Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Most are from Ethiopia, etc. and use images that they find online. Usually of middle-aged white guys. Did you tineye whatever image he gave her, to show her who he really is (or isn't), by any chance?
Hitch
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That was the first thing I did, and I was immediately taken to this thread:
http://www.romancescam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54241. Dude's current profile pic was about 2/3 of the way down. Plain as day, photos stolen from a Romanian police commissioner.
When I told her, she seemed disappointed (naturally) but she seemed to accept it. However, she's still talking to him. She doesn't know I know that, and she's flat out lied to me about it. But if I tell her I know she's lying, she'll change her passwords and then I won't be able to keep an eye on things. (She has me set up her devices for her, so I have her email and cell account logins. I won't apologize for snooping - she's my mother and trying to keep her safe trumps my usual sense of ethics in this area.)
The guy has since changed his profile pic, but he's still using a stolen photo of Mr. Ciocan, just a different one. He claims to be contractor outside of DC. He says he's originally from Germany as a way to explain his accent.
She's been emailing him, but he only communicates with her via Facebook and phone. His email is just a gmail address, but since he never writes to her, I can't even nab a header for any possible info nuggets. A search on the email address nets me nothing so I imagine it's new and only being used to encourage trust.
His phone number is a Pinger voip number, so he has a Wash. DC number but could be anywhere.
I reported his profile to Facebook, but that probably won't do anything.
She's also opened a PayPal account within the past couple of weeks.
What really, really, REALLY steams me up is finding out that when I send her links showing proof that the photos are stolen, she emails the links to him. WTF??? Based on timestamps, he then calls her and says goodness knows what to explain it away.
I feel helpless. As of yet, he hasn't tried to reel in, but he's working up to it. I know how these guys operate. He'll say he's coming to see her but "something" will happen on the way and he'll need money. But until he actually does something like that, law enforcement can't do anything because, at the moment, he's basically just catfishing her. The Romanian PC is the only one that can take action over the photos, so that doesn't help me here.
If I confront her, I could lose my ability to keep an eye on things and she'll either deny it or defend him. I know her pretty well.
Arrrrgh!!!!
