The distressed American contacted The Sunday Gleaner after she - out of sheer frustration - was searching the Internet for help and stumbled upon an article about the US/Jamaica law-enforcement task force, JOLT, which had been launched the previous day.
Eigenhuis claims she is the daughter of an 89-year-old American man who, with his 80-year-old wife, has been financially devastated by Jamaican lottery scam artists.
Misery
To Eigenhuis, the thought of idyllic, white-sand beaches is the furthest thing from her mind when she hears the word 'Jamaica'.
Instead, in her mind, Jamaica translates to misery for her elderly parents.
How the scammer found her father's number is a mystery, but Eigenhuis charges that a man who calls himself 'John Black', of the 'International Payout Services', made contact with her father in November 2008 with the news that he had won a multi-million-dollar sweepstake.
The story sounded plausible to the elderly man who was in great financial need, and who has always been entering his name into various sweepstakes.
He, therefore, complied with requests from John Black to "send money, urgently, to cover a number of taxes and other costs required for him to claim his prize".
A search on the Internet would reveal that International Payout Services is the name of a bogus company notorious for fraud across the world.
The result of the relationship between her father and John Black, Eigenhuis stated, has been a loss of as much as US$6,000 (J$528,000) from her father's already meagre Social Security earnings.
To prove her claims, Eigenhuis provided The Gleaner with a list of the names of persons to whom her father sent money, and the amount that was transferred on each occasion.
In February and March 2009, a total of US$2,360.51 (J$207,724.88) was sent through remittance agencies to five individuals in Jamaica.
In January 2009, the largest one-time payment, US$1,550 (J$136,400) was made. However, that was not the only payment made in January. An additional US$150 (J$13,200) was also sent during the month.
Other individuals
Eigenhuis further claims that more money was sent to Jamaica in April and May.
"What was so very odd to me is that when I actually saw the receipts of the money that had been sent, nowhere on these documents is anything going to John Black - it's going to other individuals," Eigenhuis said.
Eigenhuis also provided a list of 10 Jamaican cellular-phone numbers, taken from her parents' telephone bill, to which the elderly couple made calls whenever they needed to contact John Black.
When The Sunday Gleaner called one of the numbers, it was answered by a man who, with a clearly fabricated accent, identified himself as John Black.
Black was obvioulsy very upset and spent the bulk of the converstaion trying to determine the identity and location of the individuals with whom he was speaking.
"A who dis? Dis is a 876 numba. Whey yuh name? whey yuh deh?" he asked.
"This gentleman, Mr Black, is very convincing, very manipulative. They are mentally not as keen as they once were, and they believed him. They come from a generation where people don't lie - they don't say one thing and mean the next," Eigenhuis said as she defended her parents against charges that they had been gullible in sending money to Jamaica to collect their "prize".
Eigenhuis said that Black went so far as to call her father while he was ill in the hospital, earlier this year, to assure him of his winnings.
"He tells them that he loves them, that he wouldn't do anything to harm them, that he's a Christian man. These are all things that validate him to these elderly people and they are unable to recognise that this is fraud," Eigenhuis explained.
The lure of actually owning a home - a dream of her elderly parents, had them putting their total trust in Mr Black.
"He's holding out promises to them. They lost their home and my father wants to live in a house desperately. That was one of the things that he held out before them, so much so that there was actually a house that they thought Mr Black was buying for them," Eigenhuis shared.
Since discovering the apparent fraud, Eigenhuis has been on a campaign to save her father's finances. She has, through the US Social Security Administration, had all her father's funds cut off and redirected to her.
Her stepbrother has done the same for his mother. It is a tactic, which, she said, has greatly strained her relationship with her father, who still does not believe he is being scammed.
Eigenhuis said she has already filed a complaint with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the United States Department of Homeland Security in her country.
She has also contacted JOLT and is in the process of contacting the US Federal Trade Commission.
To report a suspected scam contact
www.ftccomplaintassistance.gov
1877-ftc-help
stopscams.ocid@jcf.gov.jm