I had just finished taking care of my husband, who had cancer. Being a caregiver means that you put all the wants about YOU into the trash. I had no support group, and my family was 1500 miles away. I got a request from a guy on Facebook. I thought maybe it might be nice to have some adult company. He set the hook deeply. I am pretty and smart. He had a seven-year-old daughter who wrote to me. He was offering all the things that I had lost over the last four years on a gold platter. I loved it! I knew that this was probably a scam, but I ignored all the red flags. I thought maybe I could get some of my money back somehow if I stayed in the scam. I finally got up the nerve to call one of the women whom I was sending large amounts of money to, and that did it. I was getting ready to move to be closer to my family, and I told them about it – what a big mistake. I felt they should understand why it was successful, but that was unrealistic on my part. I lost over $300,000! I did get a little off the money back. The bank that the “middle man” used stopped the transaction. My family insisted that I put their name on my bank account. Another big mistake because they put an “alert” on that account, and any time I wanted to get any money I had to go through my niece. After working with a psychologist, I finally felt there was one more step to complete the healing, and that was to take her name off the account and put the money into another investment. I told them that is what I was going to do, but when I did it, they “declared me dead to them” and said they wanted nothing more to do with me. When I went to put my paycheck from a part-time job into the bank, I was told my accounts had been closed. My family had filed an “emergency conservatorship” petition with the court. It was full of things that weren’t true, but nobody checked the facts before they signed the petition. It cost me over 50,000 to get the money back from my family. I had to pay someone to manage my money, and they did a terrible job. I was constantly fixing their mistakes. I got control back of all my money except if I want more than 5k from my investment account I have to ask a third party for it. I have a life long reminder of the scam, and it will always be in my life. It was a huge learning experience! One of the biggest lessons was not to tell anybody and get support from groups like this one that Diana Garren runs, they understand.
Susan
USA