DATING SCAMMER Andrea Pelin

I am an American who visited Bucharest recently.
I am currently in Romania getting set to head back to the usa soon. I got scammed by someone who I thought loved me. She was very legitimate and I believed that she was really interested in me. Her picture was real and she seemed like a nice girl enrolled in University. I communicated with her thru the internet for about 8 months via yahoo messenger. No money was sent to her, though she did make a small request for funds once. She seemed very legitimate and open given that I met with her and stayed in her family home. With her, her mother and her two grand parents who reside there. This I believe is a whole new form of scam/money operation. I was questioned daily about the contents of my family home in the usa and about my other family members. This often revolved around getting money from them in some shape or form. I was asked several times to provide pictures of my family including images of the inside and outside of their homes. This took place during my time here in Bucharest.
Once I arrived into Bucharest, things seemed okay, however, this later changed.
Demands were made on me. Her and her mother asked for money. I'd been helping them out with stuff all along, with small things. It seemed kind of normal at first. But the demands increasingly became more detailed.
I recently got a letter back from the USA embassy in Bucharest in regards to this kind of scam. I wrote them shortly after I was ditched at that hotel. I gave him very little information, yet he was able to literally explain to me just how it happens. Which is how it happened. It is clear that he was familiar with this version of scam. I will post his email below.
"Hello,

I am very sorry hear that you have been victimized in one of the “internet friend” scams that are very commonplace in Romania. Sadly, it seems that person followed a very common pattern. A woman makes contact through an internet chat room and develops what seems to be a long-term relationship – often over six months or longer. At some point, the demands come for money – whether for an operation, sick parent, lost job, etc..
The scam usually ends when the man learns the truth by coming to Romania or by trying to get the girl a visa to go back to the U.S.

The women who do this are professional criminals, usually with a boyfriend or **** who organizes the scam and sometimes with a supporting cast of “family members” who may or may not be real. I see these kinds of cases with alarming regularity. Please let me know if you want to pursue a criminal case against this individual, however, the Romanian police will not be likely to pursue unless there is some demonstrated form of coercion.
If you are interested, I can send you a list of English-speaking attorneys in Romania who may be able to assist.

I hope this message finds you well. These internet scams are so painful because people by nature see what they want to see in an individual on the other side of a computer screen. These criminals act to become the perfect match for the person they are trying to scam on the other side. I have seen many cases where a man was scammed for a year only to have gifts that sent to his “fiancee” returned because the address was wrong on the other side. In one case, a man was scammed out of over $100,000 by a woman he met on a Christian dating site.

Hang in there. Know that you are not alone. And remember that it is better to learn this now, rather than a year from now.

Sincerely,

Consul
U.S. Embassy Bucharest"