I have been scammed online and I have been robbed thousands of USD! I thought that could never happen to me because I am very skeptical to shady offers on the internet. Actually, I had chosen to hide what happened because I feel incredibly stupid about being scammed in that way. But the scammers have been incredibly professional, and the story is incredibly exciting and interesting. And in addition to the entertainment value, it can serve as a warning.

THE STORY COMES HERE:
About six months ago, one of my acquaintances told me that I was on a list of people who had won a large sum of money, which had been donated by an American company called DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services). It sounded interesting, so I clicked on a link which gave me a connection to an “Elizabeth Morgan”, who confirmed that I was on the list and that I had won approximately 70 thousand USD. Not because I'm seriously short of money, but such an offer is hard to resist for a retired person with a limited income. My car in Denmark, which is indispensable where I live, is 14 years old and has to be replaced soon, my well at my woodhouse in Denmark must be renovated in the near future, and the amazing Bed and Breakfast lodge “Chez Fatou et Saladin” in Casamance in southern Senegal, which is created by my Senegalese wife and me, needs expansion due to an increasing number of guests. So far, we have built a garage, but it would be nice to have a car instead of using a Djakarta (here in Senegal not the capital of Indonesia, but a motorbike taxi for buying food and drinks for our guests).

ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. Elisabeth Morgan (guaranteed a fake name) wished me luck on Messenger with my gain, but she wrote that I would have to pay about 500 USD in taxes and shipping costs. So far OK, so I payed. But during the process I was repeatedly charged for “unforeseen expenses”. And finally Elizabeth sent me the happy message that “Your money will be delivered today”. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The car from the delivery company FedEx had been involved in an accident and had caught fire during the transport, and my money had disappeared in flames!! As a proof of the accident, she sent me a photo of a wrecked car and flames (see attached photos). Later in the process I was contacted several times by phone by a “Donald Richard” from the transport company FedEx, who called me from Washington D.C. and told me that my money package had now arrived to Copenhagen Airport and would be released if I paid a larger amount of USD.

AND NOW COMES THE MOST SPECULATED SCAM: The scammers had checked my list of friends on Facebook and had created a second “Bolette”, who was a colleague at my previous workplace. And the fake Bolette sent me a lot of emails on Messenger telling, that several of her friends and acquaintances had received their money without any problems, with photos of happy winners with a large money package of cash (see attached photos). Among other things, she wrote this to me on Messenger:

"Hi Mr. Erik, is there any good news yet? A friend of mine who lives in Belgium recently called me and said that he had received his money, and I am so happy for him".

"Hi, how about you, dear Erik... I hope things are going well for you right now, because I would really like to hear from you, and it will be a really good New Year".

And THAT was probably the main reason why I jumped on it!
But my MOST STUPID , which I definitely should have seen through, was that all the payments had to be made with APPLE GIFT CARDS. This is a frequently used payment method for scammers because the gift cards are hard to trace and in many cases can function as cash.
This is for scaremongering and for a little entertainment. You may google lots of info about the scammers if you use some of the keywords in my article or if you ask questions on Meta AI.





If anyone has had bad experiences with the digital criminals Elizabeth Morgan or Donald Richard, then please contact me on my Email pontoppidan214gmail.com . And if you want to spend a winter holiday at our lodge "Chez Fatou et Saladin" with our own restaurant in Casamance in southern Senegal. You can book your stay at booking.com or by writing me on pontoppidan214@gmail.com. Our lodge is 400 meters from the Atlantic Ocean with a fantastic beach, where you have a bigger chance to meet a cow than a tourist, and my Senegalese wife Fatou is an excellent professional cook.
Best regards from Saladin, alias Erik Pontoppidan
website in English: www.ponty.dk/eriks-ho.htm