My experience with this scam started on August 29 when I received a message from a "Sara H." on "Tagged". I replied and started an email conversation with her, where almost every day she told me she loved me and wanted to be with me forever. Her profile said she was from Michigan but later she said she was in a shelter in central London and needed my assistance to bring her back to the US where she would be my companion and wife.
The emails were very persistent and my initial investigations did not show anything, although I found one hit about a scam on a search. She told me her email account had been hacked and she had nothing to do with the scam. Eventually she told me she owed about 4000 pounds but she said she could get out of England if I sent her $3000 by Western Union, and she gave an address of 900 Edric Rd.
I found an Edric Rd using Google Maps and it is in Lewisham, a suburb of London, and the address is beyond the range for that street. She provided a phone number for the "Shelter Officers" but it had a number of 44-702-xxx-xxxx which I found to be a "Personal Phone Number" which actually forwards the call to another number anywhere in the world and often at rates of $1/minute.
She said she went to a local Church of God and gave me a name of her minister and his number which was also similarly forwarded. I contacted Lewisham officials and inquired on Shelter.org but they did not know of a shelter there. When I told her of my investigation she got disturbed by her privacy and suggested I meet her in the UK. I also contacted a nearby Church of God, and their minister did not know of any such local church.
"Sara" begged me for a "small" monetary gift of about $400 for Christmas, and I was going to send just $50, but after my suspicions were confirmed here I plan instead to contribute that amount to a real church or charity.
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