DaytonDailyNews.com

site web

As a professional driver in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series and an occasional model, 50-year-old Robert Frost of Beavercreek is used to the limelight. But he wasn't prepared for this: Over the past year, women who are complete strangers have tracked him down through the Internet, sent him packages and recognized him at airports and other public venues.

Some want answers. Others are curious or confused. And some are just plain angry.

That's because Frost had his photos heisted from the Internet by romance scammers who have used his image to lure women on matchmaking Web sites. Under false identities, scammers woo their victims for weeks, even months by e-mail, then ask for money.

Each day, about 23,000 Americans have their identities stolen on the Internet in some way, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Since 10 of his photos were pirated a year ago, Frost's image has popped up on nearly 90 Web sites, including MySpace and FaceBook, under 80 different e-mail addresses and aliases.

Frost, who is married and consults for a real estate development and construction group in Atlanta, is desperately a variety of false identities.

The men, who rent the computers for 60 Nairas each (about 50 cents) for 30 minutes of browsing, sometimes correspond with dozens of different women at once in Western countries.

Lagos is a hub for the type of romance scam Leal is investigating.

The scammers in the Internet cafes in Lagos have been trained in the art of sweet-talking their victims for weeks and even months before getting what they really want — their money, Leal said.

The ruses can be as varied as the scammers, but often they ask for money to be wired for an operation or medicine for a gravely ill relative, or for equipment needed by an orphanage or other charitable organization the scammers claim to work for.

Don't send money to anyone you've met only on the Internet, Leal advised. "If you want to give money to help someone, give it to a reputable charity."

According to the Federal Trade Commission, more than 30 million Americans were victims of some type of Internet fraud in 2006. No one knows exactly how many involved Internet dating sites, but Leal said her research found that romance scammers in Nigeria alone pull in about $45 million a year.

"To them, they're doing nothing wrong. This is their only livelihood," Leal said.

To pay for their memberships on dating sites, the scammers hack eBay and other Web sites in search of credit card numbers, or they can find them through the cell phone numbers given out by their victims, she said. As lone wolves or as part of groups, they prey on such sites as Millionaire Match.com, Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo personals.

In Lagos, Leal confronted several of the "suitors" she had been corresponding with for months from her office in Fairborn — including a 24-year-old Nigerian man who had gone by the name of George McCall.

Among his false identities, George McCall had been using a stolen photo of Frost. To try to regain his good name, Frost has posted alerts on anti-scamming Web sites about the misuse of his image.

Leal told McCall that, by using Frost's photo illegally, he had caused Frost and his family "much heartache, because when people see this picture, they think he's the one doing the scamming."

McCall disagreed that he had stolen the photo, she said. "They consider anything (accessible) on the Internet legal."

Little recourse

for victims

Victims of image theft have little legal recourse since the perpetrators are usually overseas, Leal said. The only real protection is to encrypt photos so they can't be downloaded or copied from the Internet, but few Web sites offer such protection, including MySpace.

One scammer told Leal his goal is to receive two or three Western Union wires from victims each week, with a monthly expected take of about $1,000. Many of the men belong to groups of scammers who pool their money, share Internet access and train newcomers to the art, some as young as 6 years old.

Even after he had been found out, McCall couldn't resist one last attempt at scamming — he said he needed taxi fare to get home.

"I said, 'This is where you don't get to scam me. I get to scam you," Leal told him. "Your curiosity and greed brought you here. I hope you have a great trip back to wherever you came from'."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or jdebrosse@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Where to complain

The FBI maintains an Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov/.

For a list of web sites where you can file complaints against both spammers and scammers, visit www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm/.

Where to find help

Post alerts on scams and learn about others at www.scamclub.com or the Yahoo user group at groups.yahoo.com/group/romancescams/.

The Ohio Attorney General's office offers a Passport program to help victims of identity theft clear their names and regain their credit standing. Visit www.ag.state.oh.us/victim/idtheft/.

Vote for this story!