Have you been duped by a scammer... a con artist

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I am writing this because I have friend who fell victim to a scammer or to a con artist.. She met him in one of those social sites which i will not mention the site but there are many people who visit this site..in fact I am a member of this website but thanks God I have not fallen to any of their scams.. people from all walks of life and from different parts of the world.. This scammer or shall i say con artist befriended her until such time that he was able to get her attention and trust. She did not admit to me though if they ever fell in love to each other.. They exchanged emails until such time that this scammer told her that he was going to send her a gift but she has to send some amount, two thousand dollars on several occassions to an account because the gift was held in a post office somewhere in Asia because of some tax deficiencies.. In other words my friend sent a total of two thousand dollars on several occassions because she wants the gift. After the last tranche was sent she was not able to receive the gift and the worst was that the guy never came online again.. Now my poor friend is saddled with debts.. She came to realize that she was not only the victim of this scammer but there was also a lady who also became his victim and also was victimized with thousands of dollars. To all myloters out there, have you become a victim of these scammers in some ways.. What advice can you give to others so that they will not suffer the same fate or they will be forewarned.. What are the signs that they are scammers.. And do you know of these websites which are scams.. Is there a way to know that they are such so that they will be blocked.. How about the owners of these websites don't they have any criminal liability since they are negligent in some ways.. Can they not screen members so that we can minimize if not eliminate these scammers..