George Hobbs Internet Dating Scam , Internet

It all began on a site called connectingsingles.com.  I had just joined and a few days following, I received a message in my inbox from this individual named George. At the end of this indepth message in which he indicated he wants to get to know me as my profile sounded "impressing" and "near perfect description" of what he was looking for, he provided his email address and phone number to write to him or text him.  I looked up his email address on facebook and came across 2 profiles.  When I asked why he had 2, he said someone hacked into the first 1 and locked him out of his password, so he created the 2nd.

Over the course of the week of texting and chatting via yahoo messenger and receiving emails as its a habit to request current photos to see if the individual posting the picture was real, we would ask each other questions regarding relationships, children and family.  I asked him what his background was, he said he was from "Ireland/Germany, but born in England". I asked him if he had an accent, he said yes and tried to call me right away.  I was at work and couldn't answer the phone.

This person had told me he was an only child, his daughter Debbie was 4years old, her mom died of cancer, he lost his father 8 years ago, and his mother is remarried and living in Turkey. 

This man had told me that he was a construction engineer, but he was ready to move and relocate for the right woman.  By the end of the week, he had me under his fantasy spell until the Friday evening when his luck had taken a wrong turn.  He told me that the project he began, he ran out of funds to complete and by the end of the evening, his mother was in a car accident and dislocated her pelvis and was in need of pain medication, which he couldn't provide her. 

He called me on several occasions and when I was able to answer him, there was a lot of background noise or he was muting his phone on and off saying there was a connection problem.  He would call to tell me that he loved me.  

I realized this was a scam from when he told me of his mother's accident and how he couldn't help her.  I never asked him if I could do anything to help, I only offered words of encouragment, and he came right out and asked if there was anything I could do to help.  From this point I was back into reality and began playing along to see where things would go.

Not at anytime did I send any money down.  I told him that I was financially strapped and couldn't provide him any financial help, he began getting distant, but still keeping up with his scam.  He would always send me text messages of good morning poetry, and ask me to come on to web cam.  There was only 1 occasion, where I was able to view him and his daughter on web cam for less than a minute when the picture froze on screen.  All other occasions to view him on web cam, I either received a black or white screen as the individual was blocking the cam with something.

The following week, I began to get upset with him and I told him I don't want to be used for money as this was what happened with my previous relationships, I told him I don't want to talk to him anymore as I felt he was only using me for money.  He said he was mad at me because I was treating him like he was one of my ex's.  A few days had passed then I contacted him and I was playing it out that I was sorry for over-reacting and I said to him "when I get paid I will forefit rent until the following pay and I will send you what I can".  He said, "thank you for the offer, I don't want your money". He began to send love poems and tell me that he missed talking to me and he would call me just to say he loved me so much.    

The final day when I spoke to him on the phone, I confronted him about his accent.  I asked him why he sounded like he had an African accent, he denied it and laughed at me (conversation commenced via chat).  I told him I had African friends and his accent sounded like he was Nigerian.  I began asking more questions and he said he had to go.  I asked him to delete my numbers and emails and forget I existed.

I believe this was a Nigerian Scam as warned on the dating site and they are using this innocent man's face.  I believe they hacked into his computer as the pictures that I received were personal pictures that only one would keep on their computer.  I also believe that they had possibly a web cam shot or home video clip which was what I was shown on webcam, but I also feel that when I appeared on webcam for them, that they will be using that on someone else to scam.  The possibility exists that my voice was also recorded for possible scams against others.  These guys are professionals and they've been doing this a really long time.

I am trying to locate the man in the picture to advise him that he is being used for such scams as this is a form of identity theft, to a degree.