by Surene Esterhuizen
PLEASE TAKE NOTE: The names mentioned in this article are not the real names of the scammers. Scammer no 3 has given me permission to use his photos in this article, I have however removed his real name to avoid the so-called naming and shaming.
Interview with the devil … some people will say that I am over reacting, others will call me totally insane for just doing it.
Firstly, I have to apologize for some profanity in this article. For me this was quite a scary thing to do and I think I only realised it halfway through the project, but at that time I felt I was busy getting somewhere and realised that I just could not quit.
As you all know by now, I have joined a ScrabbleGO online gaming app and when you play against opponents there are chat options. My first response is to stop the chat in its tracks by just saying I don’t chat. A few rounds of words played and they realise that I am not going to continue the chat, they end the game. Easy … done and dusted!
But all of them aren’t so decent to stop, they are persistent to chat and after reading on ScrabbleGo posts of ladies with the same problem, I decided to start a chat with one of the persistent chatters, called Christopher. I quickly created an additional email address and when I was invited to chat, I supplied that details and we started to chat on Hangout!
Christopher Morgan was the first of three scammers I started to chat with, but he was a tough nut to crack! He asked me photos of the inside of my house and offered to send me photos of his mansion in Alabama. I obviously did not entertain that request. After a bit of a search a guy by the name of Christopher Simmons from America, scammed people by telling them that he works on an oilrig off the coast of Istanbul (same story he told me) and that he rents out his house while working offshore. He then shares photos of the house, and gets deposits paid to him from short term renters, but he was quickly found out and published on a Scammer alert website in the USA as the house he rented out was not his own. I am not sure that it is the same guy, but the similarity in the stories are the photos of the house and the offshore work off the coast of Istanbul. He also asked for money, but I pleaded COVID-19 and no income. The chat ended after that, because I called him a scammer in no uncertain terms and he was so offended that he had to end this friendship that he thought was really special! Poor sucker!! I first wanted to delete the chats, but kept it.
The second dude, called himself Theophilus Lampard, that chat was really short. I took his profile pictures (one on the gaming app and the other on Hangout), and searched it on a app that I downloaded on my phone and found that he has been using the photo of Joe Cross, better known as the health fanatic, Joe the Juicer. I not only found references to the same photos being used on dating sites by scammers, but I found the actual photos on Joe Cross’s social media platforms. It is really easy for scammers to get photos off the internet and abuse it the way they do. (Please let this be a warning to set your social media settings in such a way that strangers can’t get hold of your photos.) After I send him a message to inform him that someone is using his photos on dating sites and that he should follow this up, he abruptly ended the chat and he changed his photo and name on the gaming app. That clearly was admission of guilt!
The real man behind picture is Joe Cross 
Fake profile 
Fake profile 
New name, new picture, still fake profile
Then I struck gold in the form of Luis Smith who told me he was Italian! An Italian Smith? Really? The best part was when he told me how pretty I am, while I had a photo of my beautiful Golden Retriever, Fudge, on my profile!! LOL!!!
I already found out that the photos that he is using belongs to Tory Rob (looks like an American businessman residing somewhere in the East) and I confronted him with this information! He claimed that someone must be using his photos.
After chatting with him, and he asked me questions and given answers on my questions, I got a feeling of déjà vu. I went back to my conversations with Christopher and searched certain words and you won’t believe it! The questions and answers where exact same words, with a slight difference in more or less the last sentence. By this time, I was sick and tired of these chatting and I decided it is now or never. I am going in for the kill!
I confronted him with screenshots of the other messages and asked him if there was a manual out for scammers as they are all using the exact same words in their answers. He still tried to argue and I said that all the cat fishers are the same: they use other people’s photos, go for white girls while they are Nigerians, and why the hell are they doing it?!!
The next minute he tries to videocall me through Hangout. I got the fright of my life!! I declined the call! What the hell!! I just prayed that this must come to an end now, because this type of undercover investigative journalism is not for me!! No fun at all, but I wanted to get behind the truth … if I could.
And so, the interview with the devil starts:
Luis: Now that I’m willing to be honest with you, you don’t want to take my call.
Me: Because I don’t trust you. You already lied; you can still lie.
Luis: I can call a video call? Will you go away if you see the real me?
[Me thinking, hell, yes, I will go away. I don’t want to see him, but maybe, just maybe I should take the call.]
[Luis video called and I turned my camera away! The fuckin scammer! A child! Crazy!]
[By this time, I suspected he could have been Christopher too, because I mentioned to Christopher a video call would be proof that he is who he says he is.]
Me: What is your real name?
Luis: My name is ****** (not allowed to mention it here) it’s a tribal name … will you stop talking to me?
Luis: I’m Nigerian.
[I couldn’t miss that on the video.]
Me: Send me a photo of you.
Luis: This is me will you continue talking to me?
[No! No! No! – but there are still questions I want answers to. This crap is real!!!]
Me: Why do you guys go for white chicks? Your own girls are a lot prettier!
Luis: We’re very poor and nobody cares if we have eaten or not. It takes the hand of God for us to feed properly.
Me: Where are you really at now? [In earlier chat, he told me he was in Mexican Gulf on an oil rig.]
Luis: I’m 22 and have nothing doing this bad government we have here is making everyone do what they don’t want to like me
Luis: I’m in a hotel with my friends and would be checking out as soon as the morning brightens
Me: You are still not completely honest.
Luis: I’m being honest with everything I say
Me: Don’t act stupid! In what country are you now?
Luis: Can I see your face?
Me: No! I asked you a question: in what country are you now?
Luis: I’m in my country, Nigeria. Are you going to help me with money now?
Me: Why are you at hotel if you are so poor?
Luis: I’m with friends
Me: Why are you doing this?
Luis: I really want to stop doing this and find a decent job for myself. But the government we have is making everyone so bad
Me: Thanks for all the info above. Now I can actually finish my article on cat fishers. Tell me more about WHY you are doing it?
Luis: Just to earn money from you
Me: How would you have asked me for money?
Luis: Would you like to help me?
[Fuckin Idiot!]
Me: I don’t have money, but I am asking out of curiosity how you would ask? How do most of you guys ask?
[The little shit is trying to call me again!]
Me: No calls!!!
Me: What kind of education do you have?
Luis: I’m done with secondary school and looking forward to earn a little money and start university
Me: Nice. You will struggle at university if you can’t read and answer questions properly. You are not answering my questions above.
Luis: Please I want to see you in video now. The day is bright now.
Me: No!! What part of NO don’t you understand?
Me: Also, still waiting on answer what stories you guys use to get money from the ladies?
Luis: That’s begging the lady who I talk to
Me: Begging how? Using what stories to make her do it?
Luis: We can tell her what we want … We tell her anything that makes her happy make her feel loved then we can tell her what we want
Me: How do they pay you the money?
Luis: Through western union or money gram
Me: How can people pay you with those options if you don’t use your real name?
Luis: The person is going to send the money to a legitimate account in the United States
Me: And how does it work? Do you share money with person that accounts belong to?
Luis: Yes
Luis: Will you help me please?
Me: Oh, my word! And if a person can’t pay into those accounts what other ways do you take money?
Luis: That’s the only way we send our money
Me: There has to be other ways? Amazon vouchers or Bitcoin?
Luis: I never heard of Amazon but I know about Bitcoin
Me: What is your last name?
Luis: *******
[Me going into Google to search his full name and surname! Shucks! There were hundreds of hits with that name.]
Me: I’m done chatting now.
Luis: What are you doing now?
Me: I’m going to make my son breakfast and tell him about this shit!! He is not going to be happy that his mother had these chats … all just to write an article on cat fishing.
Luis: So are you going to help me?
Me: Help you with what?
Luis: With any money to start up going back to school?
Me: Is jy totally befok? [For my US and UK friends, basically this means: are you f’ing crazy?]
Luis: I don’t understand your writing?
Me: No, I am not going to help you. This chat is now done.
Me: You don’t understand my writing? Google it! Something new you will learn today!
Me: Thanks for my valuable information for my article. Wouldn’t for one moment thought I would strike gold to interview a real scammer / cat fish.
******
And so, the chatting stopped! On ScrabbleGo the idiots still invite us for games, but we have now found a way to eliminate them … they normally are the ones with the low word scores and no bingos (they don’t know big 8 letter words)!
Ladies, this is a real threat … I can’t explain to anyone exactly how scared I was … and I knew I was talking to a cat fisher. Can you imagine how someone must feel when they are reeled into this type of conversation just because they are lonely and looking for someone to show just the slightest bit of attention? Just to find out they are being scammed!
What about our young children on social media, TikTok, gaming sites, etc? Are you as parents aware of the danger out there that puts your precious children in harm’s way? Also, warn them about sharing photos online!!!
Technology is supposed to make life a lot easier, but it also makes life a lot more dangerous!
Be aware! Be careful! Be safe!
ALSO READ Part 1 – Catfishing AND Part 2 – How to spot a catfish