Happy Riches was contacted by a
Filipina Angelle (pronounced, “Angel”) Gonzalez two weeks before Easter. She
told him that she liked him and would like to visit him. She had no money, of
course, and was at the end of her nursing contract. Before entering her next
contract, she said she would like to come to Perth and have a holiday. Only she
did not have the money, but she did have a current passport and a visa would be
no problem for her because she holds a master’s degree in nursing.
Happy says he
detected a sting, having been involved in an attempt to set him as a mule to
transfer funds overseas that were deposited into his bank account. Information
provided by Happy helped authorities break a $30 million bankcard fraud in November,
2012.
This current sting was the usual set up that
occurs when overseas grifters set up a mark.
First Angelle
claims she is interested in his personality. She sets up phone calls and seeks
information about her mark. Then sends photos of herself at different
locations. Sends a letter expressing how depressing her life is without someone
to love and take care of, and someone who would love her. Angelle then tells
her mark how she has just come to the end of her nursing contract and will be
off for a month or until she can get a new contract for five years. While she
has the month off she would love to visit her mark but has not got the money.
She hopes that she would be able to sleep with him to see if the chemistry is
right. Just to show that she is an honest and reputable girl she emails copies
of her passport and a police clearance stating she does not have a derogatory
record. Now if only she had the $150 to get her visa and medical for
immigration purposes. Angelle provides a dodgy receipt from Australia Post for
her visa from the immigration dept.
The mark forks out
the $150 sending it by Western Union, as it is faster than bank transfer and
can be done in minutes and there is not
much time to waste as she needs to get everything done by Wednesday 12 noon if
she is to get the cheap airline ticket. All she now needs is the $750 for the
tickets. The mark usually obliges, but Happy, for fun, says that he will go you
halves and tells her how generous he has been in the past and about how the
girl in Azerbaijan is spending time in jail for trying to con him. Angelle, has
only eyes on the money. Happy sends her $400. Angelle contacts him saying she
cannot raise the other $350. After four hours, with phone calls between them
and other matters, Angelle claims she is $50 short and cannot come over if she
doesn’t get the money, even though she has put the rest on deposit on the
ticket. Happy decides to send her $200 more to pay for incidental expenses
airport taxes and a bite to eat and drink for the trip. More alarm bells ring
when Happy is provided with dodgy receipt for an airline ticket and copies of
tickets with incorrect dates from Brunei Airline that does not fly to Perth.
Happy points this out.
On Good Friday,
Angelle provides two more copies of dodgy airline tickets with incorrect dates,
and insists that she needs $1000 for show money, so immigration will permit her
to leave the Philippines. While Happy is speaking to Angelle on skype, he
receives a phone call from a man claiming to be from the Immigration Dept, but
the call drops out. Then Angelle provides a mobile number for the Immigration
Dept., to confirm that she need to show the $1000.
Happy went as far
as he was prepared to go. He had sufficient details to send to authorities for
fraud, impersonation of immigration officials, and forgery. However, the next
step would have been I have lost the money and need another $1000 or I have
lost both the traveler's cheque and tickets and missed the plane. Now I will
need to do it all again, and because my visa to depart was only until Easter
Sunday the 20th and the ticket was non-fundable, I cannot get a
refund. If you want me to come over, you will have to help me. I will need
another two grand.
People like Angelle Gonzalez (if that is really her
name) see nothing wrong in scamming old men out of their life's savings.
THE USUAL TELL TALE SIGNS OF A CON
The woman makes contact through a dating agency, or claims she
found your name at a dating agency and she is seeking marriage. Emails are sent
to unsuspecting victims and a case is presented to capture a person’s curiosity
in the hope of a reply. The people who lose the most are older men who are
lonely and vulnerable to solicitation.
Typically, the vixen will be from a third world country or
ex-communist country, but there are the exceptions. Naturally, the woman is
looking for help. She appeals to her victim’s sense of compassion. She suffers
from a lack of resources that are always Financial, but are the result of
a lack of education due to:
- Childhood poverty
- Broken family
- Abusive parents
- Alcoholic or drug addicted parents
- Death of father or mother, or both parents
An aborted education due to:
- Illness
- Illness of parents
- Death of parents
- Having to look after younger siblings
- Insufficient money
- Persecution because of race or religion or culture.
Being a woman seeking a man, she will naturally appeal to his
sexual desires.
Explicit sexual pornography is not a part of this deal. The woman
is after money, without being a common prostitute. She is suggestive of:
- Romance
- Intimacy
- Life-long relationship
And she will always tell of a relationship that she feels she has
to confess of when she had this boyfriend who was cruel to her and someone to
whom she could not say no, but who has now left the country, is in jail, or is
died in an accident.
She obtains finance from her mark by:
- Claiming lost birth certificate
- Need for registration of new identity documents
- Costs of obtaining passport and visa
- Cost of airline ticket which has to be a return ticket
- Airport costs
- Travel costs to airport
- Traveler’s check for living expenses to be provided on departure to demonstrate she has the capacity to pay for living expenses and is not thought to be a prostitute or do something immoral or illegal
- Delays and the unexpected expenses
- Stolen tickets, passports and money that has to be replaced.
And of course there is always a sense of urgency because she only
has a week or two take this window of opportunity and be with her mark.
When the scam is done well, the process cleans some men out of
their life savings.
In most cases authorities are helpless to anything, but at least
there is always the memory of what could have been.
Nothing left but one sofa and the memory of the pain.
