There is no base in Pakistan. There is NOT any security reasons. Simply no online vendor will ship to West Africa because there are strict terms and conditions and online stores are well informed about cyber scammers.... There is only West African dirty and crowded internet cafe.then why would he ask me to send a suitcase and phone to him in Nigeria so his agents could send it to his base in Pakistan cause he wasn't allowed to receive shipments due to security reasons.
Victims are very often ask to send phones, laptops I pads to scammers....they promise better communication. Also when victims buy phone in "add a line" subscription to the existing plan they end up paying huge bills for international calls all over the word scammers make daily to the hundreds off recipients. It happened to my several scammed friends....
What was happened in this crime : scammer simply wanted to turn you into his MULE. He wanted you to accept a suitcase full of goods bought on internet with stolen from other victims credit cards or bank accounts. This way your name and address as a compliance in the scam would be known as a thief who stole credit card.... Trust me scammers don't spend their crime profits on victims. There is always another's innocent person money used to buy merchandise for reshipping. Unfortunately scammers are sociopaths and they do not care about their victims. If you end up in federal prison as a convicted mule they wouldn't care less.
Please read the info from FBI:
MULE may be asked to receive goods, purchased online through fraudulently obtained funds, and requested to forward these on to an overseas address. A promised payment may sometimes be arranged, however in most romance scam related cases, promises of a new life together often substitute any monetary gain for the victim.
Have you met someone online that has asked you to receive funds or goods on their behalf? Quite simply, this is money laundering and any individual assisting these criminals can be prosecuted and have their whole bank account frozen. A conviction for an offence of money laundering may carry a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment.
The scammer had you well programmed, groomed to do his will. He fed your emotional emptiness and that is what led romance scams victims to fall for the attention and emotional bond that would fill the void in our lives. You will experience anticipation attacks because you were groomed to the scammer schedule, the hours the scammer worked into your daily routine; knocking you off schedule and depriving you of needed rest and family time.Nothing makes sense and I feel I need to know why. I really like to hurt all of these people who have hurt me. I feel very angry inside like i could just beat the living crap out of them for what they have done. But mostly I hate myself and feel very ashamed i fell for this.
Scammers quickly pick up on our emotional void and loneliness so that is a cue for the scammer to groom the victim with online affection and promises the scammer knows will never come true. Scammers do not feel empathy, they don't fall in love nor do they become committed to the romance scam victims. Scammers only build illusions woven out of lies and elaborate illusions.
Unfortunately for the victim, when we reach this stage the illusion is imbibed so deep into our mind, heart and soul, our emotions blinding our intellectual and logical understanding, and we begin to believe this is the exception to the rule; we ignore all the red flags. Not one scammer has turned out to be real, nor honestly in love with their victims. No matter how many hours they spend communicating with the victim; it was all a carefully orchestrated illusion of love, an online romances scam.
Some victims will come to the realization and acceptance of the fact we were scammed, but will continue to want the relationship with the scammer; leaving the victim to think the scammer is experiencing honest feelings towards the victim, which is exactly what the scammers want their online victims to think. The fact is the relationship never did exist.
After the victim loses not only the money, we are left feeling hurt, humiliated, angry and ashamed.... And those are the intentions of the online scammer and the scam ring.
Scammer chooses the correct picture and profile to hide behind. Scammers know they do not fit the image a man or woman is seeking in a relationship, scammers use the stolen photos to lure victims into a romance scam; the stolen photos are the MOST POWERFULvisual tools scammers use to entice romance scam victims.Too me i still see him as the military soldier he portrayed himself to be and to see pics of the actually person whose pics he stole it makes me wonder if this person actually scammed me that has a family and too see this person with his wife and child causes me great pain in my heart. I think well either he scammed me or his pics were actually stolen.
Scammers do not exist as the person in the image; not even the PHOTO VICTIM in the picture exists. The photo victim does not even know the romance scam victim is deeply in love with their image.
Hope it will help you to go through, please delete the stolen picture because it DON'T BELONG to the awful criminal who reads to you pre-written scam script.
Igulinka