An Auckland woman was "mentally and financially drained" after losing more than $300,000 to several overseas accounts in a social media romance scam.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous and asked to be called Linda, shared her story with the Herald with the hope of warning others of similar traps.

The 54-year-old businesswoman said she was introduced through Facebook by a "mutual friend" to a man "presenting himself as a caring, religious and spiritual person".

Identifying himself as "Jim David Morrison", the British-American man began exchanging messages with Linda on WeChat, a social media chat site, in August last year.Linda, who has been in relationships but never married, was charmed by the man, unaware he was a fraudster.

"We talked about family background, pets, religious beliefs, business and life experience, where we had travelled to, and arrangements for future life including buying property in New Zealand," Linda said in a police statement, obtained by the Herald.Jim claimed he was a 40-year-old who owned a Scotland-based company called Morrison Construction, and had won a United Nations construction project to help rebuild Lebanon.

"Towards late September he was still talking about buying a home in New Zealand. It was then he introduced the topic of making me as an authorised signee to his bank account."

Linda said she "felt very uneasy" when her admirer first broached the idea of his financial arrangements."It was his way of showing me that he had faith in my abilities to look after his business and personal interests. I felt honoured."

Jim told Linda he was worried about his safety in Lebanon, where there was a "risk foreign workers can be kidnapped", and asked her to be his next of kin.

Linda later said these were all tactics Jim used to "lure me into his web of deception".

"I was led to believe that this person, who I had met through an acquaintance, was genuine and had good moral standards."

She was given Jim's account details at what was described as a Scottish investment bank.

After contacting the "bank" and proceeding through security checks, Linda was named as a co-signer of Jim's account.

The bank asked her to make an initial deposit of US$15,000 ($21,780), before a second payment of US$45,000 ($65,350) was required for a Bank of America account in San Diego.

Growing increasingly brazen, the scammer(s), via the investment bank, further asked Linda to pay an fee of US$85,000 ($123,430) to receive an "anti-terrorist clearance certificate" and cover wire transfers of more than US$5 million ($7.25m).

Linda didn't pay the fee, but a few days later Jim raised the issue of helping him with a personal loan of $US10,000 ($14,500) for a Kuala Lumpur-based building supplier.

She loaned the money, after which Jim said he'd made a mistake and required a further US$40,000 ($58,000), which Linda paid.Jim claimed his Beirut construction project had developed problems, and he had to pay income tax to the Lebanese Government.

He asked and received for a further US$50,000.

"Of course I was very reluctant to make further loan payments. Then he told me about the kidnapping of a foreign worker from a construction site next to his," she said.

In total, Linda forked out more than $300,000.

"By this time I was stressed out emotionally, mentally and financially drained [and] hoping to get my loans back as soon as possible."

Linda made her final US$50,000 payment for the Lebanese tax.But Jim continued to ask for more money, and as Linda began to question him, he became more aggressive with in his messages.

"Why did you not mortgage or borrow from your own house, or borrow from your friend," he wrote.

Linda said the messages continued for several more weeks into this year.

"By this time I had become very ill, relied on sleeping pills and stomach ulcers [had developed] due to the stress from the debt and emotional turmoil," she said.
more at http://www.akelicious.com/2017/05/auckland-woman-loses-more-than-300k-in.html

I pity her!

I won't be surprised if Jim Morrison is a Nigerian

ntoor, u neva see men for your area finish na internet oh u find go. op tell her say 'waka'

Awon G-men in action

G boys doing great things

Khd95:
I won't be surprised if Jim Morrison is a Nigerian

Lolz na weiten him be before?

All this Gboiz and their heavy charms ehn, eh.