SUSPECTED SCAM!

Romance Scam
pearlgemsexchange@gmail.com +12134445862 George Wong

Date06/03/2020
Fraudulent emailpearlgemsexchange@gmail.com
PseudonymGeorge Wong
Url / Websitehttps://premiumexprezz.com/, https://fountainfinancebank.com/
Telephone+1 213-444-5862 (ou 0012134445862)
Scam contentsWe met on Langmatch, a worldwide app in April 7, 2020. We got off the app immediately and started talking and calling everyday for two months. He said he is a diamonds mining company owner. He immediately shared that he comes from a divorced parents and his dad died a year back, while his mom already left them while he was still young. He is basically alone in life so he got Charlie (his dog). He sometimes sends pictures and videos of Charlie with him. Sometime in May, he said that he needs to fly to Perth to his mining field since the machines there broke down. He sent pictures while he was there showing the machines working in the field, and some workers fixing machines inside a workshop. While in Perth, he said a Harry Winston bought diamonds from him. Since his machines broke down, he needs to source it out somewhere. After Australia, he said he goes to a ship from Paris to Greece where he can buy the gems on-board. While on the ship, he couldn't go online because the ship only has public wifi. So we stopped calling daily and even the messaging reduced. Once in a while, he would send pictures of some sellers sifting through some gems in a shop. Also one time, he sent me a video he took of the gems displayed on some rack. While he was trying to find signal, he broke his phone camera and couldn't check his email because of some buttons going loose. Coincidentally, his managers from Perth told him that the machines broke down again, so he needs to buy the machines fast so that their operations will continue. Since he said that I am the only one he trusts in his life, he asked me to log in his bank account on "Fountain Finance Bank UK" (support@fountainfinancebank.uk). I saw that "Harry Winston" transferred 1.6 Million dollars and other several merchants in his previous transactions. I searched Harry Winston online and it said that he is a legit jewelry seller in Asia. I initially thought that he just wants me to check his bank account if Harry already sent his payment, which Harry did. But then he asked me to transfer money from his account to three bank accounts under: CMC Construction Machinery (CMCmachinery.co@engineer.com), Turkish Machinery Promotion Group (turkishmachinery@engineer.com), and DIMITRIS KYRIAZIS (dimitris.kyriazis@europe.com). The instructions are to transfer the money and email these account the screenshot of the payment, to which the accounts would actually reply back to me with acknowledge and all the fuss. However, before I can fund transfer, the website stopped working and prompted me to email it for customer support. The bank replied that it requires me to fill-up a form for "THIRD PARTY ACTIVATION" so I can access it freely, in George’s stead. I had to give my personal information like address, phone number, even the income I get annually. I noticed that as soon as I sent the scanned form, they immediately approved me to login and use the bank account, which is a bit odd for a bank account that has millions of dollars in it. Normally, it should require George to first approve my application for third party. Anyway, I proceeded with the fund transfers which worked like a typical fund transfer that requires OTP that they would send to George’s email. In this case, I thought that how come he can get the OTP when he said that his signal is very bad on the ship? On the last transaction, I noticed that the bank "accidentally" deducted the amount twice from the total bank amount. I found it also odd that a bank system this prominent would make this very simple mistake. So I emailed them back to have it refunded, to which, they immediately emailed again and refunded. Some few days after the eventful bank transfers, George told me that another contract is on his way and that this costs 3.2 Million dollars. I felt this really excited him so I congratulated him on this new milestone. He mentioned that he will just finish this contract then come to the Philippines to finally meet me. He subtly namedropped Batangas City, where he said, that the client comes from. I mentioned that there is also a Batangas City in my country, how “magical” that he will actually see me sooner than we thought. He just dismissively said that he though Batangas City is in Thailand and how timely it is that the Client is from my country. The next day, he said that the ship captain told him that when he gets to Greece, the port will require him to pay tax and VAT, then he will have to pay again when he comes to Philippines. So the captain advised him to send the gems to the Philippines through this premium courier service so he wouldn’t be associated with the gems package. At this point, George mentioned that the client already paid the 85% of the contract so he was able to buy the gems from the ship. He asked me again for a favor where he would send me the gems through the courier, then will meet me in the Philippines, before he brings the gems to the client. I was feeling very hesitant and doubtful at this point, since he puts it like all I need to do was receive the package once it gets to me. There is a global CoVid crisis, so there are several restrictions on travel and shipment all over the world. But he said that the premium courier service promised to bring it to me in 48 hours. So he asked for my address and email. He also sent me the courier service website, complete with the tracking number that I had to input. On the website, it looks like a typical one but I still noticed the typo errors in some items. I can see on the website that the courier is coming from the Mediterranean sea, and there was even a picture of the bag that’s supposed to contain the “glowing gems, lots of gems”, as George puts it. He briefly mentioned that since he is coming from Mediterranean area which is a free area, he just paid the freight services, but the courier might still require payment for the vat and tax in the customs along the way. He said that I need to pay it when I get the items and it’s just about 1,000-3,000 USD and he will reimburse it to me when he comes to me. The next day, the courier emailed me and said that they are in Indonesia and the package has been held by customs. They gave me a whatsapp number and sent to me the bank details to where I should transfer 5,100 USD. I immediately told this to George and said that I don’t have this much money. He needs to make a way to pay this but he kept on insisting that I do this “once and for all to settle the payment because I know how important and valuable the gems are”. At this point, I really didn’t have a choice since I honestly don’t have that much money so I was very adamant and suggested that we just use his bank account to transfer the payment. He slidely said that the bank emailed him that they are under maintenance and will come back shortly. I checked the bank website and got the error message that the website has been suspended, which is odd for a bank website, right? Suspension is only possible if the domain wasn’t properly paid on-time. He started getting worked up and making me guilty that this situation is just easy and small money. I stood strong and just told him to look for other ways to pay. At one point, he asked me how much I have so we can probably ask the customs if that is enough, to which I thought that the customs should have a fixed rate for tax and VATs, right? We cannot go around legal ways, I thought. He still kept on forcing me and even said that “what if we get married tomorrow, is this how you will handle the situations?”. Finally, I replied that “I don’t deserve to be scammed. If you want me to trust you, you need to settle this situation or else I will think that you cannot be trusted”. After this, I added both George and the courier service to one chat thread, where the courier representative still kept on nudging that if we don’t pay it asap, the Indonesian customs will confiscate the gems and we cannot get it back. George never answered in that chat, which is unbecoming of a businessman that should be super worried in losing his million-dollar-worth of package, right? I had given up, at this point.
Comment / ReviewI have been played by someone who even had the resource and effort to build fake bank websites, courier service websites, and other fake accounts on whatsapp and emails.

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