Police investigate scam initiated through Facebook
The North Bay Police Service is currently investigating a report of an individual who lost thousands of dollars through a scam that was initiated through the social networking website, Facebook.
The fraudster contacted the victim with a friend request. Lured in by the fraudster’s convincing profile and photographs, the victim believed the fraudster’s claim that he was a U.S. Military doctor serving in Iraq and accepted his request to be friends. Facebook chats and email correspondence between the two followed.
Then, the suspect asked the victim to assist him in getting a parcel out of Iraq. The victim agreed to receive his parcel in exchange for a large sum of cash as compensation.
The victim then received numerous emails over several months from others professing to be courier companies, customs agents and diplomats. Each of these individuals claimed there was some sort of delay or problem with the delivery, and requested funds to rectify the problem. The funds were said to be required for certificates, customs clearance, storage fees, and other fabricated events.
The victim sent several payments before he discovered that it was a scam.
