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This is my first time opening a new discussion so I hope I have put it in an appropriate place.
When you read it you may all think that I am writing about myself but it genuinely is about what happened to a friend!
I have a friend aged 64 who after several years of being alone decided to re-enrol on an online dating website. Within 48 hours of putting her details on there she was contacted by a gentleman who she liked the sound of. He was widowed about 5 years previously with no children. They exchanged a few messages on there and he suggested that as they were getting along so well they come off the website and communicate privately.
To keep a long story short they emailed and telephoned each other for a couple of weeks. He mentioned that he was an engineer planning to retire soon but had one final job overseas before then. My friend had been completely taken in by this chap but I was very sceptical - it all seemed to be moving too quickly for my liking. Because I was so wary I told my daughter and asked for her opinion.
She heard from him while he was overseas and spun a story about a problem with the contract and that he wasn’t going to be able to get back to the UK as he couldn’t raise the funds for the flights home. He said that there was nearly £1.5 million tied up in an account but if she allowed him to put this money in her account temporarily all would be sorted his end!! She rang me to ask what I thought and I told her not to be so gullible. That it was all a scam.
She still wouldn’t believe me and said that it must be true as she had spoken to a barrister overseas and he confirmed that it was all legal and above board.
My daughter and a friend did copious amounts of ‘googling’ and found some information on online dating scams that sounded exactly what my friend was going through.
Eventually, she has come round and realised that she had become sucked in by this man. Luckily, we helped her realise before she lost any money. The reason for my post is just to make people aware that even the most savvy people can be hoodwinked by these evil people. I wondered whether others have experienced similar situations.
No it's not confined to the old, but if you are let's say a mature lady and a young man or younger than you is giving you lots of attention on the dating Web site surely alarm bells would ring but often they don't and they get carried away with all the attention. My point is why would these attractive younger men with good jobs want an older woman.
Apparently many of these scammers have large numbers of would be romances all chugging along at the same time. They’re running a business - and take as long as they feel necessary to hook the prey. They often have a ready supply of photos to send and a Facebook page all set up with friends and family listed. They can be posing as a man or woman of any age to suit the victim. The one consistent thing will be that they can’t actually meet their new friend as their lies would instantly be exposed.
Horrible people.
It really worried me how quickly an otherwise sensible woman got sucked in. From her first telling me about him to the mention of love and subsequently the transfer of the £1.5 m it was only about 3 weeks. She was considering retirement so that they would be able to spend time together. Was talking about whether he would move in with her or whether they would buy a house together ....
These people truly are evil - I know that she didn’t suffer financially but it has affected her emotionally.
On a more cheery note, have a look at James Veitch's videos on YouTube. He hooks the scammers right back in, he has me weeping with laughter. His don't involve 'romance' so it isn't the same as that awful emotional manipulation. But very funny.
Amma, just watched James Veitch on YouTube, absolutely hilarious. Very clever bloke.
In a kind of similar vein....I have a widowed friend in her seventies. She’s quite well off. A year or so ago she started using Twitter to post pictures of her hobby of photographing nature.
I have a twitter account but I only use it to complain about poor service!
I recently heard a programme on local radio regarding people who seek out vulnerable women on Facebook and Twitter and was shocked by what I heard. I immediately checked friends Twitter and, over time, she has given the following information - her full name, the town she lives in, where she goes on her days out and holidays. Recently she even told her followers (who seem to be mostly male) the name of her road and mentioned, amongst other things, that it’s very dark there after midnight and her garden backs onto fields!! A quick google even shows her phone number comes up as a free result on 192.com.
She lives 100 plus miles from me so we don’t get to meet that often, though we keep in touch my email. I am wondering whether I should mention how she is laying herself wide open to goodness knows what. If she could only change her username it might help.
However, I don’t think she will take kindly to being ‘advised’ so I’m not sure what to do.
since my first name is"genderless"-could be male or female i get "loveletters" from both sexs and i dont do any social sites except this one.
be aware cyberspace can be a joy but also is very dangerous
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