Army Sniper or Nigerian Romance Scammer?

Romance scammers fool you using a number of tactics to try to get your money. One tactic is to steal attractive pictures of a guy from his social media profiles. They then come up with a fake career story as to why they are stationed halfway across the world, usually claiming that they are in the United States Military. Christine from Pennsylvania was talking to a guy named David Porter on Mingle 2 who said he was in the Army and was stationed in Nigeria. This Nigerian romance scammer had scammed her for months before finally admitting that he was a scammer who had taken advantage of her bank account. We interviewed her, read what she had to say down below.

Hello Christine! You had a 7-month relationship with somebody that was a Nigerian romance scammer, and we are going to hear about it today.

His name was David Porter. He was very nice looking and was my type of guy.

What did he look like?

Military, for one. I come from a military family so I like military men. He was young and handsome with big muscles. Definitely the prince charming type. He was perfect.

He told me what he did and I told him what I did. The connection started, and it really did feel like a true connection. It didn’t feel like he was a Nigerian romance scammer at all.

Were you on guard and did you suspect that he could be a Nigerian romance scammer when he first contacted you?

He asked me how old I was and I told him I was 51-years-old, almost 52. I then asked him how old he was and he said that he was 32-years-old. After I found that out, I told him that was really young. He then told me that age was just a number and that doesn’t bother me at all; does it bother you? In the back of my mind, I was thinking that it kind of did bug me but because of his looks, I said no. Of course, I got all of these wonderful compliments of him saying how beautiful I was.

How did it make you feel meeting this person and having a conversation with them? Did you hear that a lot in your other relationships?

I didn’t hear that a whole lot in my other relationships, and if I did hear them complimenting me it didn’t really mean a whole lot to me. They would cheat on me and treat me like crap, so their compliments weren’t ever meaningful.

I was married two times in my life. The first time I was married, my husband was abusive. I stayed married to him for seven years because I had two children with him. I then divorced him and met someone else. We also got married and had a good marriage for 12 years, until his mom passed away which made him turn into an alcoholic. He was mentally abusive to me and was physically abusive to my kids, especially my daughter. We got rid of our house, went our separate ways, and after that, I was on my own.

Because of this, when the scammer was good-looking and started telling me all these wonderful things, I thought, “Wow, this is amazing. This is cool. I like this.”

So it blew you away after having all of these toxic relationships?

Yeah, it blew me away. We talked for a good two months before the Nigerian romance scammer asked me for money.

Things are going well, he said all the right things. Were you even thinking about why he asked for money for more than two minutes? Were you thinking that he was a Nigerian romance scammer right away?

I was not thinking he was a scammer at all. He told me that he was a paratrooper and a sniper. I said, “Wow a sniper? That kind of sexy there.”

The Nigerian romance scammer then replied, “How is that sexy? It’s killing people, that’s not sexy.”

I then said, “Well, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant it like you’re a badass. It was a turn-on.”

That then went along with his body, his tattoos, and everything about him. That’s when he told me, “I don’t have access to my money right now. I can show you my account, but I need you to do me a favor. The military supplies us with our food, but if we don’t like it we can go buy our own food. We can go out and get whatever we want at our cost. We can’t have our money here, we can’t have our debit card or anything because I’m a sniper and I’m supposed to be undercover.”

I believed all of what he was telling me, and so I asked him how to send it. He told me to send it via Western Union and to give the money to his military agent. I questioned him, telling him that I was really confused since I thought the military didn’t have agents. I knew this because my son was just deployed and he was allowed to have his debit card and money while he was in Afghanistan.

He then asked what branch my son was in, and I asked him to tell me what I told him. He then confirmed that my son was in the air force, and I said that he was right. He then said that since he was in the army, it’s different. I then thought that since it was two different branches, that maybe he was right and was telling the truth. My brothers were in the marines, my son is in the air force, and my other brother was in the navy. I don’t know anything about the army. I then sent the money against my better judgment.

What happened after the first $200 was sent? Did his demeanor change towards you?

He was very grateful, and at that point, he told me that he was truly in love with me. He also said that he felt a true connection with me and never wanted to lose me.

What are some things that the Nigerian Romance Scammer asked for?

He said that he needed a phone because he didn’t want to lose connection with me. I then went to Sprint and sent him a phone. Every time he would tell me something, I had his pictures plastered everywhere. They were all over my room, in my car, at my job, and around my house. Because of this, he would tell me something and I would look at his picture thinking that there was no way he was lying to me.

So you have these pictures everywhere, what were your friends or family saying when they saw them?

I really think everybody knew except for me. I think I did know but just didn’t want to admit it because he was hot.

How did you find out you were being scammed by a Nigerian romance scammer?

On my way home from work on September 19th, I’ll never forget the day because it was one day before my ex-boyfriend committed suicide. The scammer asked, “Do you love me?”

“Of course I do,” I replied.

“Because I want to talk to you, I want to tell you something.”

“Ok?”

“Promise me you’re not going to get mad?”

“Ok, I won’t get mad.”

“I have to tell you the truth, I can’t do this anymore.”

When he said this, I was driving to my mom’s house, so I drove past my mom’s house and pulled off to the side of the road, stopping so that he could talk to me.

“I have so much love for you, and I have this deep connection with you. I know you feel the connection too, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, absolutely,” I replied, “Why?”

“Christine, you need to listen to me, I am Nigerian. I’ve been scamming you and I’m so sorry. I fell in love with you and I can’t do this anymore.”

“What are you saying?” I asked. I had lost it, I felt like someone kicked me in the stomach and they kept kicking… and kicking… and kicking. I can’t even explain the feeling that I felt. I felt so sick.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” he kept saying repeatedly.

“You know what… I hate you. I hate you for doing this to me,” I said as I hung up on him.

I went back to my mom’s house and went upstairs. I pretended like there was nothing wrong because they all knew. They’re just waiting for the day for me to say something stupid. I just believed him and believed everything. I wanted to prove my family wrong, yes, but I also believed him. Everything he told me, I just believed it.

How much money total did you lose from the Nigerian romance scammer?

Probably $7,000.

How has that impacted your life now?

I’m very cautious, and I have trust issues. The money is gone, I can never get it back which is a lesson learned. I have no reason to get on a dating site now. I would never ever get on a dating site again. People would probably say never say never, but I say never.

How’s your relationship going now?

If there was ever a perfect relationship, I’m in that perfect relationship. He’s real, I can see him, and he treats me like a queen. It’s so hard to put words to what you wish because everybody thinks differently. Everybody wants that fairytale ending, and if you’re not meeting that person in real life and not seeing them face to face, you should probably wake up and realize it’s probably not true.

Social Catfish is Here to Help You!

If you would like your story to be featured on our YouTube channel and blog, you can email us at ShareMyStory@socialcatfish.com. By allowing our audience to hear about your experiences, you can educate them in what signs you witnessed and what you had to go through before they get scammed themselves.

Social Catfish is also here to help by providing our users with a reverse search bar. This allows our users to look up any name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image to find who you are looking for.