Dennis Agustin Vidal KNOWN SCAMMER TRYING TO EXTORT MONEY FROM ME Internet

I first connected w/this man on OKCupid.com; he called himself Dennis Agustin Vidal, from Ventura, California.  The pictures he provided are exactly the same and a few others, but it is the same man.

Almost immediately, he asked for my yahoo email so that he could chat with me from there.  I noticed that his profile was deactivated the next time I logged into the site.  I thought that was rather odd.  I've come to realize that its part of the "what I call" MO...its always the same process the scammers use.  I've been contacted by numerous scammers the past couple of years on these sites.

We were only chatting for about a month, and he said that he would be coming to visit me over thanksgiving holiday last year.  At the very last minute, a family emergency to do with his father's estate came up and he had to rush off to Japan.  A short time after he was there, he said that his computer wasn't working and asked me to send him one.  A very specific one, an Apple MAC Pro.  When I wouldn't send it; he got angry and didn't contact me for several weeks.  I told him that I couldn't believe that he couldn't buy a computer in one of the largest electronic manufacturing cities in the world.

He did contact me again after about 2-3 weeks.  Once again stating he would be coming back to the states, but he had to make a stop in Accra Ghana, West Africa for business for his company.  That was at the end of last year.  He has led me to believe that he has been there this whole time.

Supposedly he was getting ready to come several months ago, but he used all his money for a special project he was working on in Ghana (a personal project that had to do with mining gold).  So he was short $624.13. for his airfare; so he asked if I would help him out.  He even went as far as having the travel agent draft an itinerary, with his name on it, and with the amount of the ticket and what was owed and he emailed it to me.  He even said that I could send the money directly to the ticket agent.  The name he gave me was Mr. Alex Konadu, #20 true vine road, Kumasi-Ghana 00233.  When I told him that I didn't have that kind of money to send, he got angry with me once again.

Eventually he contacted me again and said that he would stay until he could come up with the money on his own.  He also repeatedly told me that what he was going there, working on his special project, was for both of us and our future together.

The latest was that he still needed another computer.  That his computer was getting ready to break and he needed another one right away.  He said he knew that I wouldn't send him one; but that he had a friend there that could lend him some money to order one from Best Buy; but that they didn't ship international.  So he wanted to ship it to me, and then I could send it to him.

Well I did receive a package by UPS, which I assumed was the computer.  Even though it wasn't purchased at Best Buy, but was purchased at Wal-Mart.  I did open it and found a packing slip in it with someone elses name on it as the purchaser.  He told me a story that this was one of his co-workers that purchased it using his credit card, he was just doing him a favor.

I did take the computer to the closest mail box place to send it UPS or FedEx.  I was shocked when they told me it would be $500-$600. dollars.  I sent Dennis an email and told him that I wasn't going to pay $500 to send a computer that cost less than the item I was shipping.  After a few emails back and forth, he finally said to check on sending it by USPS.  He said it would be a lot cheaper.

I have actually know for quite some time, since he first went out of country that he was probably a scammer.  I had my doubts, but then when he said he had to stop in Ghana, I knew that he wasn't the person he said he was.  At that point, I was just playing it out, just to see what was going to happen.

By this time, I was really sick of hearing about sending the computer. I was really stalling for time, because I knew that something was fishy about the fact that he didn't buy the computer; his name wasn't on the packing slip.  The person's name on the packing slip was probably the person who's credit card information was stolen.  I finally told him that I was really angry with him, by making me wait so long for him to come back, so I took the computer back to Wal-Mart.

I hired someone (a professional) to have him investigated.  I was just waiting to hear back from them before I stopped communicating.  Sure enough, there were no records of Dennis Agustin Vidal going into the country or going out.  They could find no one by that name in country, staying in Accra.  A person with that name has no passport, no driver's license, and was not living nor did he own the house at the address he gave me in Los Angeles, California.

After doing more searching on the web, and running some images he had given me through the Google Images search (which I didn't know was available), I found out that he is known by dozens of names, in many countries.  This man gets around.

The investigator said he was more than likely a scammer and I should cease all contact with him; which I have done.