ibillic: course of events & my little web research efforts

[back story over here about the scam]

how it all started to end ... the following are the series of events from last weekend (aug 22/23) regarding the romance scam - and what a weekend it was, closing out the nearly 2 week volley of emails.

• on the afternoon aug 22 (12:33 pm), i figured out i was a target of an internet dating scam.
• that same afternoon (2:03 pm), i told/texted some girlfriends i'd write a note to ibillic that he was getting no $ € ¥ or £
• that evening (7:46 pm), i sat at my computer and sent ibillic a note saying "in short, i am **not** going to provide any funding support - not for the cargo company efforts or for any other funding needs you may encounter as part of your project activities or travel needs. ..."
• later that evening (9:17 pm), i sent a note with my pieces of "evidence" to customer service about the potential scam.
  
• early on aug 23 (1:14 am), i received a note from ibillic that said that following OVER HERE ...
• by aug 25 (3:10 pm), i received a "robot" note (that was a mass email) from customer relations that effectively took ibillic off of everyone's list. the robot note included content below ...
  
  • "Making your ... experience safe and successful is important to us. As a past or present user, we want to inform you that ... has taken action to remove one of your matches, ibillic, ... This decision was made in accordance with our terms and conditions. Consistent with our privacy policy, we do not disclose the specific reasons for this person's removal."
• by aug 25 (3:25), i received a note from tracy w, a risk management customer care member. the note included content below ...
  
  • "Thank you for reporting your match concern. I have investigated this matter and have removed this match from our service. If you have not already done so, I recommend moving this match to your closed match listing. I regret that you have had a negative experience with this match and thank you for bringing this matter to our attention."
    

poking around the web to research dating scams ... for most of last weekend and on/off this past week, i have checked out several sites regarding dating scames. here are some sites where i learned more about the romance scam traits starting with romance scams, ditch or snog, and friend jungle.

• red flags they might be a scammer if ... - bullet points of traits
• what is ... dating scam - describes online scam
  
• internet dating scam ... - describes the scam approach
  
• 5 tips ... dating scammer - includes links for identifying the IP address (geographic location of the computer)
  
• friend jungle's top 10 ... tips - advice tips that includes

there are several others sites, however, these were the ones i started with and for which i subsequently found other interesting links. i'll include tidbits in future ibillic posts.

just a reminder:
IBILLIC*

Italian-Born-In-London-Living-In-California

*(you decide how to pronounce-
EYE-bil-ik ... eye-BIL-ik ... eye-bil-LIK
it's make believe, anyway)

ibillic: and then he said - let's just PRETEND ...

[back story over here]

... he, ibillic (italian born in london living in california), was real and spoke (and wrote) in italian. that said, the last note i received would have looked something like this (according to google language tools over here) IF it were written in italian (and perhaps poor italian) ...

[and if you are too lazy to do that cut/paste yourself,
at the end of this post is the actual content of the last note]

Honey,
Capisco cosa vuoi dire, e mi piace la vostra apertura e come frank si è con ciò che si pensa, il mio ginocchio sta guarendo bene, ora sto di nuovo a lavoro, sai stiamo lavorando mezza giornata di oggi e ciò significa che dobbiamo smettere di lavorare da 1:00, mi sono svegliato in tarda mattinata per non arrivare a controllare la mia e-mail da quando ho dovuto correre al mio posto di lavoro fino ad ora che sono un po 'libero .... Io ti scriverò più avanti, come è stata la vostra settimana andando? ...
Amore,
Morgan ...

coffee-talk confession #1 - apparently, i can be a bit shallow. italian/european-ish background, accent (talked on the phone), cute pics, and italian (did i mention italian?).

despite the books that sit in my work office on grammar and the like, turns out that i will put up (enough) with what is known as scammer grammar. yes! REALLY! no - stop choking on your food. (did i mention italian? hot looking?)

i'll follow-up with the next post being specific to scammer grammar. meanwhile, if you didn't google-translate, here is the secret decoder ring ...

"Honey,

I understand what you mean, well i like your openness and how frank you are with what you think, my knee is healing all right, i am now back to work, you know we are working half day today and that means that we stop work by 1:00 P.M, i woke up late this morning so did not get to check my email since i had to rush to my work site until now that i am a bit free.... i will write you more later, how has your week been going?...

Love,

Morgan..."

oh, yeah ... we'll talk about morgan - the name "morgan" at a later date. at least i learned about the morgan car company and wooden construction ... as if that is new knowledge i needed. (it's trivia. i'll take it.)

ciao!

cCacao clan: my nigerian prince (aka ibillic) ... got blog fodder?

my nigerian prince-wannabe-boyfriend
(aka ibillic)
is in trouble.
spare some change?

"... Honey can you help me with this? if you can't just know that i will understand, i am just trying my luck anywhere... a drowning man will clutch at any thing so please if you can help me then that means that you will have to do a westernunion money transfer of exactly $1850 to J***s Fisher in Beijing China who is the remittance officer of the cargo company for him to now release my materials to come to Oman..."

cCacao stories with a twist ... i will still be providing the biweekly update of this effort over here, however, i ALSO will be posting about my 2 week+ experience with my nigerian prince, aka the italian-born-in-london-living-in-california (aka ibillic, you decide how to pronounce - EYE-bil-ik or eye-BIL-ik or eye-bil-LIK - it's make believe, anyway).

coffee break time ... take a little coffee break with me and my new travel mug - i am not a paper cup (click image) - (more fun stuff over here) that i got from influx (san diego) last week. LOVING IT!!! (and there is a little silicone sleeve, also; i chose brown)

let's chat!!!

romance scammer in the mix(!) ... how f**kin' awesome is that?! i had heard a little about this because of extraordinary stories that men and women would share on talk shows like oprah. i mean, yes, when i was emailing, there were some "huh? really?!" characteristics of the prolific email exchanges between ibillic and me that have evolved over the past 2 weeks. and admittedly, i have shared them with friends, as well. (and if you insist, i'll figure out a way to give back the minutes of your life that i inadvertently squandered with my story-telling, but really ... they were entertaining, yes?!)

HOWEVER, because of a specific email i received yesterday morning (which was preceded by 2 other emails setting up this scenario) after just 2 weeks into a volley of email communications, 3 short phone calls, and 1 longer phone call with a yippity-yap, the USD$ of exactly 1,850 was thrown in the mix. my reaction yesterday afternoon included ...

• "ahhhhhhh!" (sad face) ... bummed that this is not the "real" person that was actually the "made up" person (getting over it - NEXT.)
• read this article sent over by rexy on romance fraud over here
• read through this website over here to get up to speed on the whole romance scam stuff (and reading through similar info elsewhere on the net)
  
• notified the little service about my nigerian prince, ibillic
  

why is this so "f**kin' awesome"?! ... this is f**kin awesome because my first-hand-ish experience will serve as a bit of blog fodder. as far as i know, i don't have any friends that have experienced a romance scam or have chosen to fess up to experiencing one. i've heard a little bit about this and often wondered how a person could get sucked into this.

well, i can only speak for my own experience, so in the spirit of the cCacao efforts, i'm up for telling my story - i got sucked in ... despite the soul-patch, blanding strip, halliburton, lng, and crazy english. (yes, i'll explain these at some point.) and by sucked in, i mean i actively emailed ibillic (who i understand may simply be comprised of a team of up to six nigerians). i'd love to hear from anyone who has experienced something like this, particularly for the blog fodder.

i did not know that i have a little romantic bone in my body (thanks to kathy-chat before the s.f. giants game over some belgian ale), and after reading some of the information on the web about romance scams, i am fascinated about exploring how i got sucked in to the potential opportunity for romance. (well, i think i know, just sayin ...) my initial thoughts - it's the kathy-chat intersecting coincidentally with the ibillic emails within the same timeframe. (final answer)

voices in my head & ponderings ... keeping to my promise that i would not slam anyone (even ibillic) as i go through this cCacao effort, i will share the voices in my head and what i have been/am pondering as i have gone/am going through this.

turns out, the prolific email exchanges with ibillic has, in my opinion, reinforced (in some cases) and transformed (in other cases) my thoughts about dating - all in a good way for the most part. and because of my whole self-aware kick, surprisingly, i have shed some little walls around me - granted because of a made-up-persona, which i have come to understand is really what was presented to me by the nigerian prince, ibillic, and what i chose to see and not see. (how adult of me, yes?!)

go figure! in the end (well, that's another story still evolving although soon to end - i mean, really ... the curiosity is too much for me to see how far the scammers will go so i'm ... well ... poking the bear, kind of, but not in a bad way. it's a closure thing, you know.), no money exchanged, however, there has been quite a bit of email exchanges. admittedly throughout the exchanges, there were yellow flags here and there; however, i also found myself quite intrigued, with my interest and curiosity piqued.

teeing-up topics for the future blog posts ... 'cuz it's a bit of a writing therapy thing, also - a few things i intend to write about until i bleed this topic dry (or get tired of myself writing about it) ...

• whirlwind wooing and sucked-in ... course of events over the two week ibillic whirlwind - with the prolific emailing, the events are nicely organized (lovin' that gmail) so i can dig in to the details
  
• comparing with others ... from the different websites on this topic, i'll see how my experience compares with others. so far, it's kind of textbook.
  
• ibillic persona ... and pictures (!), and from what i have read, i may be screwed because of pictures i shared (no, there were no nudes, thank you) that may be used by scammers
  
• to see or not to see? ... exploring what i chose to see and not see while being sucked-in

other topics? ... i'm always up for a little prodding on what else i can write about, AND i'm always up for just answering questions that may spur some topics to write about. if you are thinking, "really?! you freakin' got sucked in? what the ...?" ... well, if your questions are truly not rhetorical (or judgemental), just pony up!

o.k. - me and my
i am not a paper cup
have a date with peet's this morning!