I made an online payoff of my Mastercard balance in the full amount of $20,000, using the Bank of America account information provided by Mr. Hawkins. On 10 August, I called my credit card company to check whether the payment had cleared and to verify that my current balance was now $0. It was. So on the morning of 11 August 2010, I went to my bank and presented my $0 balance Master card and asked for a cash advance for the full balance of $20,000. With the bank fees involved and the credit card company’s fees for a cash advance, I was only able to actually withdraw $19,400. The teller who processed my transaction even called Mastercard to verify that I had that much available credit, and Mastercard verified that the full balance had been paid and approved the cash withdrawal. The teller counted out my full $19,400 cash and I went to Western Union. Due to Western Union’s regulations, I had to send the money in numerous small wire transfers from various locations in town.
This first transfer on 11 August was to the man who was supposedly the Emirates Towers hotel travel agent who would be booking Chris’ flights back to Houston. His name was Terry O. Daniel and the first 11 Aug wire went to his name in the amount of $5000 via Western Union. From another Western Union location, that same day, I was able to wire another $5000 to Mr. Terry Daniel. From another Western Union location, I wired another $5000 but this time, again to Mr. David Speer, the Emirates Towers Hotel Manager. The third one that day was in the amount of $3000 to Mr. David Speer and the final 11 Aug transfer was for $2000 to the name of Mr. Terry O. Daniel. After every transfer, when I received the confirmation numbers, I was to immediately text those to Chris.
On 12 August, we repeated the same process once again. I used Mr. Hawkins’ bank information that he’d provided and once again, paid off my full balance of $20k and once cleared, I began wiring the $19,400 cash from various Western Union locations. By 14 August, my credit card company once again verified that my balance was $0 and that the payoff amount had cleared. The first Western Union transfer that day was in the amount of $5000 to the hotel travel agent, Mr. Terry O. Daniel. The second was to Mr. David Speer again in the amount of $5000. On 15 August, 2010, I wired another $5000 to Mr. Terry O. Daniel and $3500 to Mr. David Speer. (The total wired amounts didn’t equal the full cash amount I’d received, due to the various fees imposed by Western Union for wire transfers of this size.)
I had been asking Chris about this Mr. John Hawkins all along and was able to get some limited information. Chris told me that he was a business owner, living in California, with a business called “Certified Capital Corporation” which does seem to be an existing business when I checked it out. His direct line toll free number was 866-204-7748, but of course he never answered at that number. The office main number was 408-484-9013. They listed a business address of 1669-2 Hollenbeck Ave. #514, Sunnyvale, CA 94087. Mr. Hawkins had even provided me with his mobile phone number: 209-487-5458.
A few days after the final wire transfers were completed on 12 August 2010, I don’t remember how exactly now, but I received notification from my credit card company that the payoff transactions to my credit card balance had been denied and now my balance was over $60,000. In a full panic, I called my bank and they said I would need to speak to Master Card. When I called Master Card and frantically explained that I had been the victim of a scam and fraud, they said that as far as they were concerned, I’d made these withdrawals myself and it wasn’t theft, there was no crime involved…I had just run up my own balance and was now liable for the full charges (the original $20k that was mine plus the $40k I’d withdrawn after the fraudulent payoffs of my credit card balance.) The full impact of what I had just done now became clear.
I spent the next couple of years beating myself up, feeling extremely naïve and hoping that no one would ever find out what an utterly ridiculous and shockingly idiotic thing I’d done. But I was also continuing to correspond via Yahoo Messenger with Mr. Hawkins (his user name is johnhawkins147) and Chris, all the while asking them when I was going to get my money back and praying that maybe this wasn’t really a scam and Chris might really try to help me get at least some of it back.
On 31 August 2010, Mr. Hawkins and I had this text message exchange after a set of communications earlier in the month where he’d said that he would pay me back.
John Hawkins: you there?
Me: Yes
John Hawkins: What is your full address and home address? And phone number?
Me: this is my cell number; can you take my PO box?
John Hawkins: Fedex don’t deliver to p o box
Me: (gave him my boyfriend’s home address as if it were mine)
John Hawkins: ok. Full name?
Me: (he already knew my full name, but I gave it again)
John Hawkins: got it
Me: How much will it be and when can I expect it?
John Hawkins: $38,000. Sending 2 checks. 1 for the return payments on the credit card and one for your husband to get home.
Me: ok thank u
John Hawkins: what bank do you have a checking account with
Me: (gave him my bank name)
John Hawkins: the online login when you deposit the check
Me: Why?
John Hawkins: for my purpose
Again, very fishy sounding and fortunately, I didn’t give him that information. I continued to try to sweet talk Chris to try to recover any money I could, and he said that he would never rip me off and that he had been double crossed by Mr. Hawkins too, that he’d never received any of my money and that he was as much a victim as I had been. Mr. Hawkins provided yet another cell phone number and said I could reach him on 940-560-9455, but I never could. He would spontaneously text me from time to time just saying “hello” or “are you there?” and many times I would rudely respond “what do you want?” and that would stop his text messages, temporarily. On 9 Sept 2011, I texted Hawkins asking when I could expect the checks he’s promised and I had been unable to reach him on any of the numbers he provided. He gave me another number, 580-630-7785 but I was never able to reach him on that either, and obviously, no checks ever came.
On 7 February 2011, John Hawkins and I exchanged these messages:
Me: You have no idea how you’ve ruined my life with this scam you pulled on me.
John Hawkins: no no I did not
Me: well I’m holding you responsible and have notified the FBI.
John Hawkins; (no response, end of conversation)
On 9 May 2011, he once again initiated contact by saying “hello.”
Me: Where’s Chris?
John Hawkins: I don’t know
Me: When will you be sending my money?
John Hawkins: did you send money to me
Me: You stole it from me by giving me those fraudulent bank account numbers
John Hawkins: no. Do you still have the cards
Me: Yes
John Hawkins: will rectify it
Me: Yes I have the card
John Hawkins: give me online access. Will rectify it. Are you still using it
Me: You’re joking, right? The account has been in collections for months. You ruined my credit.
John Hawkins: no no
Me: Yes you did, I can’t use that card anymore
John Hawkins: why
Me: because I’ve defaulted. I couldn’t make the payments when the balance was over $60K and it seems that they have revoked my online access anyway. Now how can you “rectify” it? You definitely did ruin my life.
John Hawkins: oh, sorry.
Me: So if you can just wire the money you stole from me, I will not pursue this case with the FBI
John Hawkins: Don’t say I stole it
Me: But you did
John Hawkins: No way
Me: you said in August of 2010 that you would be sending $38k back to me. Guess you lied about that too. What would you like me to tell the FBI the next time they call me?
John Hawkins: (no response. End of conversation)
John texted me a few more times only saying just “hello” on 10 May 2011, 17 June 2011, 4 July 2011, 5 July 2011, 9 July 2011, and 12 July 2011. I didn’t respond and I’ve never heard from him again in over a year.
I did stay in contact with Chris for a little while longer, hoping that someday I might be able to recover even a small amount of the almost $50,000 I’d sent these scammers. However, Chris also continued to try various ploys to get more money out of me, saying that his mother had passed away from her breast cancer and although she had quite a bit of money, he had to have the money to settle up the will and get her estate finalized. At this point, he had been in London for quite a few months with his mother and then overseeing her house and affairs after she passed away. He provided a London address of 47 Fulham Road, London SW6 1HL. He said he wouldn’t be able to receive her inheritance (of over a million dollars) until he was able to get things finalized with the solicitors. There was no end to the things Chris needed money for: his rebooking for his ticket back to the US, legal fees, further issues with the shipment that never made it out of Dubai, other business problems he was having…but I always (truthfully) told him I had absolutely nothing left to give him. But by this point, I fully understood I was dealing with criminals and was trying to maintain contact in the hopes of getting more information to track him down. He never stopped giving me reasons why he needed just a little more money.
In the spring of 2011, I was on Yahoo chat with Chris and he said that a man named Ronald Boyer in Florida owed him some money and that in payment, Chris had authorization from Mr. Boyer to take a $750 cash advance from a credit card Mr. Boyer had provided and Chris would let me have this money as a first installment from him on the money I’d lost. Chris told me that Mr. Boyer’s address was 1237 E. Grove Ave., Lake Wales, FL 33853 and he provided me a credit card number in Mr. Boyer’s name with the number 4029445019567300, exp.4/2014 and security (CCV) code 169. Mr. Boyer’s date of birth was 23 March 1968. After Chris told me all this, I suddenly felt very sorry for Ronald Boyer. I also realized that I would be stealing from Mr. Boyer and might have legal troubles for even possessing his credit card details in the first place. I never did anything with the credit card details and that night, I blocked Chris from my Yahoo account and text messages, and I’ve never heard from him again.
happyboyprince@yahoo.com
by susan0804 » Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:57 pm
Last edited by firefly on Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: email adress into subject matter
Reason: email adress into subject matter
- susan0804
- New survivor
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