Tutoring Scam

I’m in shock. A scammer took $2,270 from me.

Here is how he got to me:

Actually, this message came to a friend of mine who forwarded it to me and I was hooked.

He asked what I charge per hour. He said that he needed 16 hours of lessons. We agreed on $480, but he sent me a check of $2,250. I was a little suspicious because I was expecting the student that day. He said that his daughter is in Texas and I needed to send her money through moneygram so that she could come and start the lesson. I was convinced and sent $900 to a person named Daniele L. Johnson. He said that Daniele was his cousin with whom his daughter Debra was staying. He introduced himself as a ship engineer and was off-shore and had a financiery who sponsored him.

Next day he contacted me again to transfer more fund. I sent $1,350.

I only realized that it could be a scam when one day later he demanded more fund. Now he was saying that his daughter was hospitalized. I then reported the case to the police.

A few days later, another person (Barry Richardson) contacted me saying that he worked in a Fraud Department and wanted to help me. Now I knew that he was another scammer but asked him for help anyway. He first wanted to know from me how I met with the guy, i.e. he wanted to know on what Website he saw my profile. He said that he wanted to inform the Website administrator so that others do not become victims. I didn’t give him information which made him annoyed.