Hello there. I've investigated this scam a relative of mine almost fell for, a romance scam operating on dating apps under the name of Patrick Morris. The scammer claims to be an Irish captain of a company, running your average shipment scam.
Gallery:
https://scamsurvivors.com/piwigo/index. ... egory/3030This scammer has been spotted targeting victims in Brazil.
This scammer has found my relative on Tinder and conversation evolved over a short period of time, including calls to each other. Apparently, the scammer had a pretty loose grasp on our native language, which could also be him resorting to Google Translate during conversations, I'm not sure. Eventually, he claimed to be coming to our country on his ship and said he'd send his things to my relative's address through a courier, allegedly being already paid and giving her only the tracking code. Since I'm the only in the family able to speak English, she sent me info on the tracking code and the page and asked me to tell her what that meant.
Already suspecting it could be a scam, I did my investigation. Among many inconsistencies, here are the things I have learned:
- Pictures were stolen from another sailor loosely related to Thomas Lindegaard Madsen (link to post related to Thomas:
https://www.scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=70009). The man works at DanPilot, a Danish piloting company that only provides services in Denmark and across the Baltic Sea. He also has pictures with Madsen.
- The scammer sent her pictures of documents and even a declaration mentioning the items he was sending, under a passport and not having a full name. The ID card was clearly edited and I found the original source, and the passport number was the one of a fake passport posted online. The signatures were too different from each other, the one signed on the paper was written "Patrick Moris", missing an r.
- Pictures of the same person were also used by dating scammers on other platforms and pages. For example, the same man is seen on the Russian platform VK as Michael O'brien, allegedly seeking to learn Russian with someone. The profile also had pictures that hint to the real identity of the person.
- The scam relies on fake pages of courier companies that don't really exist and are operated by them. The page of the courier used this time was [url]https:/ /trixglobalexp.com/#[/url].
- The baggage picture counts as being from eBay.
- Other inconsistencies related to the story that just didn't add up.
Obviously, knowing what was happening, I warned my relative and showed her all the proof I collected. Unfortunately, I couldn't extract more information or cause more trouble to the scammer because of her reaction, so the scammer blocked her and deleted his Tinder profile. However, I still know he is using the same phone number and also his email address, and while I managed to contact Thomas and he chose not to tell the person, I have more than enough pictures to send that are being used and will likely continue to be.
I've also found a list of pages hosted under that same IP, with nearly all pages being from Nigeria, including another used for parcel scams. (
line removed - FF)
Name used: Patrick Morris
Telephone used for scams: +353 89 973 8936
Address used: The Laurels, Terenure, Dublin 6W, Co. Dublin, D6W R902, Ireland
1 Terenure Rd W
VK profile (probably a different scammer): [url]https:/ /vk.com/mich1410[/url]
List of hosts found by DNSDumpster (since the host server is known, please report the other scammy pages to them if possible):
247cargotransport.com
aimsair-ways.com
1stgulfb.com
247cargotransport.com
247cargotransport.istructurestech.com
29regularcourse.com
2dotcom.net
3plebeat.com.ng
411restaurantandbar.411restaurantlagos.com
411restaurantlagos.com
54empiregroup.com.ng
academy-myonline.com
acceleratehubng.com
account.utbanquetg.com
aceroyalty.com.ng
adepojuolaoluwa.com
adffoundation.com.ng
advancecryptotrade.com
adsworkspace.seldsoftcommunications.com
adsworkspacebronze.seldsoftcommunications.com
adsworkspacediamond.seldsoftcommunications.com
adsworkspacegold.seldsoftcommunications.com
adsworkspacesilver.seldsoftcommunications.com
aestheticdesignconstructions.avstitches.com
aforaestheticsng.avstitches.com
aforaestheticsng.com
agorconstructioncompany.com
ahimiedescendants.com
aimsair-ways.com
Pictures used by the scammer + Evidence:
Stay safe and have a great day, you all.
Phone: +353899738936
Number billable as mobile number
Country or destination Ireland
City or exchange location