My First Experience with Romance Scam. Summary: I have recently known a guy from a dating app. He texted me and called me everyday. We made a short video call once. He said he works in a Petro company in the US and he’s now on his business trip in Turkey. He has just called me to help him if I could log in fidelitycredits website (because his phone IP has changed, he couldn’t log in his account). So I logged in it with the information he provided, I saw his name, his photo and $350,000. He asked me to transfer $10,000 from his account to a Turkey account. I felt something wrong here and I firmly denied him and logged out that website.
Am I in trouble that I logged in his account? I before I did, I already asked him whether it’s legal. He said it was. He didn’t have anyone else to help him. He only trusted in me because he considered me as his “girlfriend”. So I was really confused and worried.
How we “met”?
I saw his profile – it was exactly what I am looking for (except for the “petroleum engineer” part). So boom, we matched. He sent me message introducing himself from Houston, USA. I was not impressed to be honest. Somehow I was reminded of Chris Watts case in the US and I did NOT feel good about the petroleum engineer part.
*I do not want to reveal his “name” and “personal information” yet.
I felt something off about him
When I saw his profile, it showed me the distance “3 km” so I asked where he was. He said he was in Houston, USA :flag-us: and it was the app error showing the wrong distance. Sometimes I went back to the app and checked the distance again, it was different every time.
Then he asked my WhatsApp number and we moved to chat there.
After we exchanged our photos, he introduced himself:
We made a short video call on Skype for 11 secs. I could see that he was in a middle of nowhere, bushes around him. It was 5:40 am in Houston but I could see a bit of sunlight and it’s in February (??). Then he hang up. I asked where it was, he said it was his front yard about to do exercise and prepare to go to work. It was his face for sure.
So we talked, texted each other everyday. There were some banters. “Now I am your real boyfriend!”, he said few days after our first chat. He seemed to be responsive but I noticed that he never replied/texted me during 7PM – 5:30 AM the next day (his time). I was thinking like he might have a wife already but still looking for sexting girls online LOL.
How he carried out the scam
He told me that he was going to Turkey for his 3 month business trip. Yesterday, I got back home from the beach. I saw 3 missed calls from him. I texted him told him where I was. He called me right after. He said he arrived in Turkey. I asked “Are you in the hotel?”. “Yes, I am but I am now in the lobby because I have trouble with withdrawing my money…”, he answered.
He wanted me to log in the site see if it worked from my country becaz it did not work in Turkey. I thought about advising him to use VPN but I am not so acquainted to it so I did not mention it. I asked him again and again whether it’s legal to log in another person’s bank account. He reassured me it was between me and him and he trusted me.
So I logged in it with the information he provided (Account name, password, and PIN CODE). I saw his name, his photo and $350,000.
Then he said he’s gonna provide me the info of the other bank account so I could help him to transfer $10,000 using my phone.
I asked “Am I gonna transfer it to another bank account of yours?”
He said, “No, to a Turkey account caz I got problem with withdrawing money from my accounts!”
I replied: “I do not want to do a fraudulent transaction. Sorry, I got cold feet now. You should ask your closed friends, family members or someone you have known for a long time.” Then I turned off my wifi connection and went to tell my family and my friends what had just happened. I was worried that I was in trouble because I logged in his account. They had never experienced something like this before. So I went online again and asked for advice in a forum and received very helpful advice from https://www.reddit.com/user/lightfair/:
fidelitycredits.com was registered last October for a single year. That’s NOT what I would expect from a real bank.
In other words, it is a fake site operated by your “guy”. There is no money in there; it’s a just a website (and a rather comical one; I’ll get to that later). The playbook is usually that you would have to pay a “fee” to transfer the (nonexisting) money to another “bank” (equally fake). The scammer (your guy) would of course assure you that he would re-pay you; after all you’ve seen how much (nonexisting) money there is in his account, right? The only real money would be the fee you pay; and you’d probably pay it to an accomplice of the scammer or to him directly.
So the good news is that you’re not in trouble at all for logging in to that fake banking website.
The bad news is that you are (almost) a victim of a romance scam. The guy you were in contact with is a professional scammer, probably from somewhere in Africa or Asia. He’s been playing you. But you were smart enough to notice something didn’t add up. Still it can be an emotionally devastating experience. There are forums a groups that can help you deal with this if you feel the need.
So in the end some comic relief: https://www.fidelitycredits.com/stage/overview.php
From 93 years, We Achived 526Projects Completed 29
Satisfied Customers 87
Awwards Winning 17
Experts Advisor 29
“Satisfied Customers” in 93 years doesn’t sound particularly impressive to me. Also “Awwards” and “17 Experts Advisor”.
And they have “Johm Doe” who is “Cheif Advisor”.
And of course
KINDLY
After that, I googled the full name that he provided me as his “real” name. I do not know if its really his name but surprisingly, I found a total different person with the same name and same age who lives in Houston, USA. So, who is the guy I met online and had video call with??!
Conclusion – My First Experience with Romance Scam
So I was almost his victim, maybe more accurately, one of his victims. I was lucky enough but I’m kinda curious what he’s going to do next. I just pretended to feel guilty not to help him yesterday and see how he responded. He said I did not deserve true love. LOL
My First Experience with Romance Scam
