to think this is not genuine?

[ValerieCupcake]

Tried to do a reverse google search for this. Nothing coming up.

I found this listing in Nigeria when I did an image search:
jiji.ng/lagos/art-collectibles/sports-medals-jIlWgsTPcacdWYBmYbzfRp7k.html?page=1&pos=5&cur_pos=5&ads_per_page=13&ads_count=240&lid=zDeE54_37Kk2acIW
So not necessarily photoshopped, but the same medals can be bought cheaply online.

@ValerieCupcake

This is my last day at work for around 10 days. I plan to visit her during my time off for a chat. Will let you know how it goes. Thank you all for your interest and suggestions.

She is a smart woman, or was. I don't understand why she would want anything to do with a 20-something. smh

If she's vulnerable, she was possibly fed a litany of sob stories so feels a sort of solidarity with him. Its a difficult conversation to have but an essential one. You could bring up her FB page and ask re the medal. Be prepared for her to be defensive or abrasive though.
I don't suppose she has any children who could speak to her too? You're watching out for her but its a good idea to mention this to other family members too so they can keep an eye out for her.

I’m not sure why you’re fixating on the medal. It’s clearly some little local thing where he lives and proves absolutely nothing, real fake or whatever.

Yes, a person from Nigeria showing interest in an older woman would worry me too, but the football medal isn’t going to prove anything.

Apologies if someone has already said this but I got bored part-way down page 2.

Alarm bells are ringing for me.....

Vulnerable female talking to someone in Nigeria
Shown a medal of spurious origin

First thing that came to me was one of these Nigerian scams.

Is this guy purporting to be famous and running a sweetheart scam? Has he asked for money?

If I'm right, I'm screaming at the OP to speak to this person and advise her to steer well clear!

Ok this is going to sound a bit off the wall so apologies in advance!!

The first thing that sprang to mind when I read your posts was a woman called Yolanda who was in the TV series 90 day fiance. For the uninitiated, it's an American series which supposedly follows Americans in the quest to bring the love of their lives from different countries to America on a fiance visa and they have 90 days to marry or the person has to go back to their own country. Total trash TV but hey ho.

Anyway. Yolanda was taken in hook line and sinker by this man who was obviously a scam artist. She had grown up children who managed to reverse Google his Instagram and Facebook pictures which unsurprisingly turned out to be a model and not yhe person who was swearing his undying love for her.

I haven't watched the programme in yonks but maybe someone here knows better than I do how this type of search can be done. Alternatively have a Google for her and indulge in some particularly awful but mildly entertaining TV that may show how her kids did this. 😋

I can understand that you are suspicious about this man and think it’s a scam , perhaps to get money from your aunt .The only thing you can do it discuss this with her and find online scans to show how they often fool women to hand over money and how they do it to make her wary .

OP bear in mind this potentially dodgy person with the sports medal may not be '20 something' . Don't make the assumption that anything about them is true.

They could be using fake photos. They could have a fake profile. They could be 50, 60, 70 years old, there's no way of validating that anything they've posted up on Fakebook is genuine.

I have a vulnerable relative. She is in contact with someone in Nigeria.

This is the red flag regardless of whether the medal is real or not.

@rosietoes

Have her watch Twitter Swindler

Is that the sequel? 😂

I think you mean 'Tinder Swindler'.

Why do these women fall for this ? When you say she is vulnerable , has she learning difficulties? If so someone needs to tell her that a Nigerian man in his 20's is only after one thing and it's not love ! ..

looks like the sort of medal handed out in thousands of events

Please stop drip feeding it’s really annoying.

I'm a widow and I have been targeted by dozens and dozens of Facebook scammers. Thankfully I'm pretty tech savvy and so can spot them a mile off, but I can absolutely understand how people could be taken in. It's disgusting. You're doing the right thing by looking out for your friend.

The OMG page you seen is a known way of finding out details about people. They tend to post things like 'what would your princess name be, use your maiden name and place you were born and post below' (a very vague example but you see where its going) and you'd be surprised how many people reveal things like that. Those details alone aren't anything special but when the same person adds more details in a other post... Its very obvious who is naive. I'd actually get screenshots from one of those OMG pages, there's nearly always someone in the comments telling people it's a scam and to not reveal your personal details. The more evidence you can show her, the better. I feel so sorry for you both, those people are awful. At the end of the day, as shallow as it sounds, what would a young man want with a much older lady... Especially if she's financially stable. Good luck op.

Young man especially from another country* sorry

100% a scam. Often they work in groups and they are extremely skilled at it.

How internet savvy is she?

When you go you might be able to lock down her account better so she won't be so much of a target.
Remove widow, set account to only accept friend requests from friends of friends.
Posts to friends only, etc.

When you talk to her, allow her to save face as she may feel embarrassed. It happens to a lot of people. These people are very good at scamming.

This sounds like a classic romance scam. They are scarily common.

Banks actually can do a fair bit if they are concerned and think that someone is falling for a romance scam. They can get the Police to speak to who they believe is the victim, or even ask the victim to come into the bank before a transaction is made.

www.tsb.co.uk/news-releases/tsb-reveals-alarming-details-of-romance-fraud/
You could flag it with your Aunt's bank as a last resort, if you think she could be sending money? Ultimately she will still be able to transfer money if she wants to, but 3rd party intervention can be really useful at breaking the illusion.

What do you think the person is being scammed for. Money? Goods? Mischief? What do you think the potential sclammer is hoping to get out of it? Or could it just be someone telling a little porky to puff up their ego?

Get her to take the widow status off her FB. Honestly, as @peachgreen says, it is what they're looking for. The number of messages from attractive middle aged men who looked like the stereotype of an American astronaut but extolled my charms (based on one profile pic) in very poor and clearly not first language English was ridiculous. I found them funny but some people are sadly more vulnerable.

There are a lot of variants on these scams and hopefully you can get her to see the light before her heart is broken and bank account emptied.

No idea what the OP is really asking. You can get medals and trophies made for anything, even for how long it takes to chomp a chocolate eclair, so what replies do you expect? It's a ridiculous post. An adult given a cheap medal? So what? It's not going to have the Kohinoor diamond in the middle.
Looks like it's not even an English club so how can people say if they're not in the country where it was 'awarded'?

Nigeria...nuff said. 914 scam well known. Avoid avoid. I mean ..3rd? 🙄😂😂😂

Not an Olympic, no. Is the person you're concerned for vulnerable, op

Looks like a normal medal. What a weird post.

@Nelliephant1

I remember watching 90 Day Fiance, I also remember seeing one where there was a wealthy guy who was in contact with a model and he was sending her $000s, he would arrange to meet her in various places around the world, he'd turn up but she never did, and he just fell for her lies over and over again.
There was another guy who was a nail technique in a hairdresser's, earned minimum wage and he did the same, he kept buying airline tickets for this girl but every time she cashed the tickets in, he got into an enormous amount of debt over it.
I've not seen it for a few years either but it was one of those programmes like Jeremy Kyle where you'd sit and look at the TV and just ask "Why?", surely these Americans could find another American for a relationship, there are well over 150million people in the USA, why do they insist on looking elsewhere then have to go through such expensive processes to have that person move there?

It's Either Zulu or Yoruba as far as I can tell. Maybe Gujarati. But the phrases are not commonly known.