Hi, my story began in the Spring of 2017 when I met a man on Facebook. He claimed to own an offshore underwater welding company, and he was going on his last job before he retired. We communicated daily, via text, and email. I was not sure from the get go! His Facebook was shut down, but he convinced me it was a technicality and he did not need it. After 3 months he claimed he needed 700.00 for a fresh water supply and his money was all tied up on land, and since he was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I sent it. He promised me he would pay me back as soon as he was on land. He told me his paycheck would be way over 1 million dollars and I should not worry about 700.00. I then wired another 3,100.00 he said he needed for the food supply and some maintenance on some equipment. He told me to start looking for a home to buy so when he got done, he, his two little girls and I would have a beautiful new home to move into. Thank God I did not list mine home for sale. He was due to arrive here within a couple of days, and lo and behold his friend called me and told me he had a stroke and was stuck at sea, and he needed me to wire money for medical transport, I didn’t send anything for about two weeks at which time he begged and was crying that he loved me and did not want to die. I called the US Coast Guard thinking they could find him and rescue him, after six hrs. looking they called me back and told me there was no such vessel and was I sure it was off the coast of Santa Barbara. It was at this time I told the US Coast Guard I had never met him, boy were they mad and they told me someone was scamming me. I just did not want to wire the 5,000.00 he claimed to need, so he arraigned for me to send a cashier’s check to a friend’s girlfriend in Texas. I got a call from her and she told me not to send it to her because she did not want to be involved. She was actually laundering money for her boyfriend who was also with my scammer! She told me she had just sent 8,000.00 to Nigeria. My scammer convinced me she was lying, but, I guess she wasn’t. I then wired him the 5,000.00 he needed for a medical transport that would bring him straight to me. As soon as I wired the money, I knew I should not have. I received a call the next morning from his friend claiming he needed 2,000.00 more because they had to use some of the resources they had and they were short. I broke down crying, I knew I had been had! After one month of not sending any more money, he turned vile towards me. He actually sent me pictures of a young woman in a bikini and told me he spent my 8,800.00 on her and that I was nothing but a lonely old bag that no one would want. It’s been about six months now and I still suffer. It wasn’t just the loss of the money, but, he broke my heart and killed my self-esteem.
Kathleen, USA