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| Hot-ziggity- foolish and lonesome 73-year old Ronald Rollie Robinson thinks he is courting this damsel in distress in far away Ghana, who has no phone, but can only text. If he sends her enough money she can escape Ghana and come to him. |
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The African-based lonely hearts scammers who duped a Niagara Falls man out of $6,300 earlier this year have kept up their unrelenting campaign and, despite the fact that this newspaper exposed the con for what it is, he’s sent them another $2,000.
Ronald Robinson, 73, became a victim of an organized internet crime ring operating out of Ghana. The woman he knew as “Nancy” was actually a Canadian porn actress named Lana Brooke, a Niagara Falls Reporter investigation found..
Brooke has denounced the Ghana operation saying that apparently men in Ghana obtained her pictures and videos from online, which they use to deceive gullible men in America. This was brought to Robinson's attention by the Reporter.
The Reporter went so far as to show Robinson’s porn pictures and he confirmed these were photos of his “Nancy.”
He admitted at the time he was duped.
But even after their cover was blown, the African scammers kept the pressure on Robinson turned up to high. And he fell for it again, something that’s not at all unusual.
Type “Ghana lonelyhearts scam” into your Google search engine and you’ll come up with thousands of hits. There’s even a Wikipedia article devoted to the subject. But some of the most interesting sites are those where men, American and European, tell their sad stories. It is on these sites that you can see Robinson’s experience is far from unique.
“I know it’s a scam,” one man wrote. “But I love her.”
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| In reality, Robinson is texting one of a large group of cheats in Ghana who use videos and pictures of women, and pretend they are that person in order to separate fools from money. |
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The West African nation of Ghana is a poverty stricken country, where the per capita income is just $1,000 a year. Robinson, who hasn’t lost as much money as many others, according to reports, has still contributed more than eight times what a working Ghana man might make annually to the impoverished nation’s economy.
Which is why the scam thrives and why Ghanese officials are loathe to take any action. .
At one point, Robinson became so obsessed with “Nancy” that he took to setting a place for her at the dining room table, setting his laptop on the table so that she could text him and his mother each evening.
Robinson told the Reporter this week that he is absolutely finished sending money to these scammers.
He has never spoken to "Nancy" on the phone and has only communicated with her by text message.
Perhaps he’ll see the light. Or maybe he’ll keep sending money. One thing’s for certain and that’s that the organized crime ring that has had him in their clutches won’t be going away.
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