So, I hate to disappoint everyone in me but I recently fell for a huge scam like the stupidest idiot every existed
I'm even so ashamed to talk to anybody about it but I feel like I have to let it out...
So, I made a friend online, and we've been chatting for a long time, I thought she was a very nice a genuine person... She introduced herself as Mary, a fashion designer from UK who's also a resident in Abu Dhabi ( the city where I live ) and she explained that she's in a business trip in Ghana and will be returning soon, and she shared a pdf of her flight schedule and we agreed that I'll pick her up when she arrives... Everything in her story seemed so genuine to me, and they also wrote the story in a way that's so dramatic in order to abuse my empathy, for example she said that both of her parents died in a car accident and that non of her relatives where there for her and now she's talking care of her younger brother and her grandmother etc...
I believed every word she said without even thinking twice...
And then the day before the supposed flight she sent me this
Explaining that her UAE bank account got forzen and she couldn't withdraw money to pay for the hotel... She asked me to lend her money through Western Union so she can pay for the hotel and return... for some reason, I found the story convincing, and also she asked me to send the money to the name "Mary Quayson" as she introduced herself since day one, and she was able to collect the money with that name, she kinda game me some reassurance that she's a genuine person...
But that was a relatively small amount of money, the story didn't stop there, the next day she came up with another story... Only an hour before the departure of her flight, she messaged me that they stopped her in the airport and she's in big trouble and have to pay a huge overstay fine... And she shares with me the contacts of someone who claimed to be an immigration officer and asked me to talk to him...
So basically, she came up with one story after another, every time I had to lend her more and more in order for her to "return safely" and it wes too late until I started to think about the fact that we've never met or even had a video call, and then when I started to pay attention to the details in every screenshot and I realized that everything was fake and I fall for a very experienced Ghanian scamming agency and my money will never be back...
And I tried everything, went to the police station, and the Criminal Investigation Department here, they didn't even try to do anything about it with the 2 excuses: 1- I sent the money voluntarily anyway 2- The criminals are in another country and they cannot do anything at this point.
Yes, I know, it's all my fault, I hate myself so much
I had one here online, "[i]She[/i]" was a Doctor in the Medical Corps volunteering to treat COVID-19 in some African nation. We chatted occasionally for a month, the troublesome stories and changes in plans and needing money and it was all insurmountable Unless I Helped by paying some odd dubious bill. Things didn't add up. "She forgot what I said the evening before, her Dead Mother became a Living but Poor and Senile Mother, then when I mentioned it, it was immediately "Oh, yes she's deceased, but she [i]was senile[/i] beforehand." Then with a few other simple Fact Mistakes made by "Her" I realized her unreality and the fact that there was No One Person that was pretending to bebthe gorgeous Miss Michelle Blanchard, MD. I started prying at the edges of this story to see how good [i]THEY[/i] were. Asking questions and saying things differently every 12 hours, to trap them. Why don't you have your Passport? Why can't you go to the Embassy in the big nearby Capital 🏙️ City? Don't you have Protection/Gaurds/Police/Access to a Telephone or Email? Why are Telephones and Email unsafe? What's the nasty bad Warlords Name? Why can't You get a Cab or Pay the Hotel to get you a Limo? Why can't you access YOUR MONEY. Why does the Warlord want to Kill Doctors because of COVID? It was a Funny Mess evidently made up as [i]THEY[/i] went along! They're creative, but not too brilliant! And it turned out the Nation was Sudan and there is a Civil War! Every time I caught a Mistake or Lie there was a long pause and the a huge "STRESS CAUSED" Mistake! I lead them on for Weeks then when I got "Sick" dear Dr. Michelle never heard of my Illness, "3-Day Rubeola", (Measles). I got busy at work m quit answering and [i]THEY[/i] started begging me to answer. When I finally btired of [i] THEM[/i], I explained that I knew that Michelle neas a fake, it was Chaos trying keep me and get MONEY! SO I ASKED FOR NUDES in return.
@SW-User I'm not even rich 😭 it was years of savings 😓
Oh, at least I had few more savings in another account that I kept as a backup plan for in case something terrible happens.
SW-User
@SW-User Well you are obviously a very kind person, I believe you will earn this back * 100 times as you have a good heart, you will get back the good vibes you put out there🤗
I’m so sorry you were taken advantage of like that. I understand the embarrassment and frustration, with yourself and knowing someone out there is getting away with such atrocious actions…but really, you were acting with a good heart, doing good deeds, and being utterly selfless. I commend you highly for all three. Don’t beat yourself up. You just learned this lesson the hard way. First time, shame on them. Don’t let it happen again :) 🤗
So sorry this happened to you. You can only put it down to experience, but don't hate yourself for it. They are experienced scammers and confidence tricksters. I always try to take people as I find them, online and off, but as soon as the subject of money rears its ugly head.. time to run!
Don't be hard on yourself. I had a guy actually try to romance me for a whole year before he attempted his scam of getting money from me. Thankfully by that time I had already figuring things out and knew things weren't adding up. Was purposely tripping him up
I am a beautiful lady, will you send me money? My daughter is in the hospital with cancer and I am stuck at an airport where they are holding me hostage. Here is a picture of myself to prove that I am who I say I am[image deleted]
Oh whoa.. This never happened to me.. I have anxiety so it sometimes works as a 6th sense. I had a freind who this happened to. he lost thousands of dollars in a romance scam that he thought was legit. I personally would never give money to a girl i met online i dont even care if im rich. She'll have to like me first before i ever spend one cent.. And thats how it usually goes. Tho one time i lost 20 dollars on a gift i got for my ex.. But she never asked for anything. thats the most i ever lost. How much did you lose ?
Education is expensive. But now, for the rest of your life, you'll know how to watch out for the signs of a scam. In her case, 1. if she really was a fashion designer, she'd have plenty of money and no trouble accessing it. 2. banks never freeze a person's own assets except by court order for bankruptcy. 3. a professional traveller would never overstay their visa, 4. sob stories are a major tool in a con artist's repertoire, 5. never having met her in person is a major red flag, 6. at the risk of oversterotyping, in general, men in Muslim countries are at greater risk of being conned by "honey traps" because they often think Western women are loose and easy. The reality is that most women in Western countries don't want men who are likely to have very sexist beliefs and attitudes.
To avoid further expensive lessons google "con artists' strategies".
@JimboSaturn Thing is though, if these types of scams were new (but even then...) maybe they would be hard to detect but today people JOKE about it.
Wouldn't everybody kind of have this sense telling them, "Okay this is bull". Like the frequent emails I get where they want me to verify my address for some UPS package that I didn't order. Or how I won some lottery.
Plus, since the scammer typically needs time to tell their story and all, wouldn't the victim have time to think things over? It is not like a thief in the night where your sh*t is gone before you know it.
Yeah.... many people have been scammed and all i can say to you is this... sorry and hope that your are more careful next time....sucks to have a big heart and care about others.
By the way... in the end its only money.... ya know :-) your heart was in the right place so you good.
That's a common scam, lesson learned. Had someone try something similar on me a while back. I think she said she was a fashion designer too. My rule of thumb is if a person asks for money, game over.
My younger brother almost fell for something like that when he was in college. Thankfully he was broke and came to me asking to borrow money to send this person. I was able to deny that and prevent him from taking into the scam.
Don't hate yourself, mate. You've just got a big heart and people with big hearts sometimes get taken advantage of. There have been many people who got exploited by swindlers.
SW-User
Just learn from it, there's nothing you can do about it, move on and don't give yourself a hard time 🤗
