Just as in the previous report, I was approached by an Italian car driver in front of my residence hall (I am a university student). I thought he was just asking for directions and so went over to help him. He pretended he did not speak English very well in order to make the impression that he was a foreigner. As soon as I went over, he started explaining to me that he was in London for the fasion week, and he was going to catch a flight to Los Angeles in three hours. He said he had some clothes from the fashion show that he could not bring back due to the high customs on these items. He spoke fairly poor English at this time, and I was very confused by his motivation so I just asked what he wanted. As a student, I had the sympathy and naivety to help foreigners who are in trouble.
For 10 minutes he was trying to tell me that he could not bring those items to the Airport and he wanted to give them to me as a gift. I did not realize this was a scum at this point, but simply thought he needed some help and he was trying to trade his cloth for some help. i stopped him and simply asked if he needed help and what I could do for him. He did not answer me directly, but started to show me lots of proofs of his identity and trying to tell me his misfortune at London.
He alleged that he was a model, showed pictures of him in posters, and his model ID. One could not really tell whether that was him since everything was happening in a rushed@stressful way because he was trying to catch a flight. He then told me the he is the son of the President of Ferrari, the car marker; all his money and bank cards were stolen by a cuban girl who went with him to his hotel after they met in a club.
I was getting increasingly confused and kept asking him what he needed and what he wanted. He invited me to get in the car and promised to show me some stuff and tell me how I could help him. I was very hesitant, but he persisted. So I got in, he then explained to me that his car was a rental car (just like it is in all the other cases) and he needed to pay the rental fee before he could take off from the airport. He asked whether I could lend him some money and promised to repay me as soon as he got back. If he had been going to somewhere else other than Los Angeles, I would have left immediately because the high risk that this could be a scum. However, I am a international student from LA.
The scumer told me where he lived and about his place which I knew fairly well, and promised to invited me over to his place once I got back to the LA etc. I still had doubt and thought this was still quite risky since anyone who have been to LA could tell me a false but recognisable address. He told me he was really in trouble and told me that he would call his parents in LA and let me talk to them to verify his identity. He called a LA number which I could recognize, and I talked to another Italian guy who alleged to be his father and the president of Ferrari. His parents asked me to get him out of trouble and they would get the money to my parents in LA, or whichever way I wanted.
I started to believe him as he continued to provide more evidences in the form of pictures, car rental agreements, airplane booking information, etc. So I eventually agreed to lend some cash thinking that I was helping out a 'neighbor'. However, as soon as I got back and tried to call his number again. It did not work...
i do not want to disclose how much money I lost, but only to tell you that it was a large amount for a student. I hope other people from reading my story and mistake would avoid being scumed by the same person. I also hope that the media would contact me and other victims of this international scum group and force the police to launch an investigation. I sincerely hope that no one else would be scumed in the same way! Let justice begin!
donglin
London
United Kingdom
0 comments