A couple of days after signing up on Christian Mingle I got an email from a man who said his name was Scott Baumann. I loved his photo so I signed up for 3 months of service in order to read the email. He gave me his personal email ([email protected]) and we began communicating. He said he lived in Miami but was raised in Norway, was divorced and had a daughter named Emma. I had been praying for God to send me a Christian man who was financially stable, loved to travel, was clean cut, a good kisser and who would pursue me instead of the other way around. This man seemed to be all of those things and he certainly pursued me, and how! I fell for all of it at first, until he said he dealt in gold as a side job and had to go to Ghana to collect gold he had been buying for the past 10 months or he would lose his investment. He claimed to have arrived in Ghana, met the Ashanti king through his lawyer, and was able to buy more gold at a great discount. He said the hotel provided him with a cell phone so he could text me, but I always thought it strange that he never called me so I could hear his voice even though I requested it several times. I guess a Norwegian accent would be harder to pull off! He professed his love for me repeatedly and said he would come up to visit me as soon as he returned from Ghana. He talked about and praised God all the time and said he was a man of prayer and all that stuff. This guy could really spin a great line! But when he wanted to chat on Yahoo Messenger and said God had put it on his heart to put my name also on the gold he was buying so that we would own it jointly, red flags went up and I refused the offer. But he said he understood and knew it was too soon and said he would be more guided in the future. Then today he asked me to pray for him... That things were costing more in Ghana than other places he had been to get gold, like Australia. He said his lawyer had told him he was $42,000 short of funds to complete all documentation and have gold shipped to the US. He said he had been able to raise $34,000 from friends and family, and was working hard to get the last $8,000. He didn't ask me outright for the money, but I felt it was hinted at. I told him I would pray for him, but that was all that I could offer. Then tonight I started searching for dating scams and found a woman who had been scammed by a man on Christian Mingle and quoted parts of a letter she received. It was very similar to the last email from Scott. So my bubble was officially burst! I am waiting to see if he tries to take his scam to the next level tomorrow and, if so, I will be prepared for him. I couldn't send him any money even if I wanted to, so no danger in that. But I will most likely never hear from him again. It's so sad that men will use the name of Jesus Christ to try to scam money out of women that only want to be loved by a man as Christ loves the church. God will be my avenger and he will get what he deserves in the end. I still have over 2 months left on Christian Mingle but probably won't use it unless it's someone local who catches my eye. Chalk this up to a valuable lesson learned!
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