- This picture is also linked to Lucas Higginbotham on Scam Survivors
At the beginning of June 2018 I "met" a "guy" on OK Cupid by the name of Gerald Alex Huffman who stated he lived in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio called Blacklick. He stated his birth date was July 17, 1963, born in London, England. His father was an American and he was brought up in Denver, Colorado. He was divorced 15 years after his wife was unfaithful. He had a 30 year old son named Alex who was a US Marine. We texted on OKC for a few days then skipped to texting because he said the OKC app was not working correctly on his Blackberry. I checked his phone number and saw it was a Denver area code. I figured he kept his number from Colorado. He said he was currently working in Saa'na ,Yemen for the UN. He surveyed areas in advance for safety /anti terrorist groups. Whoever this person(s) ended up being they were very articulate and had impeccable grammar as well. In hindsight perhaps it was a script but, they seemed to be a great conversationalist and we covered a lot different topics even religion. Of course as in all of these scams they are pretty quick to confess their "love" for you unconditionally. I told them I was not so quick to fall for someone and could not return they love like that. At first they seemed okay with that and was pretty patient. During that time they shared their bank account in the states had been hacked and they bank had closed it down. Unfortunately, that did not send up a huge red flag to me as I had a relative that actually did have someone hack into their bank account poised to steal money from them. About a week later they told me the software on their laptop to do their work had crashed and was unusable. I thought to myself,'Don't ask me for money to help you.' Well, of course they did a few days later. At first it was $1300 and I said, 'No way!'. So then they said if I sent him $800 it would cover the cost. He explained it was expensive because it was custom. I suggested that he contact his bank and work with them on getting the money, even ask for a loan since they have his assets. Of course that wasn't a viable suggestion. I also suggested he contact the UN and let them know his predicament. He said he did contact them and they were going to send him the money but, it would take awhile since they were undergoing an audit. If I would just come up with the money first, he would make sure I would be paid right away. I told him that I did not have the money and I didn't like I was in a place with him that I was willing to give money to him. When he asked why I told him there are lots of scammers on dating sites that profess their love and then take money from people. Of course he was incensed that I would tie him to such a notion. He was a man of good character whose intentions were nothing like that. Fortunately for me I found his behavior to be increasingly whiny and annoying. After about a month (July 12, 2018) of this I finally told him my answer was NO! My error was that I confronted him that I felt he was a scammer and I no longer wanted to speak to him. Well, I got a earful of how selfish I was, immature, and had trust issues!!! I laughed at his tongue lashing but, I wished I would have just blocked him and said nothing. That way he wouldn't have known I was on to him so he didn't have any information to change his approach to the next victim.