the first day i was on match.com, i received an IM as soon as i logged on. it was a man who's profile said he was in north dakota. we chatted for a while. his profile said he was portuguese. he said he was having trouble with match IM and could we switch to yahoo messenger. i agreed to this. we chatted for an hour on yahoo. he told me he was a civil engineer working in nigeria, building a shopping mall. he had a 6 year old son named Allen who was with him. he said his name was Wemi Scoth. he was a widower and an orphan.
here is that first IM from match.com:
6:59 - riseingsunnydays says: hello
6:59 - riseingsunnydays says: how are you doing
6:59 - riseingsunnydays says: are you there so we can chat
6:59 - riseingsunnydays says: I am Wemi
6:59 - me says: hi
7:00 - me says: what's a Wemi?
7:00 - riseingsunnydays says: hi
7:00 - riseingsunnydays says: how was your day
7:00 - me says: busy . you?
7:01 - riseingsunnydays says: don't mind me
7:03 - riseingsunnydays says: how are you doing
7:04 - riseingsunnydays says: are you there?
7:04 - me says: i'm fine. new to this so i am a little lost. i was going to read your profile but can't figure out how..
7:05 - riseingsunnydays says: oh same here
7:05 - riseingsunnydays says: how long have you been on this site
7:06 - me says: is it snowing in north dakota? and where's forman?
7:06 - me says: this morning! you?
7:06 - me : what's your name?
7:08 - riseingsunnydays says: Wemi scoth
7:08 - me says: oh, Wemi is your name! sorry! i am so clueless. apologies. i'm
(Name deleted)
7:08 - riseingsunnydays says: and you?
7:09 - me says: just found your profile. is that your son? so sweet.
7:10 - riseingsunnydays says: yes thanks
7:10 - riseingsunnydays says: He is the only source of joy for now
7:11 - me says: i'm glad he brings you joy. why nothing else?
7:11 - riseingsunnydays says: His mother was
7:12 - riseingsunnydays says: but unfortunatly she left us
7:12 - me says: i'm so sorry. was it recent? that's so hard.
7:13 - riseingsunnydays says: 6years back
7:14 - me says: wow. that's not very long. what are you doing in north dakota?
7:15 - riseingsunnydays says: I am not too good on this site can we chat on yahoo messanger if you don't mind
7:16 - me says: tell me how. i don't know about yahoo messenger...
7:17 - riseingsunnydays says: do you have a yahoo e-mail address
7:17 - me says: no..
7:18 - riseingsunnydays says: try open it it si not hard
7:19 - riseingsunnydays says: it is not hard
7:19 - me says: ok, please stand by...
7:19 - riseingsunnydays says: ok
7:20 - me says: oh, i have to download something. is that right?
7:20 - riseingsunnydays says: no
7:21 - me says: oh. do you want to try emailing instead? i only find that i must download...
7:21 - riseingsunnydays says: just go to yahoo mail then you register
7:21 - riseingsunnydays says: that's all
7:21 - me says: ok i'll try that...
7:22 - riseingsunnydays says: great
7:22 - me says: thanks for your patience. i'll register now.
7:23 - riseingsunnydays says: you are welcome
7:25 - me says: ok, now what do i do?
7:27 - riseingsunnydays says:
wemiscoth@yahoo.com
7:27 - riseingsunnydays says: and yours?
7:27 - me says:
(Yahoo mail address)
7:30 - me: i just sent you a message, but i think it was email not instant messaging...
7:30 - riseingsunnydays says: I am trying to add you
7:30 - me says: ok!
7:31 - me says: i'm glad you know how to do this technical stuff!
7:32 - riseingsunnydays says: I have just added you
7:33 - me says: ok, do i need to do something from here?
Wemi wanted to chat the next day too. i was so surprised and flattered. early in the morning we chatted again. he also sent photos to the yahoo account which i will attach below. then he sent his phone number and said call anytime. i automatically sent mine to him without thinking. that was wednesday morning. mid-day he called me from nigeria. i was so amazed. my brain was thinking, i can't believe he likes me. the funny thing was that when he spoke, he sounded african. but my brain overrode that, thinking it was just a bad connection. i thought because he was portuguese, he would sound kind of spanish/european. but as i said, my brain evened out all those doubts at first. i did look up the town he said he was living in in north dakota and it has a population of 500 and i couldn't figure out why an international civil engineer would live in such a backwater place. his profile had completely disappeared from match after that first evening and when i asked him about it, he said he was having trouble with the connection from nigeria.
here is the email he sent to me with his photos:
From: scoth wemi <
wemiscoth@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wed, February 23, 2011 12:00:46 PM
Subject: MY Pic
Hello Dear,
How are you doing? it was nice talking with you this afternoon that really makes me smile today.. well here some of me and Allen pictures, i hope you will like them.. lol . i hope to chat with you later ..
Cheers
Wemi
that night we chatted again for a long time and he told me he was falling for me, that he loved me. this is when the alarms started going off. it had only been a day. it didn't make sense that he was "in love" after 1 day. i started thinking he was a little weird, plus he started quoting the bible to me in such a fervent way, i was turned off. but still i was willing to hope. the next morning, a friend dropped by and she said, it's a scam! and that i must look at the safety rules on match.com. i looked at the safety rules on match.com and every single point on their list had happened with Wemi except he hadn't asked for my address yet and he hadn't asked for money yet. but he had told me he was going to come visit me at the end of march so i think that was coming! i was so sad and really disgusted with myself. Wemi called me mid-day and wanted to talk. i listened very carefully to his voice and it was african. we had arranged that we would chat in the afternoon but i didn't go online at all. he called again in the night and i told him i couldn't talk to him anymore. i closed my yahoo account right away too. i haven't heard from him since.
his profile on match.com was: riseingsunnydays
his name: Wemi Scoth
his email:
wemiscoth@yahoo.com
the photo used on match.com for the profile: 70334926_R_2.jpg
i found his photo in the romancescam files under Nigerian Scammers: males white
page 37, collin01 the url:
http://www.romancescam.com/album/thumbn ... album=2768" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
i did not look up the IP address as i closed the yahoo acct very quickly. sorry.
his phone number: 2347067996686
i am thankful that i figured it out before any more harm was done. i am really thankful to my friend who alerted me and to this website for the service they provide. this happened in late February 2011 and since then I have seen "Wemi's" photo twice more on match.com with different profile names. one said he was in Simi Valley CA, and then the other in Hollywood, CA.
