Dawn seemed to be attracted to the drama because she kept talking excitedly about everything the fictitious character did and said e.g. "He was caught with cocaine in his bag", "he was in a car accident" and so on. She's lucky to be alive unlike a woman from New Zealand who was recently murdered after flying out to meet an African man pretending to be someone else. When are the governments in our countries going to sort out the telephone contacts from African countries to stop these scams? The dating websites also should be sued into making sure their members are real people (their real clients pay to be on there while the fakes pay to catch their real clients)...sue that dating company and get your money back and maybe they will change their policies.

I can't believe people fall for these scams! I have been on online dating sites and I am very cautious about the whole thing!


Why I think people are stupid is because you can't fall in love with someone you have never met! I don't understand why people don't think it is weird for a stranger to say they love you and pronounce their undying love for you and you don't think that is weird!


Even if the person exists and is not in Nigeria anyone who is that unstable and emotionally childish to think that you have fallen in love with a computer  screen has emotional or mental problems! Where is the common sense? Even my challenged son knows not to be taken in by scammers or mentally I'll people online! 


If you are lonely and want to meet someone online then be sensible and use common sense! Contact people who you can meet! Don't believe anything until you can verify the facts! If the person says they love you before they have met you delete them from your contacts because they are unstable and don't know what love really is! You want someone who is smart and stable not a scammer or a liar!


Use your heads people and stop making Nigeria rich!


As for the guy and "Jen" I really hope dr Phil convinces him to charge her with fraud and theft! I am sick of the amount of manipulators out there who have no honor or integrity!

What is this?
Just yesterday (3/23/13), I got a Facebook friend request ostensibly from another unfamiliar “self-employed” man.
He had no mutual friends, and only two friends, total – both women.
He gave his city as one in my region, but I wasn’t impressed.
I didn’t accept the request, nor will I.
All I did was capture his “profile photo,” and do an image search to see if “his” photo would show up someplace like pigbusters.net.
It didn’t, somewhat to my surprise, but I’m still not “biting.”
SHEESH!
These people must get what they want some of the time, or they wouldn’t keep doing it.
They’re not going to get it from me, though!

So Dr. Phil is Craig going to prosecute this person that took his money?

A guy contacted me on facebook and wanted to friend me, I didn't know him and never respond to friend requests I don't know, so I just ignored the message and went on about my business. About a month later, he contacted me again and I thought maybe he knew mw through another friend. My reply to him was:"Do I know you?" Now get this answer, he said he was looking on facebook for another friend of his and came across my profile and knew instantly that we belonged together. I answered him and told him things don't happen in the real world. He was supposed to be from London, and he continued to profess his undying love for me. I asked him how he could know he loved someone he had never met? I also told him "look, if you are looking for some rich American woman to hook up with, get married, get your American citizenship and live happily ever after, you are barking up the wrong tree. I live on a fixed income and barely get by each month. Anyway, he waited two and a half months before the "money" call came. It was so funny because when you had your show and you showed that list of things that were characteristic of these guys, he had all but two of them! Anyway, 12:00pm on the day he was coming back to the states to finish a job he was doing in Austin, Tx. For some reason he emphasized he would call me from the airport. He didn't but that was nothing unusual for him not to call when he said he would, so I thought nothing of it. At 2:30am in themorning after, "a piece of machinery broke on his job and he had to go to Maylasia" , I got a phone call from a Dr. (ha ha) saying that he had been in a horrible accident on the way to the airport, the driver had been killed and "William" had two broken legs and a cracked vertebrae in his neck and needed "immediate" surgery. Only problem was, they needed a deposit to do the surgery because all his identification and wallet had been lost in the crash, the "Dr" happened to find his cell phone and my # was listed in it as "My Love".I asked this guy what kind of hospital didn't just do surgery and worry about the money later and he said it was a very costly surgery and they couldn't just do that. I told him to tell William to enjoy his paralyzed life because as I had told him from the beginning I was not sending him money and I didn't have any money to send anyway. This guy says" you don't even know how much I was going to say, it could have only been $100, you don't love him that much? I said I never loved him at all, never told him I loved him and I am not sendin one penny, much less $100. Tell him the love letters were good, but they weren't that good!

Just wanted to say thank you Carlan.  I too am disabled, and I think at the time that was part of why I was sucked in.  As I said my fiancee had just died very suddenly and I was at a low point emotionally and then being alone, disabled, unable to leave my house for much....online was my only contact to the outside world.  In many ways it still is, but I have made efforts to at least expand my outside contacts.  I found a chronic pain group that I attend once a week and have made a couple of friends there that I see outside the group.  I found a church I really like, and I volunteer there.  My pastor is great, he made it easy for me to do the majority of what I need to do at home, via computer or phone.  If I need to go into the church he is fine if it's on my schedule, on a good day for me.  Bottom line, I think there are alot of people who are shut in for whatever reasons and online may be their only contact, and hopefully they are careful what they put out there, and who they are dealing with.

bigmamas52, you are certainly NOT a victim!
Hoo-ray for you, for being insightful enough to ultimately not fall for this creep's line, and for realizing just why you were vulnerable, and doing something about it.
I COMPLETELY agree that if you're going to have an online "relationship," it should be with someone you already know, and have met face to face.
I'm disabled, must live with my 73-year-old mother, and rarely get out of the house, so most of my communication with the outside world is done via the internet.
So, sure; I get lonely and blue at times, but puh-LEESE!
I still have my standards. For instance, I mean it when I say that bad grammar is every bit as repulsive to me as brown teeth and bad breath.

I thought you all might be amused to know that while my “catfish” of recent weeks has mercifully stopped professing undying love, this morning, when I was on Facebook for a matter of seconds, a chat window popped up, bearing a short(but not short enough) obscene message. It read, “Your p-*is hot is not it”
I mean, SHEESH!

Does this character think I’m going to be TURNED ON by bad grammar?

If you’re going to light this 48-year-old’s fire, you’re going to have to do WAAAY better than that!

This is getting stupid.
What is it about me that says, “low-life bait?”

My Facebook profile is about as provocative as an official photograph of the Queen Mother, but I’m still having thoughts of changing it to one of Jabba the Hut or Quasimodo.
I’m also considering changing my relationship status to “enaged, unless Spike’s parole is denied again.”

I’m sure he meant “pancreas.”

 Am I the only one who is NOT shocked that adorable Jen wasn't waiting on the porch to meet Craig???? She sounded so sweet too, especially about the money he sent. She didn't ask him for it but she sure used it. I would have bet  a million bucks that "Jen" wouldn't show up and of course, she didn't. What is it with the cancer victim act, even the Man t'o (sp.) hoaxter used cancer.  How cruel is that to pretend to have a horrible disease.  But then these people don't have any conscience so apparently it doesn't bother them to pull these scams. I hope Craig, who is very cute and should have no trouble meeting real girls, moves on and gives up on "Jen."  Mom was right on this one.

I too was scammed by a guy back in 2004.  I will give him credit, he had patience, waiting about 6 months before he hit me up for money.  But, in that time he professed his love, he promised me the moon and he said all the right words.  At the time my fiancee had recently passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 45.  I was a prime target emotionally for this person.  Having worked in IT for 10 years I was well aware of internet scams and had warned many of my middle aged friends about these.  But, like I said he was patient.  Everytime I would have a question or wonder what he wanted from me, he would say nothing.  By the time he finally asked, he had me hooked.  Luckily for me I had also been a bank manager at one time.  He had asked if he could send me 2 money orders and I would deposit them in my account.  Then I would wire him the cash via Western Union.  When I received the money orders I took one look at them and knew from my previous experience that these MO's were not good.  First the address on the MO, out of MN, had no zip code.  Secondly, they were for $4000.00 a piece.  MO's are not allowed to be over $1500.00.  I contacted my local police who put me in touch with the FBI locally.  I took the MO's and copies of my messages with him into the FBI.  They were familiar with this man, he was working the Eastern seaboard.  They said if they could ever get him to actually touch down on US soil they could get him, but they didn't expect that.  This was before FB or other social media, but I put messages out on Yahoo and other chat sessions.  I was lucky, I did not have $8000 to send him and I knew what he sent me was bogus.  But, I knew there had to be others.  I identified 17 other women up and down the coast who had the same experience with the same guy, pictures, messages and story.  I ended up being online friends with 1 of the ladies, long term.  She had sent him $15,000 before she found out and almost went to jail over it as she had presented the bogus MO's to her bank and deposited them.  They were later found out and she was visited by the FBI in SC.  It was a tough lesson for me, but also a blessing in disguise.  At the time I had buried myself on that computer, my whole life and friends were online.  I realized that I had some emotional problems and I got some help and got out and started living again.  It's sad that there are people out there that would do this, but there's also a responsibility of the victim to follow common sense rules.  Yes, it's the 21st century with alot of new technology.  But, ultimately any true relationship has to be person to person, no matter what.  I hope Dawn learned her lesson, and will take it and start living her life where she lives, not online.