Two Part Question: Is this guy a scammer? How can I get his IP address?

[Amanda]

IS THIS GUY A SCAMMER?
About a year ago, I met a guy on FaceBook. He told me he lived in Accra, Ghana which scared me a little because I have read about several scams taking place in that area but his profile and his personality seemed legit so I let it go... 4 months later was the first time he asked me for money. I declined and made up a bullshit reason for why I couldn't send it. He said he understood, it was ok, I shouldn't worry about it and then we went back to our conversation. He didn't get angry or try to make me feel guilty for not sending the money. He didn't pressure me at all... The second time he asked (a few days ago), I explained in a very blunt manner that I would not send him any money because of all the scams I had read about and also because he's working so he shouldn't have too much trouble getting the money together. Again, he said he understood and we went back to our conversation... I've done research on the company where he claims to work, I've done research on the expenses in Ghana, I've done research on recent FaceBook scams and from the info I've gathered, it seems that this guy is telling me the truth. But there are a couple of things that I find kind of interesting... I Google-ed this guys name and the only hits I got back were all connected to his FaceBook account - nothing more! This guy has also added and talked to a lot of my friends and classmates but based on what other people are telling me, I'm the only one he's asked for money from. So I want to know: Does this sound like a scammer to you guys?

I want to do a little more research on this guy so my second question is: How can I obtain his IP address from FaceBook without him being online? The only info I've got on this guy is his name (which I don't even know if that IS his name), his cell phone number and his Yahoo! messenger screen name if that makes anything easier. Thank you for your time and answers, your help is greatly appreciated. Have a nice day/evening.

[Sport]

You did right by not sending him money. From what you've said, I think it is a scam, because you don't actually know him; you're just friends on Facebook.

I did a bit of research on the IP address thing and this was the best one (at least it looked like that to me). http://www.wikihow.com/Trace-an-IP-Address

Good luck.

[Xanza]

Obviously he's trying to extort money from you. Knowing his IP address will do absolutely nothing to help you, nor will Facebook relinquish it to you; short of a court order.

You should never send money to anyone online, that you don't know in person. End of story.

[Art thou mankind¿]

I'm curious as to how you even went about meeting someone who lives in Africa on Facebook. Is that how things are nowadays? Just be friends with random people for the sake of being friends?

Although I'm not sure how Accra's living conditions are, most metropolitan in Africa cities really do have extreme divisions of wealth. Still, since it doesn't seem like you've ever met with this person, he could be anything. Any smart scammer wouldn't re-use the same credentials-- at least that's what I would do because I at least know what Google.com is capable of. I also remember that lots of scams used to come from Africa.

And even if you could obtain his IP (because you probably can't unless you trick him onto some domain/forum where you have the ability to view other's IPs), there's nothing you'd be able to do with it, really (unless maybe, you had connections to either the FBI, CIA, or an extremely talented hacker).

Just remove/block him and stop adding or accepting invites from random people. This way you won't be susceptible to these types of scammers and will only have to worry about being scammed by the people you actually know in real life.

[Kittysue]

This IS a SCAM. ANY time someone you only know online but have never met in person asks you for money for ANY reaon, they are a scammer. There are NO exceptions. Ghana is one of the biggest countries for online scams, almost as bad as Nigeria

IF he has money to be online he would NEVER have to ask you for money. Poor people do not have computers nor do they have money to pay for access at internet cafes. The only people who are going to be online regularly are people who have money so there would never be any reason for him to ask for money from you or anyonoe else

This is why you NEVER add anyone you have not personally met as a friend on Facebook. How do you think people become the victim of identity theft. Most people have enough info on Facebook for any criminal to steal their identity and photos

You can't trace an iP from Facebook. That's impossible. You would need an actual email sent to you from his personal email account to your account. But all the IP address will show is the location of his server which is in Accra, Ghana. It won't show his home address

Block him ASAP and tell all of your friends to block him as well. it's only a matter of time before he starts asking them for money