Why I was (am) vulnerable. I am in my late 50's and live alone. While I have a great relationship with my children, they all live far away. I live and work alone. I am lonely. And while I am far from wealthy, I have an income.
She found me on Words with Friends. Started chatting. Told me she was Swedish born, an orphan, and living in the Sacramento area, and going to fashion school, and she did NOT immediately suggest that we move the chat to an encrypted forum, which led me to think she might not be a scammer.
But, of course, she did eventually move the chat to Signal. Then (surprise) it was her 25th birthday coming up. She was not deterred when I told her she was too young for me. I was skeptical, but I was willing to throw a few bucks her way and see what happened. Instead of accepting a simple bank transfer, or letting me mail her a cheque, she insisted that I buy a prepaid visa and send her the info. I knew then it was BS, but it was only a few bucks, and I was curious enough about how this would play out to play along. Besides, she is very good at what she does. I enjoyed having an intelligent and pretty young lady paying attention to me and showing interest in me.
Yes, there was sexting, virtual sex, whatever you want to call it. A pretty reliable way to get through a lonely guy's skepticism.
Anyway, of course she wanted to meet. She wanted to come and see me. I suggested that I could go to her, but of course that wasn't going to work for "reasons". And those same BS restrictions on how to send the money were still in place, and it wouldn't work for me to just buy the ticket (which I volunteered to do). She needed money, and moreover, she needed me to send it as crypto.
By this time, I had bailed twice before. Then she would call me directly, and the tears... and I caved. The second time I bailed, I also blocked her number (oh, by the way, not CA area code), and she found a way around that and called me from a spoofed number. Something about her trying that hard when she knew that I was very suspicious about her reassured me for reasons that I don't quite understand. Anyway... the "relationship" continued, and I decided to take a chance and send her the money. I could afford it, and even though it was quite a bit of money, on a per hour basis she certainly wasn't getting rich at this rate. It worked out to about $750 US.
Then she said she was coming. And she told me that she was catching an uber to see her uncle to make the final arrangements for her flight. And as soon as she said that, I thought "there's going to be an "accident'.
And sure enough. An accident. And no insurance. And for "reasons" no one to sue. And she's seeing the doctor on Monday. Monday comes, and sure enough, she messages me a long story about how it's going to cost $11,000 and if she doesn't get the procedure they're going to have to amputate her leg(s)... honestly, I was so pissed that I didn't read it in detail. You get the idea.
Anyway, I blocked her on WWF and changed my phone number. She reached out with an email (I guess she had my email from when I tried to e-transfer her money at one point). So I blocked that. She got a new profile on Words With Friends and messaged me through that. A long emotional screed that went back and forth between pleading and threatening to use the sexting against me. I blocked that, too. I'm not proud of what I did, but as blackmail material, it's pretty lame, and it's hard to see how she could use it without revealing herself anyway.
Take warning.
Michelle / Mary Cooper michellecooper360@gmail.com
by M_J_T » Sat Jul 08, 2023 8:07 pm
- M_J_T
- New survivor
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2023 7:33 pm
