How a romance scam broke one woman's heart and emptied her bank account
Mar 16, 2022 4:00 AM
They say that all is fair in war and love, and when you’re swept off your feet it is easy to make decisions you would normally never make. That’s what happened to one woman who thought she had found the man of her dreams. In fact, she had found the biggest scam of her life.
One day, she was on social media when a man messaged her, “You have a pretty face. Can we talk?” The person on the other end of the messages assured her that he was a man of integrity and only wanted to talk. From there, a romance quickly bloomed.
The first time he asked for money was when he said he needed a phone. He had told this poor woman all about his son, and now he needed a phone to be able to contact him. So our victim sent him an expensive phone plus an even more expensive delivery fee. But from there, the lies and the sums of money got bigger.
Eventually, the alleged lover made his most audacious request. He claimed that he wanted to come visit the victim, but that he first had to pay the tax on a multimillion dollar fortune he was bringing with him. He offered her the URL to a “real” bank to see his “real” account with $7 million in it. To pay the tax, he just needed her to sell her house and send him the money.
Although it was a huge request, the victim felt she was in love and all she wanted was to see her lover come visit. So she sold her home and sent this person $80,000.
Then, he told her he wasn’t coming, and something inside the poor woman he victimized told her that she had made the biggest mistake of her life. She wasn’t in love with a wealthy man of integrity. There was no wealthy man of integrity. Just a faceless criminal with a text messaging app and her life savings.
Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to retrieve the money. She filed a police report, but there is almost no chance that they will ever find this criminal or get her money back. All she could do is warn other people not to become victims themselves. Anyone can be a victim, and if they get you, they will destroy your life.
A good rule of thumb is that if someone asks you for money and you haven’t even met in person, it’s probably not meant to be.
