The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

Some months ago I met a lady on one of the social networks and we end up falling in love. Just recently the lady explained that she is Liberian but she is kept in a refugee camp in Senegal. Also, she said that she lost her father and mother through a terrorist attack. Her father left her with money which is in the Bank of Scotland and her father assigned her as a next of kin.

Now she wants to claim the money from the Bank but the Bank refused and told her to look for a foreigner to claim that money on her behalf due to her refugee status . She appointed me and she told the Bank about me and she also give me the contacts of that Bank for confirmation.

Immediately after contacting the bank they asked me to provide them with a death certificate of her father, an account statement proof of power of attorney from a UN lawyer.

I communicated with the lawyer and he sent me his identity card and he needs $750, equivalent to 4,500 Pula from me through Western Union. I am writing to you to help me to prove the documents whether they are true or false before I decide to send the money. And I seek your help to analyse the whole statement and see if it is a true story or it is a scam?

Unfortunately this is, without any doubt, a scam.

This story of the girl stranded in a refugee camp with an inheritance is very common. The whole thing is an "advance fee" or "419" scam. Everything you’ve been told about this fake refugee girl, the lawyer and the bank are complete lies. There is no money. Nothing is true.

I phoned the scammer myself and it’s remarkable how transparent the story is when you are skeptical. Also, the certificates you were sent are obviously fakes. They can’t even spell the address of the bank correctly.

Please do NOT send anyone connected with this story any money. It will go directly to scammers and you will never receive anything in return and you will never be able to get your money back.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

Please inform me if this university is a scam. This university is based in USA and the name is Headway University. They claim to be an online university.

This so-called "university" is not genuine. I'm confident about this for various reasons.

Firstly the text on their web site is a perfect copy of the text at the web site of another unknown "university", "Mcford University" The web sites are identical. I think it’s interesting that the "Headway University" web domain was only registered on 2nd September this year. Mcford was registered on 8th August.

They claim to be accredited by the "International Accreditation Body for Online Education" but this isn’t genuine either, it’s just a web site that was registered, for the first time, on 14th October this year.

Finally, as far as I can establish neither of these universities or the accreditation body have any history which isn’t surprising given that they were only created in the last few weeks. It’s a fairly common trick by these fake establishments to create their own accreditation body to make them seem respectable.

Headway offer an online chat facility where you can talk to an “advisor” so I went online and asked them if I could get a degree from them. They told me perfectly clearly that I could get a degree in "10 to 12" days, with no prior, relevant qualifications so long as I pay them $648. I think that’s enough evidence that they’re a fake, don’t you?

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Ethan Myers'
Ethan Myers: Hello. How may I assist you?
Me: Hi
Me: I want to know how quickly I can get a bachelors degree
Ethan Myers: yes you can
Me: i don't understand
Ethan Myers: you can get it in about 10 to 12 days
Me: oh that's brilliant, really that quickly?
Ethan Myers: yes
Ethan Myers: What we do is we take down your life experience, that is your working experience and your past educational qualification, convert them into credit hours, if these credit hours are equivalent to the credit hours that are require to complete your desired degree then you qualify and we award the degrees accordingly, if you are successfully evaluated we start with the registration process registering you and your documents with the university and the Accreditation bodies and after that we make sure that the documents are shipped out to you in the next 10 working days.
Me: does that mean i don't have to study?
Ethan Myers: yes, no studies require if you have relevant working experience
Me: which university awards the degree?
Ethan Myers: Headway University
Me: and how much will this cost?
Ethan Myers: $648

Please do NOT consider buying one of these fake qualifications. More and more companies are checking qualifications from places like Headway and it’s very easy to spot the suspicious ones. In fact if you do a Google search for “Headway University” one of the first sites you find is ours, describing them as fake. So don’t be tempted!