I want to tell you all about this scam in case it happens to you or a friend.
Firstly I am a British Ex-patriot living in Singapore. We have a live in maid who has worked for us for nearly four years. Tina (Philippine, not her real name) has been really wonderful with our children and we look after her giving her time off and little luxuries like an Internet connection and laptop PC.
When Tina started working for us she had a steady boyfriend, a local Indian boy, a little younger than her. He was a nice enough guy but clearly not serious about her and after some time she decide to look for another boyfriend, with the serious intention of looking for someone that she would eventually marry, settle down with and have children,
Tina used the Internet to find potential partners, chat rooms and the like, and she met some guys both near and far away. One chap she was rather taken with was a Nigerian living in Thailand. Tina went to visit him on one occasion, and felt he was the right man for her, being a schoolteacher. Tina spent quite a lot of time on the Internet and telephone to this chap. We asked Tina if she would like to ask Ismael (not his real name) to come and stay with us for a week; mainly so that we could see what kind of person Ismael really was. Ismael never came to stay.
Some months passed and one day Tina tells us that she needs some money to send to Ismael's friends because he has been arrested. Apparently he was in a barbershop, the police raided, there were some drugs as the owners were dealers and Ismael got arrested. The friends kept sending Tina emails saying that Ismael would be jailed and they needed bail money US$ 5,000. They said they had scraped some together but needed around US$ 2,000 more.
Of course we were not happy to lend Tina the money, and we told her that we thought this was a scam, she did not believe us.
We then found that she had already given Ismael money to start an Oil import business (US$ 1,000), Tina only earns around US$ 400 per month, so these amounts are massive for her.
We then found that Tina had been talking to Ismael on his mobile phone, we told her it was strange that he was able to use his phone in a police cell.
We tried to persuade Tina that this was all a scam, pointing out that in Thailand, it was unlikely to get bail on a drugs charge, and that a Police bribe, which was more likely, would be in the region of US$ 1,000.
We also managed to trace Ismael's mobile phone calls (we have a friend in the Telco in Bangkok) he was nowhere near the area he said he was and there was no Police station of the name he gave.
Tina was going to fly to Bangkok and help him, she nearly went, but then decided she would simply send money. We told her not to, she agreed, but behind our backs she pawned her jewelry and sent US$ 1,000 to Ismael's friends.
When I spoke to Ismael, he was clearly not in a police cell, it was quiet, and he said that Tina had told everyone about this and to pass her a message to call it off.
When I spoke to Ismael's friends they said that everything was all right now and they didn't need any money, Tina did not need to come over, and that they could handle things themselves.
Tina tells us that she now believes us that this was all a scam. She is extremely upset and feels betrayed; she says that Ismael said that he was going to marry her.
These kind of scams are common in Thailand, beware!
We are filing a Police report on these people!
Ismael's real name is Partick
The friends name ia Joanne
Guyon
Singapore
Singapore
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