Welcome to the general scam section.

They could have used your account to wash money through. I would definitely speak to my bank about it if I were you.

Who do you consider the most likely target for scams? I have never been scammed myself, but I have watched a lot of Dr Phil and it seems some are more viable targets. Ie widows, and in the case of my friend registered disabled. I think this is despicable. I watched the story about the woman who was retired and flew from Australia to Ghana to meet her online lover and she was murdered. Are there many cases of this or is it a one off?

Victims come from all walks of life and most any country. Personally, I feel that anyone can be scammed, it just takes the correct type of scam at the wrong moment in a person's life. Many scammers want their victims to come and meet them so they can kidnap them (Or worse). It happens more than we care to see.

Hi Big Al,
You are absolutely right that anyone can be scammed, no matter how smart they my be or how cautious they may be, everyone is vulnerable to a scam and being taken in by it. It is easy to fall into the trap they set, and to be honest, after four years of recovery, with the help of many on this site, I realize life goes on, but in a much better way.

To Catfish,
There is no right or wrong person that be caught in a scam, we - everyone - is a possible victim, and trying to put us in a category, of well you were an open book for a scam, is an incorrect assumption and very unfair, because if you look around daily, we are scammed at the grocery store, especially now at the gas station, those are all scams which we accept daily without even thinking about them....however, the scams that hurt the most are the ones that we have been a target for, particularly romance scams.

Scammers love the attachment when they glob onto someone, and especially if they can to their bank account. the 419's are a perfect example, or how about the grandmother scam?

Dr Phil hasn't a clue what a scam really is, he is too busy talking over the person who he is interviewing and telling them, why were you not more careful, why didn't you think???? blah blah blah

Want to know what it is like to be scammed Catfish, talk to someone who has been there and recovered from it.

RF

Hello all,

Just wanted to say Hi and I'm here to help if I can.

Regards,

Ginger Lee

Welcome Ginger.

There is always room for more helpers. IMHO.

Welcome Ginger Lee! Go ahead and do what we know you do best.

Hello all,
A quick briefing of my situation - scam happened 1 month ago.
Same old, same old - started on Facebook then switched to skype, you get the idea. They demanded the money, I stalled for about 30 minutes, then proceed to block the two accounts that reached out to me. I reported them as well, which I now know, you shouldn't do so you can prevent them from future scams. Wish I would have recorded their info - didn't. I didn't stumble upon this website until 3 days later. After doing so, I READ THE STEPS and deactivated Facebook. I waited 4 weeks just to be safe:)

Yesterday, I reopened Facebook. Didn't mess with skype. Woke up this morning and had a friend request from a new account, the location being my hometown. The account was created 9 hours ago, and was clearly a fake profile of a young woman. They did not send me a message request. I recorded the info and blocked the user. I then proceeded to change my username, profile picture etc. Only visible information to the public is my name (a common one at that) and an old photograph. In essence, I maxed out the Facebook privacy settings.

I fully realize that I am not "incognito". I did not create a new profile nor did I change my actual name. My question is this - would the smart thing to do be to wait it out and see if any other profiles contact me (they now have to have a mutual friend to send me a request) or simply go offline again? A part of me thinks this may be a completely unrelated occurrence, yet I feel the need to exercise extreme caution yet again. Appreciate any insight you may have.
P.S.
I have read over many of the forums on this website. It truly does provide comfort and peace of mind. I sincerely hope this situation hasn't been posted before; I would be frustrated if I had to keep replying to the same questions over and over again. Admins are doing a killer job and I marvel at your patience!

You read over the latest steps that say best course is to make a new FB using a brand new email address, but the choice is yours.
It might not be YOUR scammer, but a different one, or maybe not one at all.
The video most likely no longer exists after a month, so it's up to you on whether you would like to chance whether the scammer has found you and might threaten again. You know that if that happens, you say nothing and block them.
Then repeat the waiting period, and doubling it.

This scenario has been posted before, but you may have to read "The Dump" topic, or go through 15,000 forms posted to find them yourself. Not making a new FB account Results have been mixed..sometimes scammer found them, sometimes just another FB add request.
Wanna be SURE ??? Follow the best advice, and make a new FB