A Romance Scam Victim’s Story About Miss P.

We just received a message from one of our SCARS support & recovery group members. It was her scam victim story that she wanted us to share with new victims. This was because she had a new update on her case that she filed in Canada more than 2 years ago. She felt that her story would help those victims struggling to make it through this experience and maintain their hope!

If you are a relationship scam victim, you can get the help you need by signing up for a SCARS support group at support.AgainstScams.org

What Changed?

The Canadian Ontario Police decided to move forward and arrested the money mule she sent her money. The arrested money mule is a Nigerian living in Toronto who uses her Canadian business account to receive money transfers from scam victims. She is a willing participant in the criminal gang. This could lead to further arrests in the future.

This Is Her Scam Victim Story:

On March 4, 2020, I received a friend request on Facebook Messenger from someone named Mohmmad Ansar.

The profile picture was an Asian man and beside him a girl around 8/9 years old. I advised him that he had made a mistake. He apologized and said that his real name is Armani Chang Wei.

He wanted to be my friend as he saw from my profile that I was from Singapore. He claimed that he was born in USA to a Singaporean father and a Korean mother. He was a widower raising his young daughter Isabella after his wife Katherine and baby son George were killed in an auto accident in California a few years ago.

His occupation was Oil Rig Engineer and working on a project in the Gunashli oil field in Azerbaijan. Isabella was being cared for by his aunt in Istanbul. She was a retired nurse from USA who continued to live in Turkey after her Turkish husband had passed away. Isabella suffered from hydrocephalus since she was an infant and had been scheduled for brain surgery on April 5 in their home city of San Francisco.

They would return to USA just in time when Armani’s project wrapped up at the end of March. This was before travel bans and border closings due to the pandemic.

A few days later Armani asked to move our chats from Facebook Messenger to WhatsApp and sometimes on Hangouts.

He sent many pictures of him and his daughter. I had video chatted with Armani and Isabella on separate occasions and they looked exactly like the same people in the photos. He said all the right things to keep things moving along: Did you eat? Have you rested? Texting me all hours of the day and night, invited me to visit him and his daughter in San Francisco, etc. Isabella also wrote me many emails, called me Mom and couldn’t wait to meet my grownup children. She really tugged at my heartstrings with her innocent and childish words.

They talked about moving to my city in Canada, buying a house in my town after selling their home in California.

Armani coerced me not to tell my family and friends using excuses that it’s best to introduce him and Isabella in person.

After several weeks of chatting with Armani on WhatsApp and Hangouts there was an explosion on the rig and he said one of his workers was injured badly. He had to pay for the worker to be airlifted from the rig to be treated in a Baku hospital. He must also pay for repairs out of pocket before he can collect his contract check of over a million Euro.

At the same time he became very concerned about his daughter’s health condition now that his project had been delayed. He had no access to funds to pay for these unforeseen circumstances. I asked about contingency plan and why he couldn’t ask for an advance and his answer was his contract stipulated that he wouldn’t be paid until the project is 100% completed. A few days later he said that he had negotiated for the gas cylinder to be paid with an advance by the oil company.

He asked if I could help him with shipping costs which amounted to over Euro 26K which was equivalent to CAD$40,000. This is the first loan amount I agreed to wire to the shipping company Osuman CM Logistics in Toronto.

Isabella’s surgery had to be performed in Istanbul because of travel restrictions. He was cash strapped and asked for additional help with medical expenses for his daughter’s checkups and hospital stay because his aunt could not afford to pay with her limited pensions.

Then more damaged equipment which weren’t detected during examination after explosion. He begged me to help him raise money to pay for more parts and repairs. As time dragged on and one thing led to another, he would send me copies of invoices which I presented to the banks for loans and wire transfers.

Finally, all the damaged machines had been repaired and he was ready to leave the rig. He dropped another bombshell; he found out that he was obligated to clear the oil rig platform otherwise he would not collect a single dime. Armani asked me for more loans stating everything would be paid back once he got his contract payment. I had no choice but to help him complete his project so he could leave the rig to join his daughter in Istanbul.

I also desperately need him to pay me back to cover the loans I took out.

In total I had sent over CAD$425,000 to his designated agents in Canada and Turkey.

To my dismay, one day at the end of August 2020 I found out that I had been ghosted. Armani’s WhatsApp account was unregistered and I was blocked from the two email addresses. I proceeded to file a local police report and with the RCMP and OPP.

Your Story

If you would like to share your scam victim story with others, we welcome the opportunity to help you do that.

Just send us your scam victim story by email to contact@AgainstScams.org and tell us if you want to remain anonymous or would like others to know who you are.  It is your choice. We will prepare it and post it here on our website for other victims. Your scam victim story might be the one that helps a struggling victim find the courage to get the help they need!

PLEASE SHARE SO OTHERS WILL KNOW