Daniel King - Con Artist internet Scammer - John King

I recieved an email from a reader who wanted to share their unfortunate experience with an online con artist and scammer she met on match.com


I joined an online dating site in June of 2011. Immediately I started getting responses from men. I got a response from a man named Daniel King. He said he lived in Pennsylvania, Leola, Pennsylvania to be exact. He was articulate and said he was a widow that his wife had died in a car accident 5 years before. He had lived in Rome his whole life -- he been an orphan and had been adopted by an American couple. He moved to the U.S. 5 years before after his wife had been killed in a car accident in Rome. He said we would chat better over Windows Messenger. At first I said no because I didn't want to have anything to do with anyone outside of my home town, but he was persuasive. He gave me his yahoo email address. His picture looked nice.

Daniel R. King,

Email: mikedad009@yahoo.com

Leola, Pennsylvania

He also used the email address of mikeboy005@yahoo.com

He said his friend's name was Steve Boyd

Email: boyd.steve97@yahoo.com

Steve Boyd's wife's name was

Jacky Hudson Boyd

Ada, Oklahoma

I started chatting with him over messenger. He seemed like such a wonderful man. We spent many hours chatting - everyday. He was charming, articulate but pushy. He was well educated. I cannot give you all of the details of what happened it would be too long but just suffice it to say that the story is very similar to other stories posted. Approximately 3 weeks after I met him (he said he was in construction and was building a building in the country Turkey), he said he was going there to sign papers and after that he was going to come and see me in my home town. After he got to Turkey, he had problems and didn't have all of the money he needed to get the large contract. He sent me a copy of the contract with signatures because I insisted on that.

I'm not a greedy person but I had fallen in love with him and felt I have a future with him, stupid I know. I wired him money. Then he needed more. I should have stopped but he was so believable with his stories. He got other people involved. He called me on the phone and he had a very sexy thick Italian accent. He even had me talk to his friend who was working and traveling with him, he said. He had a German accent. First he was staying in a hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia. Then later he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Now he supposedly is back in Tbilisi, Georgia again.

He sent me pictures of him and his son. His son even chatted with me on line and told he he couldn't wait to meet me and that his dad was so much in love with me. I was even sent a picture of the building that was being constructed in Turkey.

He sent me an email with his flight information to come and be with me. Then the wife of his friend Steve Boyd called me on the phone crying saying that he was in an accident at the work site and that he was in the hospital with injuries to his neck and was unconscious and paralyzed. I am so gullible. I believed it all. After 2 weeks, his friend Steve got a hold of me on chat. He said he needed money to help pay his hospital bill because Daniel had no insurance. He would die without an operation. I'm ashamed to say I fell for it all. I kept sending money (my retirement money I had withdrawn) because I was promised that Daniel would pay me back as soon as he could return to the U.S. He had money and he would take care of everything. He swore on his life that Daniel loved me more than anything in the world and wanted and needed to be with me.

I did it. After 2 weeks I was able to talk to Daniel again. Again, mind you I am spending HOURS talking to him. Before work, after work on weekends. Late at night, early in the morning - all different times. I had my Messenger set up for the speakers to sound when he got online so I knew he was there. I was crazy in love with this man. All we talked about was how much we were in love with each other and how much we couldn't wait to be together. We made plans together.

The situation got worse and worse because the more money I sent him the more I needed what he told me to be true so I could get paid back and because I loved him. I really wanted this to be true. He asked me to marry him 4 times. But the more time went by the more things he said just didn't add up. He would contradict himself about little things. In December, 2011, he again said he was coming to be with me and pay me back. He had recovered and was out of the hospital. Again, he didn't show up. This time he said that he was ready to leave and found out that he owed $20,000.00 to his workers and they wouldn't let him leave the country until that was paid. Well, that's when I stopped sending him money.

I looked the phone # up that he had called me at in July, 2011 with a reverse look up and I was stunned. His phone # listed a man with a different picture and a different address and different city in Pennsylvania. He had the same middle initial and last name of King but a different first name of John. Now he was going by "John R King". Now I knew he was a fraud and a con-man. HOW CAN ANYONE BE SO EVIL AND CALCULATING???? I wanted to say something to him but I knew I couldn't. He has since taken the picture off of that listing and changed the phone # several times. But the listing is still there today. The age listed there has changed several times as well.

I refused to send him any more money and just waited to see how long it would take for him to give up and leave me alone. I was afraid -- he knew where I lived, my home #, cell #, my address, my work #, even the names of some of my family members. I kept talking to him -- the strange thing is that I really did love the man that I thought he was -- not who he really was. We had spent so much time together I was attached to him. I missed him when I didn't hear from him. But truthfully this man has ruined my life.

At least once a month he'd ask me for money -- oh he was running out of money to pay for the Internet to talk to me, or needed food, or whatever. Each time I refused. He had the guts to ask me if he could send me checks from Turkey from the Construction Company and I wanted me to cash them and send him the money. I absolutely refused. Thank god. I stopped talking to him unless he contacted me. It had gotten down to once every 5 days I'd hear from him now.

Then in March,. 2012, I'd had it. He sent me a beautiful email and signed it with the wrong name. He signed the email with the name of Antonio. I lost it. He said he had a allot on his mind and got confused. Whatever, how many names is this man using? So now his name is Daniel, John and Antonio. I told him off. I told him that I didn't believe that he was ever coming to see me and that he had lied about who he was. And he had the guts to tell me, to the end, that he had never lied to me and that he would never take advantage of any woman. He was still claiming he was saving the money to come and be with me. That's when I blocked him.

Ladies - please learn from my stupidity. If a man sounds too good to be true, he is. NEVER send money to anyone no matter what their story is. My advice, you can do on-line dating but never get off the protected website until you are sure who the person is. Never share your financial information with anyone and don't try to have a relationship with anyone outside of your home town.

I am now cleaned out. I have lost a total of $50,000.00. I took the money out of my retirement account and I don't have the money to pay my income taxes. I do not know what I'm going to do. The worst thing is that things are not going well at my work and they are having layoffs. My job is not even secure. I am 54 years old and my future is ruined because of all of this. I won't tell my family - I'm too ashamed.

I have since met a nice man who lives near me. I am trying to move on with my life but it will be difficult. Life is difficult enough without giving all of your money away. Don't do it!!!!

Broken-hearted

Allen John Lewis - Internet Scam Artist from Nigeria

A reader recently sent me an email of a Nigerian Scam artist by the name of Allen John Lewis. Note he uses three first names, so he can change them around at will. Here is the readers email:

Hi,
I am writing to warn you all about about Allen John Lewis. He contacted me on match in the last week of Oct 2011. I was only on match for a month. His profile says single, no children, never married. I really wasn't serious about dating anyone that far away. I live in Florida, and his profile said he lives in Alabama which i found out was a lie. I found his page on Facebook and he had one friend on it and i friended her and she said she was talking to Allen's brother named Jim. I told her about Allen she said that Allen is not from Alamba. She never met Jim or Allen. She met Jim on the large and lovely internet dating website back in July and still has not met him. I told her about your website she agrees with me that they are both scammers and could even be one person pretending to be two people. When Allen contacted me we start talking and he seemed like a nice guy. He said he is a Dutch American from Holland and lives in the USA, which is another lie. He said he works for the us army as a contractor for Chevron oil. He asked for my number and down the line I gave it to him. He has a very strong accent. About end of Nov he ask if what was i going to give him for hid birthday i said when your birthday he said 29 of nov he said he lost his cell phone and that he would like to get one but had no way to get it so I sent an Iphone to him that he talked me into because i was going to give him one of my old ones but he said he needed something that picks up good signal out in sea so we can talk. Then he had to go to United Kingdom to drop off materials. He told me his cousin spent a thousand dollars of his money that he was supposed to pay his bills and with wanted me to send money to Sheryl Wichel to help him out. I said "Don't have on line banking?" He said Wells Fargo froze his account until he gets back to Us because someone hacked his account. I told him you are a scammer he said no I am not and all kinds of stuff trying to convince me. He sent me flowers in the first month which was most likely charged to a stolen card but anyway is email is allenjohn1965@yahoo.com. He a sweet talker uses angel a lot sweetheart dear and names like that. I cannot believe I sent 200.00 plus another 300.00 to him because he was sick. I shut his phone off last month because he never used it cost. 300.00 to shut it off. Please beware of this scammer from Nigeria named Allen John Lewis.

Lonnie Adams / Jimmy Adams - A Scammer in Illinois

Lonnie Adams aka Jimmy Adams

Lonnie Adams is not a Nigerian scammer. As a matter of fact, he is right here in the United States in Illinois.
Lonnie Adams got into trouble a while back with the law in Florida, and rather than go to court, he fled to Mexico. While in Mexico (the Cancun area) he decided to "set up shop". He would put up profiles on dating sites and wait for his victims to come to him. They did, unfortunately. He puts on his profiles that he is looking for a serious relationship, but what he really wants is for you to pay his bills. In Mexico Lonnie Adams did not hold down a job, his victims paid his way. He would start out romantic at first, tell the women to come visit him in Cancun Mexico, and little did they know the place they stayed at (allegedly his) was actually paid for by another woman. He would have one woman paying his rent, another paying for his food, etc. Lonnie Adams would then start his shtick of how he wanted to have a motorcycle business and would give tours to tourists. Did he have the money to start this business? No. That was for some helpless female to pay. He didn't want to work for his own money, he wanted to scam for someone elses. He had numerous women coming and going to Mexico to visit him at the same time. One would leave Mexico and another victim would be on their way to see him. He never told them about each other, and gave them the impression that is was just the two of them. He would ask them for money for his rent, utilities, food, all while going to "meetings" (yeah right) and trying to get financing for his business (yeah right) from investors. He is not the best of con artists, because it seems he cannot behave himself and actually treat someone nice for more that 24 hours. When Lonnie Adams would get money from women, if it was not enough, he actually had the nerve to yell at them for not sending him more. He would tell these women they should quit their jobs, sell their houses, and move to Mexico to live with him. He wanted their money, not them, and had no intention of living with them. Can you imagine how evil you have to be to tell someone to quit their job and sell their home to move to another country with you knowing full well you have no intention of going through with it? Well, meet evil personified. Lonnie would actually tell numerous women to do this at the same time! Cancun, Mexico was like a safe haven for this guy. He figured there was no way these women could do anything after they were scammed, because he was safe in Mexico and they could not convict him of any crime. Well, Lonnie Adams forgot about one thing. When he fled from Florida to Mexico to avoid trial, he used someone elses passport. He was using the name Jimmy Adams. The US Marshalls came and got him and brought him back to Florida in shackles. He went to prison for a few years, but is now out. Since his probation is over, it seems Lonnie / Jimmy Adams is back at it again, trolling the internet dating sites. Now he is telling women he was a businessman who is so rich he does not need to work. He is in Chicago, Illinois, and now is telling women on the dating sites he only came there from Mexico to take care of his sick mother. (He doesn't mention the US Marshalls or being incarcerated lol) One would think he is finding it more difficult to do this here in the US because he can be found and he can get into trouble much easier than when he was in Mexico. Also, it was one thing to not have a drivers license in Mexico or a car.......but when you are over 45 and living in Chicago? Most women would wonder why such a "rich" man doesn't have a vehicle or drivers license. That, plus living with his mother = loser in most women's eyes. If he was so well off why isn't his mother living with him in his house? Why doesn't she have a full time nurse? Since Lonnie Adams can no longer use the bike business idea of getting women to invest, his latest shtick revolves around stem cells. His "idea" is to go after pro athletes and organize a surgery for them, their flight, and hotel rooms. Like pro athletes don't have a staff to do this? These rich athletes couldn't put that together with their own doctor? Of course they can. And pro athletes would do a background check before they handed over money to some stranger, and they would find out he has a criminal record. If you happen to come in contact with a guy named Jimmy or Lonnie Adams on a dating website (or anywhere) run for the hills. He will send you pictures of his bodybuilding glory days, spin his lies about how wealthy he is, his business ideas, and his time in Mexico, his clothing businesses etc. If you think you have come in contact with him we would love to hear from you. Lonnie Adams likes to quote the bible and refrigerator magnet-type sayings to sound spiritual. This guy does not even possess a conscience and obviously has no fear of karma.
He likes to talk about his glory days of bodybuilding, fitness, and put down as his occupation recently : health. (Obviously not mental health)The pictures are not photoshopped, he really is that short and has really short legs. Since he does not hold down a full time job (God forbid) Lonnie Adams tends to use free internet dating sites like plentyoffish.com (he is on there at the time of this posting)
His email addresses tend to have his name in it and usually a reference to Mexico, sports, etc. For example: cancunjimmy@yahoo.com and laincancun@yahoo.com
Here is a link to where he was deported: http://apostille.us/news/diplomatic_security_helps_return_fugitive_from_mexico_to_face_passport_fraud_charges.shtml

They Will Still Con You ~ Even After you Meet Them in Person!

I had been single for a while after separating from my husband, and decided to try internet dating. After a short while I met a man Prav, and we got on very well from the start. We found that we shared the same star sign and our birthday's were only three days apart. I felt that we definitely clicked, and we chatted endlessly on IM and text messages. I waited every morning for his lovely texts to come through.

After just over a week, I decided to pay the £45 rail fare to go to London to meet him. We were both so excited and were counting the days until the weekend. We met at Waterloo station, and the instant I met him I felt that something wasn't quite right - he was shifty and a bit uneasy with me. I put this down to first date nerves, but as the day went on I became unhappy with the fact that he was so unattentive towards me, considering he had been so desperate to meet me.

During the conversation, facts began to come out that I had not been aware of before, there was an 'ex' girlfriend who, although she had supposedly moved out of his house, had still left most of her belongings behind. There was also the fact that his youngest daughter who had been living with her mother before he met me, was suddenly moving in with him full time. This I was particularly uncomfortable with, as having no children of my own, I did not want to live with anyone who had children full time.

Then he suddenly kept mentioning this business he was going into. He was buying the franchise of a well known coffee shop and told me that he was taking out a loan against one of the two properties that he owned. He then said that he was hoping he wouldn't have a problem getting his ex girlfriend to sign over her half of this property as he would need her to do this in order to put this up as collateral for the loan. I began to feel quite upset that he did not seem interested in talking about our relationship, only this business and the loan. He showed me all the architects plans and the business plan he had drawn up for the bank. I tried again and again to turn the conversation to us, but it seemed he did not want to know.

During the day, he asked me several times if I would consider moving to London should things work out, and I told him that we would have to get to know each other better, it was impossible to make a decision after only knowing him a couple of weeks. He seemed unhappy with this and by the end of the afternoon seemed not to be able to get rid of me quick enough.

On the train home, I was so disappointed. I just felt that there was something strange about this that I couldn't put my finger on. Well, a couple of days later I found out what it was. On Monday and Tuesday I was surprised because he was suddenly totally unavailable on Skype, and on Wednesday morning the text I had been dreading came through. He said that he could not get his 'ex' to sign over her half of the second property and he wanted me to take out a loan in my name for £10,000 secured against half his house.

I was stunned. He texted me and called me constantly begging for help, saying that the deadline for the franchise was Friday. It appeared that the only person who could help him get this franchise was me and if I really loved him I would trust him and take out the loan. It was emotional blackmail and I was devastated. I told him there was no way I could do this after such a short time of knowing him - the whole thing to me was ridiculous, but I knew that my relationship with him was over. He was just a con man.

Looking back, I don't think the 'ex' girlfriend was 'ex'. Her stuff was all over his house, and I couldn't see how she would move out and leave all her personal possessions behind. I have a feeling that they were both in this together and she had just arranged to be out for the day when I went round. The minute he knew he wasn't getting the money he dropped me like a stone. He didn't answer my texts, phonecalls or appear on Skype again. I felt so used and I am telling my story in the hope that it might stop this heartbreak happening to someone else. Be aware, and remember that even if you get to meet someone in person, it dosen't necessarily mean that they won't try to con you.

Internet Dating / Sweetheart Scams

THE SWEETHEART SCAMS

The sweetheart scam is one of the most devastating scams of all. The victim will not only lose money, a car, property, a business, be left responsible for enormous debt, they will often suffer psychologically and emotional.

The sense of betrayal one feels after being a victim of a sweetheart scam can lead to trust issues (and who can blame them?) and feelings of embarrassment, often so bad they won't report the crimes against them. The internet has been a huge help to sweetheart scammers. The internet has helped them cast a much wider net to "catch" their victims, while they use the cloak of anonymity the internet provides to hide their secrets and schemes, and move on to the next victim.

Many men and women have found themselves the victim of a sweetheart scam, and the come from all backgrounds, races, ages, and education levels. Don't think you have to be incredibly nieve to fall for a sweetheart scam, or that it couldn't happen to you. No victim went into it thinking it could happen to them.

These con artists are professionals, and often make these schemes their sole source of income! Most sweetheart scammers are pulling numerous scams at the same time with multiple victims! Almost every victim of a sweetheart scam has found out, after the con artist "disappeared" that they were not alone and that several others were being duped at the same time.

The term "con" comes from the word "confidence". These people are only as good as their ability to make people believe them, trust them, fall in love with them, and give them money. The con artists in these sweetheart scams will either use a "quickie" scam to get short-term fast cash or the more elaborate scams, that take more time and often will even marry the victim! The time they will invest with each victim depends on how much they can get, and how fast, if ever, the victim begins to catch on. They will do, say, or promise you anything because they want you to trust them and believe in them so it is easier to part you with your money.

They will promise you the world - love, marriage, children, dream homes, lifestyles, and business partnerships, anything. The only catch is all the money used to pay for all these things (and so much more !) will have to be provided by you and you alone. They make promises, YOU are required to deliver up front. There are many common scenarios of how the sweetheart scammer will operate, and here is the most common:

Step 1. They will come on strong in the beginning, have tons of time for you, want to speak with you first thing in the morning, and even right before you go to sleep. There will be numerous long phone calls, emails and chats. They will listen to you, size you up and know just what to say to steal your heart. They will often tell you of their dreams, and of course how they either "had it all" or could have had it all but "something" went wrong which is never their fault. (This done for you to feel sorry for them.) They will tell you all about how they never felt this way about anyone, never felt so much so fast, and will talk about being in "love" way too soon. It will be a complete whirlwind romance!

Step 2. They will ask you to help them out financially, whether it is for a loan on a check that is coming "any day" (but never does) or a business deal that is coming through "any minute" (that never does) or a hospital stay, sickness, or some other "emergency". They can also discuss with you buying property to build your "dream home" (isn't that romantic?) or get you to go into business with them because they have been "burned by so many others" but they feel they can totally trust you. (Nope, all part of the scam.)

Step 3. If you don't hurry up and give them the money they want they will pull away, have to focus their attention on making money (since YOU aren't helping) and can't give you the same attention as they did before (and it is all your fault). They will accuse you of not believing in them, trusting them, loving them, and not full-filling your promises. (But they haven't either, have they?) They will offer contracts to protect you, which in reality cannot protect you. If you sign a contact with them, YOU are responsible to pay the debt, they just run. They don't care about their credit! But yours will suffer. And sue them? Now you are going to pay for a lawyer on top of it? And what will you get from them? They often have NOTHING. Even if you win the lawsuit, who will make sure you get paid? It often becomes a CIVIL, not criminal matter, and you wind up with nothing. (If you can even find them after they disappear.

Step 4. When they do get the money, and feel there is nothing else to take or their victim is getting close to the truth they will either vanish out of the blue, or pick a fight with the victim and vanish. Please don't think if you marry this person that it means they are not sweetheart scamming you. Being married to a sweetheart scammer also does not mean they are not married to other people!! (You would be amazed how often this happens!

This story below was sent in and permission given to print to warn others ahead of time so they don't go through the same thing that they did.

All content and images copyrighted by dangersofinternetdating.com and cannot be used without permission.

Internet Dating Gone Wrong Story #5

I Had been writing with "Jeff" whom I met in a gameroom chatroom. We had started just exchanging jokes back and forth and then started writing on a more personal level. He asked a lot of questions, seemed very interested in getting to know me, and I felt flattered. He seemed to really listen to me, and was always quick to write back, which made me feel as though I was important to him. He told me he had tried blind dates and joining groups to meet someone special but had had no luck. He remarked about how suprised he was to have met someone like me in an internet chatroom! Once again, I felt very flattered. He said his computer was going in for servicing and that he may not be able to email me for a while, and I instantly, without thinking, sent him an email with my phone number.

We began to chat on the phone almost daily, and by the second week he told me he was developing some feelings for me, and had to tell me because he wanted to "be honest and up-front about everything, because that was the kind of guy he is". After another week we agreed to meet for dinner. We met at a restaurant at the halfway point between the two of us. He showed up at the place 45 minutes late, looking a bit disheveled, and told me he had come straight from the gym. We ordered dinner, had nice conversation, and it seemed we were both enjoying ourselves. When the bill came I offered to pay my share and he said "No, it was on him". He then went for his pants pockets and realized his wallet was not there, and told me he must have left it in his gym bag in the car. He said he would be right back and went out to get it. After about 15 minutes I started getting nervous thinking he was out there rummaging around trying to find it but having no luck so I told the waiter I was going to look for my date. In the parking lot he was NO WHERE TO BE FOUND.

He left me with the bill, and never returned my messages either through email or phone and I never heard from him again! I decided to try tricking him, and set up a new account and went to the gaming website under a new name to see if he would engage me, and lo and behold he chatted with me for a while, and asked for my email address, and started sending me jokes! I realized that this man was trolling this websites chatroom to pick up women, so I went into EVERY chatroom for a few months and chatted with as many females as I could and warned them of the game he played with me so he could not do this to another woman!

Story used with permission

Internet Dating Gone Wrong Story #4

My internet dating experience was one I will never forget, and has opened my eyes to how anyone can get conned. I was browsing through the internet dating sites, and came across a few men that interested me. I was sending emails back and forth to several of them, taking my time to get to know them, and one by one they all fell to the wayside. One was really "all about sex", one lived too far away, and another just dropped off the face of the earth. All except for Stu*.

Stu told me all about himself, how he was divorced and was looking for someone to be a real partner to him. He sent emails regularly, we had many phone chats, and he made arrangements to meet me in a diner close to my home. We met, hit it off, and the romance blossomed. He told me he never felt like this with anyone before, he felt he had finally found someone he thought he could spend the rest of his life with, and I was on cloud 9!

One day I opened my email and my mouth hit the floor, it was from his email address, but it wasn't from HIM. His wife, who was suspicious, decided to do a little "research" on her own to see what her husband was up to and came up with not only MY emails but emails from 4, yes FOUR, other women!!! I asked to speak to her personally, and she agreed. She realized I had no idea he was married, so although she was mad at him she wasn't mad at me. She sent me the emails he sent the other women, and all of us got together through email and by phone and were shocked that this man had conned us all, and did such a good job! His wife left him and divorced him, I never spoke to him again, but have seen his profile still on the major dating sites, so be warned, he is out there!!

Story used with permission