A romance scammer: what do I do to warn others?

I didn’t read the whole post but any mention of “Cape Town” or Africa is a scam!
It could have even been a woman. You can also get throw away phone numbers online and call people from your computer.
Give authorities what info you have but they probably can’t do anything to stop this.

He/she/they, whoever it is, is back.

Yesterday, an email came.

"Hello Dear, Compliments of the season and I hope you are doing well? I think about you so much... I understand you are busy and you do not have much time to write me an email or have you lost interest in me. I hope to hear from you soon..."

So today, I made sure that my email goes out without my last name showing, and wrote back: "Happy New Year! Fill me in!" I was curious what would ensue, for fun, and I finally made an effort to find the check. I found it. On the check is American River Bank, Roseville, CA. Google and Yelp show that the bank has been closed. Google shows the following result from Wikipedia:

"Who bought American River Bank?
Bank of Marin
The company was acquired by Nasdaq-listed Bank of Marin on August 6, 2021, in an all stock deal with American River being delisted from the Nasdaq."

So this check was sent to me in April 2023, when the bank no longer existed. I wonder, @seesaw, would it make sense to notify Bank of Marin, the successor, that scam dealings occur under the name of the entity which Bank of Marin bought in 2021?

I mean, only if you're bored. Sometimes it's fun to screw with scammers. Otherwise, just let it go. Block them.

This is unusual. They aren’t typically coming back. It’s too dangerous for them. I’d probably notify the bank just in case. They won’t catch the person but they’d be aware. You could notify police too. Is this person/people are using the same email address as before?

Yes, the same. Clearly they are dealing with too many cases and do not keep good records, otherwise they'd remember that I know they are scammers. Back in the spring, I asked them why their business website had just been built and their LinkedIn profile had literally no connections, all glaring red flags. Back then they were appalled that I asked these questions. And now they are back as if nothing had happened.

Yes, I responded because I intend to notify the police and wanted some fresh content for the police.

I will see if I can get hold of the Marin Bank's legal department and notify them.

It's in the language too. "Hello dear" isn't because it's a term of endearment. It's a calling card of a non English speaking scammer. I use different online platforms for client acquisition, and these are some of the trademarks of a scammer. Someone once explained to me it's because translating the opening of a traditional letter "Dear soandso" doesn't translate properly in other languages- not the words but the convention. So rather than say "Hi soandso" they say "hello dear". Also thinks "hello dear soandso".

Please don't mistake this in anyway as criticizing those learning English or for whom English isn't the first language. I'm just speaking to signs of the scammer.

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If we speak of the language use, isn't "compliments of the season' too formal, a wrong language register for this sort of casual exchange?
And also, this last missive they sent has grammatical errors. ' I understand you are busy and you do not have much time to write me an email or have you lost interest in me.' e.g.

I don’t know anyone who says “compliments of the season”, not native speakers, not English learners. And I know a lot of people.

Most of the time these scammers do admit not being native speakers, but they often lie about their native language to make it sound it more appealing. I forgot if these people told you they are foreign born.

Regardless of their language use, it’s established that these are scammers. I found more surprising that they came back but you are likely right that they forgot. They have so many people they prey upon. Or maybe because they didn’t get anything from you, they wanted to try again.

Despicable human beings

Thats interesting! Not something that would have occurred to me. Truly lost in translation! And here we think it appears suave and debonair and romantic, whereas if one were to hear it in person, the false tone might be more apparent.

Yes, this so called guy told me from the beginning that "he' was from Switzerland and that 'his' native language was Romansh. I had to look up this language.

I didn't even know the expression. "Compliments of the season". Never encountered it, either. Looked it up on Google and Quora and it is apparently formal, very polite.

If he was really from there, he’d speak at least one (likely two) other languages spoken in Switzerland. He thinks people are stupid

Yes, he could even speak all three languages.

Bit what surprises me about this really poor English is that the quality of modern machine translation is pretty good. It would seem that these scammers could avoid such give-aways.

Yes, he could even speak all three languages.

Bit what surprises me about this really poor English is that the quality of modern machine translation is pretty good. It would seem that these scammers could avoid such give-aways.

It's more pronounced in other scams and also just for clarity, you can yet scammed by someone with perfect English too, just make sure to add up red flags, you know?

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Oh yeah. I mean, it makes my neck hairs raise up when this old hippie girl gets a love letter from an army general with two first names!

This entity has tried to make a joke:

"I don’t know what to wish you because you already have everything (me). Just kidding! But I will do my best to make you the happiest woman on Earth. I will always have your back. Happy New Year! I look forward to your email, and please confirm your number since i lost email thing on my phone, i look forward to your responds"

Yeah, I have never heard/seen the usage of "your responds", even among early English learners. I do not understand why the entity and the organization behind it would not just use machine translation.

What they wrote does not make sense. If they lost "email thing" on their phone, they would not now be emailing to me. It seems that they have lost my phone number. I still have not contacted the police. What I would like is for the police officer to be here when I arrange a phone call and for the police officer to take the call instead of me (obviously it would have to be a female officer). But I have not called the police yet, so I have not provided my phone number and instead asked where "he" is now. No response yet. We shall see.