Scammers! Love Rats!

[eve1974]

There should be far more investigations going on into things like this,

Sickens me!

https://metro.co.uk/2021/06/24/grandmother-dies-with-120-in-bank-after-romance-scammer-took-20000-14823173/?ico=related-posts

And before anyone suggests “how cld she be so gullible” remember it can happen to anyone s and these scammers often know just what to say!

[andy-hughes]

jennyjoan - // I know naiveté comes into play but please - where is the logic of parting with so much money for someone you know nothing about? //

When the giddy born-again rush of 'romance' runs in through the door, the logic and comon sense of adulthood climbs just as quickly out of the window.

[Peter Pedant]

// There are many folk who blissfully believe others intentions are honest.//- - - we were cuckoo'ed - plausible unemployed ( now we know why ) man saying he needed the moolah and could he do agreed odd jobs in the garden ?

then things started disappearing

and then there was a click one evening, and I said - someone is in the house ....So we bore the loss, and the worst is that you might meet another personable young person and you immediately think: are they going to steal from us?

[Deskdiary]

Without question this man is a scumbag of the highest order, but I too struggle to sympathise.

If people are fool enough to hand over money to a total stranger who has flattered them, then I’m of the school of thought that they have nobody to blame but themselves.

There was a story in the papers a few years ago where an horrifically fat, ugly old woman was taken for a ride by a good looking young Morrocan fella and she ended up marrying him, and inevitably as soon as he’d fleeced her and obtained residency through marriage, he naffed off and disappeared.

I can’t sympathise with this level of gullibility.

[andy-hughes]

Deskdiary - // There was a story in the papers a few years ago where an horrifically fat, ugly old woman was taken for a ride by a good looking young Morrocan fella and she ended up marrying him, and inevitably as soon as he’d fleeced her and obtained residency through marriage, he naffed off and disappeared. //

Horrifically fat ugly old women need love too, and they sometimes look for it in the wrong places.

[10ClarionSt]

It's reckoned that the cases we hear about are the tip of the iceberg. Many who have been scammed never report it for fear of embarrassment.

[Deskdiary]

I’m 50 now, and fortunately very happily married, but if I was single and a gorgeous leggy 20 year old feigned interest in me, I’m pretty sure I would know she wasn’t after me to have a meaningful relationship.

What would I talk to her about?

I very much doubt she’d be interested in my obsession with 70s funk (although having said that, neither is my wife).

[zebo]

I'm impressed that the Post Office flagged the unusual activity on her account and tried to de something about it.

[andy-hughes]

Deskdiary - // ’m 50 now, and fortunately very happily married, but if I was single and a gorgeous leggy 20 year old feigned interest in me, I’m pretty sure I would know she wasn’t after me to have a meaningful relationship. //

They key to your point is that you are, as you advise, very happily married.

Try to imagine that you are on your own, you are seriously lonely, you can;t remember the last time someone was nice to you, and are utterly desperate for company, and really anyone who is nice to you will do.

That's Step One right there ...

[Barmaid]

It's very easy from the outside looking in to judge people who have fallen for these scams.

These crooks are very clever. They know exactly how to play on the needs, wants and insecurities of their victims. They are confidence tricksters. They are very good. They quickly work out where the vulnerability is and exploit it. Their victims believe in it because they want to believe that their dream is about to happen and these scum bags exploit that.

I spent several years scambaiting. Playing a lonely rich widow. At least whilst these people and their "lawyers", "agents" and "portfolio managers" were talking to me, that was one less victim. They were good. I was better. I "de-educated" as much as I could.

It's so easy to say how daft people are to fall for it. It's also v difficult to place yourself in the victims' position.

Eve has got it that it can happen to anyone.