Facebook - Fb.Me/CC
Complaint 235458 Details

On April 25, 2013, I saw a suggested friend on Facebook by the name of Turner Thomas and that he was allegedly employed by Facebook as appeared on the FB page itself. I sent a friend request and he responded immediately. After a little chatting he told me I won their Freedom Award Protection Lottery Agency Program. During that conversation, he sent me levels of participation depending on the amount of money you wanted to claim. The first one was to pay $500 and receive $40,000. I questioned the legitimacy of this but somehow he convinced me that he was who he said he was and that this was real and not a scam. He also told me I had to wire the $500 via Western Union to a man by the name of Osidipe Olalekan,112Store Rd,Ogun, Nigeria,23401. It sounded fishy to me but he said the guy was a banker there and that I should not worry--that everything was on the up and up. He also told me that if I got the money off the next day, I would get cash(less 10% pand fees for taxes)delivered by UPS that same day and that he would also show up with the UPS guy. On Friday morning (April 26) I wired the $500.00 not including the fee of $43.00 to Mr. Olalekan. I contacted Mr. Thomas and provided him with the reference number. He also told me that he needed my email and Facebook Passwords and I haggled with him over that and eventually he convinced me that there would be no tampering with those accounts but that there were business reasons why he needed this information and that as soon as everything was completed, I could change my passwords to something else. Also, it was what you had to do to get the money. His Facebook page also shows he is a manager at IC3, and the Facebook logo appears right at the top. You can see it for yourself. In any event, when 5PM rolled around, and no UPS, I got upset and contacted him, asking him why he lied to me. He said that he had just returned from Nigeria where he was picking up the money for me and other awardees, and that he couldn't make it back in time. This chatting occurred sometime after 9PM that same day. An hour or so before this, while I was using Facebook, a screen popped up and said someone was trying to log into my account from Sacramento, CA, and if I didn't know who it was, I should change my password, which I did. In any event, after a long back and forth chatting, he asked me if I changed my password and I told him yes, and he asked "why" and I said I didn't know anyone in Sacramento and he had told me previously he lived in Florida. He also told me it was him logging into my account and I asked him where he was at that very moment and he said he was at home in Florida. I questioned how he could have been in Sacramento coming a rather long route from Nigeria, and make it back from California to Florida in under 3 hours. He said he stopped there with his boss and that they were traveling by company jet. I gave him a very hard time about all of this but then he somehow convinced me that he was a good guy and that everything was as he represented. He asked me to give him the new password and I did. Of course, he said nothing would be happening over the weekend and that on Monday morning he and the UPS guy would be bringing the winnings to my door. He got to me by continuing to talk with me and other scams he had been working on and I told him about one that had happened to me recently outside of this complaint and he convinced me that he and his team were going to get the guy that had ripped me off. This all being said, I asked if I put another $700 in could I advance to the next level and receive $90,000 (less taxes and fees), and he said 'yes'. So on Sunday the 28th, I again wired $700 (paid $56 transaction fee), to Mr. Olalekan and sent the reference number to Mr. Thomas. Later that day, we began chatting again, and after a while he told me I needed to send more money for the taxes and I told him to take it out of the winnings and that I only had $500 left in my account and he said to send that. I was furious and let him know that I considered myself to have been scammed and he acted insulted and asked me not to address him like that, telling me to "come down". I believe he meant calm down. I ended the conversation as I was so upset. Today is Monday the 29th and no UPS and no Mr. Thomas. I tried sending questions to him on his cell and on messenger, but he hasn't replied. If this program is for real, I am owed the winnings. If not for real, Facebook should have been alerted and have warned users about this scam. At the very least, I should get back $1299.00. I have all of our conversations saved on my messenger and if you need to see that you surely can, but I don't know how to print it off. Someone would have to help me with it, or have my permission to go into it and read it themselves. When nothing happened as promised today, I changed my passwords. I am now worried about identity theft.

Thank you,
Carol Trueman
(Personal Information Removed)