Friend is being catfished and want to help. He is now going to see the catfish and I’m curious what their goal could be. Plz read and help
Back story:
This has been going on for like a year. During this entire year she has never video chatted, only pictures. She claims to be located in UK. And my friend is here in the USA. It started with discord, she sent him random gifts which can be a sign it’s a legit person, but it can also be an investment to build trust and scam further and romance scammers use this tactic.
When she was supposed to come visit, about a month before her flight she claimed to get kicked out of her house because her family didn’t like my friend. which resulted in him sending her money to be able to live. THEN, literally like a week before she was gonna fly down she supposedly had a seizure that put her in the hospital and for awhile she didn’t even claim to remember who he was. Which resulted in him sending her even more money because she was bedridden and her parents supposedly wouldn’t let her move back in. This allows her to dodge the flight while also receiving even more money.
Fast forward: we have tried to talk to him about it and make him see what’s happening but he just drops the subject and refuses to even speak a word about it to anyone. He has now bought a passport and plans to see her.
My question is, (and my most important question to Reddit) what could the scammers final goal be? If he goes and sees them, the scam has ended. So why would a scammer do that? Could they have an even more malicious goal? What could they possibly be planning to do, money-wise to have my friend fly down there?