This is a lengthy thread so a couple things to start out; 1) I won’t be sharing the pictures that the scammer used, as that actual person is a victim as well. 2) I won’t be using my loved ones name, instead I’ll use the alias of John
This whole situation started in spring of 2018. John had a devastating life event occur and needed companionship. Naturally he got on a dating app and met someone and started chatting. John was a prime target for Pig Butching scammers as he was nearing retirement age, lived alone, vulnerable, and lonely searching for a connection.
In the beginning it was a lot of just chatting and getting to know each other. After some time it turned into little issues like ‘can I borrow gas money’ or ‘Can you help with a car repair bill’. After those tricks successfully worked, it started into the main plot.
When John insisted that they meet in person, the scammer stated that they were leaving the state to peruse modeling and joining a Modeling Training Program. This is when the massive amount of money started flowing out. The scammer convinced John to be their ‘sponsor’ for their modeling program and in return, after they made it out of the program John would get paid $168,000 every week in royalties from their modeling career.
Here is more context to the scam itself: The scammer had John send him all his personal information, address, phone number, Bank account information and SS#. On top of this the scammer had John sign a contract that promised to be their sponsor all the way through no matter what. Once in the Modeling program, the scammer requested money for anything and everything you could think of; housing cost, food, modeling regalia, transportation costs to events, etc. Of course, the modeling agency only accepted money via bitcoin or gift cards.
After two full years of the scam being in full tilt with $250,000+ out the window, John had cashed out all of his retirement accounts, sold a lot of possessions, started borrowing against future paychecks and was in imminent danger of getting his car repo’d and evicted. He had no money left and John came to me asking for a loan for an ‘investment opportunity’. Being family, this wasn’t an issue, but since it was a very large amount of $48,000 I wanted a lot of details. He started explaining the whole thing and I immediately told him he was being scammed. I won’t drone on and on, but it took me about a full year to finally convince him that everything may not be as legit as it seems, but he never fully believed he was being scammed.
I initially told John that I wanted to prove to him that he was being scammed and I asked for the pictures the scammer was using, I asked for the phone number(s), Venmo/Cashapp accounts, and for the bitcoin wallets. With the help of watching YouTuber’s like Kitboga, PleasantGreen, and Jim Browning I was able to try and show John how he was being scammed.
What I did: With John’s help, I was able to convince the scammer to click a link and it captured his location in Lagos, Nigeria. After a lot of effort of sending emails and calling, I was able contact the actual Model Management company and setup a call with John, myself and one of their directors. I had previously provided them with as much info about the scam as I could so when the time of the call came they were really helpful with showing John everything that was inaccurate that the scammer was saying. I was able to reverse image lookup the pictures that the scammer sent to John to real him in and I showed that the images were stolen and who they were stolen from.
With John’s approval, I was able to gain access too and actively monitor John’s conversation with the scammer so I could use the information in real time to head things off before money was sent.
Anyways, if you’ve made it this far, Im happy to share that after years of helping deal with this situation and lots of death threats John is in a much better place mentally and very slowly digging out of his hole financially. It’s been two full years since any money has been sent and a little over a year since he last heard from the scammer. AMA
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