by firefly » Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:36 pm
This person was my contact at LinkedIn for approximately 15 months, but I had never talked to him.
A few days after my birthday I received a congratulations message as I get every year from several people in my network and I received it from this person too.
I thanked him and didn't speak to the person anymore. A few days later he texted me, we started talking about the profession and then he gave me the phone number and we continued talking.
This person said that he is an Electrical Engineer and that he had a company that provided services on off-shore platforms.
In early September, he said he had a meeting in Belgium (where he would be living) to close a contract for the provision of services in Turkey.
He said he was leaving for Turkey to carry out the work together with a team of 20 people.
Later we got closer and he said he was a widower and had a daughter living with his ex-mother-in-law in the US (Houston), including sending photos with the supposed daughter. He said that his wife would be a nurse and that she would have died about 2 years ago in Africa and that the child (Abigail) would be 5 years old.
When he was already on the platform, he said he was having problems with a drilling rig. At all times he said that the internet connection in the place was bad.
Then he asked me to research some equipment to be purchased and sent to the platform and he suggested some sites.
I requested a quote for some equipment on the alleged site and later he gave me access to his supposed bank account so that I could make the purchase and ship the equipment to the location.
At this point the coup begins. The shipping payment should be made separately from the purchase and when trying to make the payment the supposed bank would have blocked the account.
The scammer asks me to get in touch with the bank sending the service provision contract and explaining that he could not leave the workplace due to the contract clauses and asking for the account to be unlocked.
As I wasn't able to unlock the account, I suggested that the amount of equipment be reduced and that the difference pay the shipping.
So they did that, and gave me the purchase details, the carrier's website and a code for tracking the equipment.
However, at a certain point, the product appeared to be stopped and when contacting the alleged seller and the carrier, they informed that the products would be held at customs in Turkey and that for release it would be necessary to pay customs fees.
I informed that there was no possibility of paying the amounts.
So the scammer said they were in trouble, he said that some people had left work, he also
said they were late with their work due to the problem with the equipment.
At one point, he said that the alleged client went to verify the work because he had a deadline for delivery of the work and that he would not release money to release the retained equipment.
As he was not successful in this way, he tried other means.
As I was being treated for cancer they used an illness situation to deliver the blow.
At one point he said he had a fever and body aches, and then he did not get in touch for two days. I sent a message and no one responded and two days later someone else (his supposed employee) got in touch with me saying that he would be very sick and that they didn't have enough resources in place to treat him.
Previously, the scammer borrowed an amount so that he could travel to where the bank's headquarters would be to unlock the account in person, as only he could do it and release the retained equipment.
The employee allegedly took the scammer to a hospital in Turkey (International Patient Program - American Hospital), which I later contacted to confirm the information and who returned to me stating that there was no patient named Richard Moorkily.
This alleged employee said he needed money to pay for hospital expenses.
I requested photos of the scammer at the hospital and they were sent, but I had many files deleted from my cell phone and these photos were lost.
Later, on the date the scammer would be released from pneumonia, the second scammer informs that he would have fainted and would have gone to the emergency room being diagnosed with a stroke due to stress.
At this point, the employee again requests money for medical expenses. I informed that I do not have the values and he claims to have to sell some of the scammer's belongings and borrow money from some known people.
I asked for contacts of the ex-mother-in-law and relatives of the scammer for the alleged employee.
The employee said he was going to talk to his parents, but in a previous conversation "Richard" told me that his parents were deceased and that he only had an uncle on the part of the father and his daughter.
So at this point I realized I had fallen for a scam. I immediately blocked the alleged employee's contact, shortly afterwards I received a link through my contact and a message from another unknown number (which I blocked).
About 15 minutes later I got a call from Richard's number, so I blocked it too.
I believe my phone has been cloned, including whatsapp, so I uninstalled everything and reported the scam to LinkedIn networks, but they say there was no infringement by this person, I also informed Whatsapp of what happened.
I reported the fraud in my country, but justice is extremely flawed when it comes to cyber crimes.
I would like this to be published so that other people are not deceived and that personal situations of fragility are not used by scammers for their own benefit.
Also that people be aware that the LinkedIn network that should be a serious network linked to networking is being used as a springboard for scams.
Help yourself by helping others - report your scammer here.Google can be your best friend;use it if you have doubts about someone met online. If someone met online only asks for money, no matter what reason, it´s 100% scam.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26504
