RobertGordon - you are being conned! Do not send...

RobertGordon - you are being conned! Do not send her/him/whomever any money!!

I have been conned before and I know the tell-tale signs. (No, it was not a 'romantic' scam, by the way.)

If she was genuine, why would she be in KL without any money? Why would she ask someone for money, whom she has never ever met? Would you do the same? Australians in general are seen as suckers, I'm afraid.

Don't even bother going down the path to verifying hotel bills and such like. You will get caught up in the scam and start believing things yourself. How do you know he/she/whomever can't forge a hotel bill?

So what if she gave you personal details. You cannot verify them due to privacy laws! Do you think you can ring up the Bank of America and quote her card number and they will verify she is real? LOL! You cannot do that! There are privacy laws in place that do not allow that. To verify her details you would need to hire a private investigator and he may have to resort to illegal activity to do what you need to do. It is not as simple as you think. She could very easily have made up those numbers on the spot. If you don't believe her what does she care? She makes you feel guilty and if you cave in, all well and good. If not she moves on to her next target. If she was genuine, she would never ever make you feel guilty.

Do not send any money overseas. You will never see it again. The police have much better things to do than to chase internet scammers and small change. Plus once the money has gone overseas it is impossible to trace. The police here in Australia will only help if the amount is in the millions. Don't even think about sending any money. You will never, ever see it again. Once you start down that path you will be on a slippery slope and the excuses for cash will become bigger and bigger and more urgent until it is a life-saving operation for her brother or sister or cousin or auntie, someone who mysteriously evaporates into thin air when the 'emergency operation' is over. They will weave incredible stories and make you feel incredibly guilty, but once you stop sending money to him/her/whomever you will be of no use to him/her/whomever any more and they will stop contacting you and then all your hopes and dreams will be dashed, plus you will have racked up a huge debt which you will never, ever see again.

To some others here - it is very easy to be caught off guard and scammed so don't be so judgemental if you have never been in that situation. Unfortunately when you are on the slippery slope, rational judgement goes out the window and before you know it you don't know who or what to believe. I've been there for the best part of a year myself myself and it is not a very happy place.

P.S. The person who scammed me was here in Australia and in the end went to jail for six months, but I had to perservere and assist the police for a very long time to arrive at that outcome. While I felt some justice was done I never ever saw any of the cash, and there was a lot of it, but I won't say how much. Many of the excuses for money involved overseas locations and people, which are untraceable by the local police. And these weren't just local police detectives, this was the Major Fraud Squad. The money loans that were based around local stories (i.e. a car registered in Victoria) were the only fraudulent requests for money that were useful as evidence. Any money that goes overseas has disappeared into the ether as far as the local authorities are concerned.