a former boss of mine got caught up in an internet scam girlfriend like the ones mentioned above. he's a divorced sci-fi lover in his mid 50's living in his mother's attic and he had just started using the internet a few years ago when he began utilizing chatrooms (didn't even know they still existed?) to meet women. he met this one girl named 'britney' who claimed to be a blond-haired, blue-eyed, 21 year old model/actress of canadian descent but living in the philippines with her mother (pretty common, right?). they never talked on the phone, just internet chat/emails. over the course of a few weeks, he sent 'her' a few photos of himself and 'she' sent him photos, again, like the ones posted above, and he instantly fell head over heels for this 'girl.' now, mind you, this is a balding, overweight nerd in his 50's and he legitimately thinks this picture-perfect young honey is in love with him too (sad, really, but he didn't know scams like this are rampant on the internet, as he was a newcomer, and they preyed on his loneliness and desperation for love). my fellow employees and i all tried to teach him about how this was clearly a scam and 'she' was going to start asking him for money, but he was too smitten to listen or care.
after a while, they planned to meet in real life, but there were a few road blocks. she didn't have enough money to afford a plane ticket so, instead of having him buy a ticket for her, she asked him to wire her $500 so she could buy it herself. well, HE DID. only thing is, she sent 'her cousin' to pick up the money and 'her cousin' was MUGGED after he picked up the money! after telling my boss this sob story, HE WIRED HER ANOTHER $500 BECAUSE HE FELT BAD FOR HER! after a few more weeks of back and forth conversation, the time when they were to meet was rapidly approaching. unfortunately, the day before her flight to america, HER MOTHER DIED! so tragic, so unforeseen, soooo...conveniently phony. she now could not make the trip to america after the passing of her mother and her non-refundable ticket (that almost certainly never existed in the first place) went to waste. regardless, she and her family were, 'too poor to afford a funeral,' so she asks my boss for $1000 to help out with the expenses, AND HE GIVES IT TO HER! so he has now given this person $2000 without even hearing her voice over the phone. he starts to get suspicious, so she just sends him more provocative photos of 'herself' and he is satisfied with that response.
at this time, two more girls begin the same line of bullshit with him (obviously, britney had told 'her' cohorts that his guy was an easy target), and now the quintessential middle-aged sad-sack who couldn't get a date with a homely woman his own age in real life all of a sudden had THREE 21-year old model girlfriends whom he had never met or even spoken to - and he was convinced it was all for real. his behavior shifted from just plain weird to downright obsessive as he started blurting out that he has beautiful girlfriends to customers and showing them (the x-rated) photos of these women without their provocation. he began taking frequent 'bathroom breaks' where he would spend 15-20 minutes in the bathroom writing emails to his girlfriends and eventually, his life was fully consumed by the entire fiasco. he was soon fired, but didn't seem to care much because he was WAYYY wrapped up in this girlfriend scam.
we haven't seen or heard from him in almost 4 years. coincidentally, he happens to live a few blocks from my girlfriend, so occasionally, i'll drive by his house at 2, 3, 4am when i'm leaving her place and the light in his attic room is always on; and he's probably emailing someone who he thinks is in love with him...
