recovery and reassurance

[Tomi]

It’s always wonderful to read success stories post-scam and it’s amazing how that scam experience has turned each individual who had been through it into someone with more wisdom, strength and with a bigger heart to help others. This also shows that there is REALLY life after being scammed: For the romance scam victims---after the feeling of being deceived and emotionally manipulated, after the great loss of a scammer-created fantasy, after the loss a huge amount of money, after the unexplainable hurt and pain. For the blackmail scam/sextortion victims---after the nightmare of finding out you’re being blackmailed, after the whining and cries for help, after blaming oneself for being so stupid, after the feeling of great fear that your video would be posted that would destroy your reputation and your relationship with your family, friends, work and community, after the feeling of very low self-esteem. That --- all of these are just passing and what follows is the survival and recovery.

It is undeniable that the ScamSurvivors and the people behind it had played a vital role on helping each victim to heal and recover. But still, the major key player of achieving this is the victim himself---who did not let the scam win and take away their life, who remained strong and getting stronger every day to get their life back and be normal again.

Wilcb0003, hadenugh12, DDT1, Solidsnake, Holly Louis and many others who have shared their stories of scam survival here---thank you for coming back to tell it. You’re ALL a living testimony that we all do heal and recover and come out of it a better version of ourselves. I hope many more will share their stories because each story of scam survival is a great story to tell---and will serve as inspiration and hope to those many who are right now are undergoing what you all had gone through and survived.

[Bigfoot]

Hey people!

Thought I'd share my story and the closure that came along with it for support.

Ive been scammed about 1.5 months ago.
had no money, so there wasnt anything to give. was an emotional wreck during the day it happened but followed all the steps that this websites give to get things sorted as soon as possible and it worked great.
Blocked all forms of contact as soon as possible.

it took me about a week or so to get used to the idea of the scammer not having any form of control over me, worried that he/ she would try again in hopes of me having money then.
After a week, not hearing of the scammer through other profiles on facebook, and checking with one of the international female friends of mine who the scammer had shown on cam, threatening to send a link to a video she recorded of me to, i realized that that was all it was. empty threats.

TIme is money for these people.
this is both good and bad.

Good for you, because they arent gonna waste time on people that dont seem to cooperate in any way while they can be busy trying to get other people to do what you didnt, but its bad because as stated, they will be spending their time on other potential victims.

be selfish for once when this happens though, as it will help you get closure faster.
forget about it when you can, get a lot of distraction and you will be fine, like me

I got back here to check on my report of a scammer, to find out that at least one person actually found it to be helpful and prevent himself to get scammed by this person.
Knowing this makes me really happy!
keep up the good work, scamsurvivors!

[zero1106]

Thanks to Admin and Moderators, i'm having my life back now. Thanks for helping me and being my friends when i felt lonely and isolated. I'll post my story later when i have time.

[MadMan]

Thank you for your invaluable service! Your work and burden for scam survivors is truly a blessing.

[jeremy20]

I've waited as long as I could to post in here because I wanted to let some time pass. My scam happened on April 12th, 2013. You all helped a lot, firef1y, Slaphappy, Rufflefeathers, And Wayne. Thank you all. I'm definatly back to my old life and feel like everything is back to normal. I barely think about my scam/blackmail.

[jeremy20]

I forgot to say that my scam was a blackmail scam/sextortion. It was a stupid mistake and without scam survivors I would have been so lost and scared. I was helpess untill i found scam surviviors and I am glad I found the sitem, I think it's the best site out there. It's one of my favorites and All the mods are amazing.

[echan]

hello there. i just wanna say thank you so much for making this site. i was just scammed last week and now i find it hard to trust people online. i deleted my facebook and skype account. but thanks to this site, i think i can sleep easier tonight. this site gives me hope. telling me that not everyone out there is evil. after reading through this website.. i really think that i have found great people who's willing to get out of their ways to help others. a total stranger like myself. and thank you SH for that inspiring speech. now that i think about it, i wouldn't have even known this site's existent if i weren't scam. thank you so much guys. for you guys to do this much just for total strangers you never met, for total strangers that possibly live on the opposite side of the world. and you guys are doing it for free. my total respect goes to you guys. thank you once again.

[Steve1943]

Closure from a scam:

I once fell hook line and sinker for a well executed translation scam.
Nothing really sinister beyond leading me on to pay translation fees re ladies unaware that the agency was ripping off their identity.

Later, by complete chance, I did meet one innocent lady whose ID was hijacked as bait by these scammers.

We met in a completely different context, where there was no profit to be had.
We Skyped several times and became quite good pals, although it was never really a romantic connection.
She was as mystified as me about the folks that had hijacked her details.
Although, as a native of Kiev, she was not so surprised!!

After learning the ropes, I became quite expert at due diligence and soon learned to distinguish the scam from the real.

But one situation still haunts me - where I fear that maybe I threw the baby out with the bathwater.

I met a lady doctor, of mature years like myself.
We corresponded in detail and length over several months.
She answered ALL my questions...which included some quite personal topics like contraception
There was a meeting of the minds, when the earth moved for me definitely, and so she said, for her too.

So, we arranged a visit.
We planned all the logistics together, and she reserved an apartment for our tryst.
I booked and paid for my return air ticket.
She arranged to meet me at the airport with transport to our destination.
She never demanded a single kopek from me.

But, losing trust in the scammy website where we met - I cancelled everything.
To this day - my gut tells me that I threw away the chance of a lifetime...

Is this scammee denial syndrome? (SDS)

Steve

[BadAsk7777]

Thank you people of this site i have just gone threw the blackmail scam/sextortion so it just starting mine was threw sykpe talking with the moderators have made it a little easyier but it still hurts i never paid anything i blocked person real fast but the last thing they said was they where posting on site dont no what site so will just have to wait and see what happens there no way they can contact me now reading all your stories makes it alittle easyer but it still hurts so the process just starting checking utube fb regullarly but just reading ur stories makes me feel a bit better and thank you to the people that i have been talking too i will keep u up to date if any thing happens thank you very much all

[Saneone]

Hi, ive been recently scammed, I lost some money, and im hurt, but do have hope, because things happen, and well its important to move on, today is day one, and im sorry if this is terribly written, I don't even know if I should be writing... I am physically ill at how stressed I am, I vomited twice, and im shaking, I never had anyone ever come close to controlling my life, I always felt it was in my own hands. maybe it still is, for all of us, sorry again I don't even know if this is the right topic