“The scam must go on”
The last of a mini-series following the gambit, its uncovering & lessons learned. The series as a whole continues here. The title comes from a show-circuit expression “the show must go on” that applied to circuses after an accident happened, that normally would shut them down…
Update: see bottom of text
As mentioned before — “3” series indexed atop — I fell victim to a scam, which I was supposed to get help & recover from, which in turn ended being another one… and no sooner that settled, the whole thing reared its ugly head again!
I tell you, the same way my Mum is on a repairman’s list of rich widows in her hometown, I must be on a wanted list for perps online…
This started as a call from supposedly a friend of the second last perp, who ‘herself’ had posed a victim the same time as a go-between. They launched into attempted sextortion by threatening to post nudes first to friends and family, then on the net if I didn’t respond to their demand. I never go it as I blocked them ASAP and forewarned friends & family — fortunately nothing came of it — but it goes to show they never will stop.
I remembered I got a mystery call two years ago from the last perp’s alter ego, warning me “they will never stop, and keep going after you, until you run out”.
Through that second perp I found the amount was $10,000 and that she’d been threatened too. But then ‘she’ gave the game away, admitting a ‘friend’ of ‘hers’ had posted her the demand too… meaning this was just another circus… all reported to the police.
Let me end with these words I learned the origin of from a volunteer at Whitehall, London, that rented Churchill’s underground bunker as a conference venue I had booked:
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”, “the more things change, the more they’re the same” said de Gaulle to his host Churchill after fleeing Paris in 1941, musing about Prussia vs. Nazi Germany, most likely over their Gauloise and stooge (habitual cigarette and cigar for de Gaulle & Churchill respectively).
Update: … But wait! The story that ended late last year (bottom here), sputtered back to life this year. While she failed to show the goods then — she swore she’d repay my investment in her start-up — she reverted in the spring saying she’ll simply show up and introduce herself. Since the reality of her persona was at issue, she decided to answer in the flesh and join me.
The second issue was a purported Green Card that never materialised. Well that process is apparently being finalized, and when it is she’ll take me back home to Texas with her.
You see I’d given up and decided to return to Cambridge and get a flat for myself after the house was sold — my ex was actually helpful thru the whole process — but now I’ll simply put my things in storage and ship them when I’m settled.
So ends my long journey that started over 15 years ago, when green-carding my family stateside failed, and we were forced to repatriate to England. We chose that to be with my in-laws, but being divorced severed my ties with England. My daughter is independent now and started her career in W London. I get a chance to tie up unfinished business and return to Texas.
I had only left it 25 years ago to pursue a job in London, then turning around in the new millennium to go to So. Cal. Aside from the job, it might’ve given my US-born daughter a chance there, but that was not to be. At least I get to go back to where I left for the sake of my former family, to a new one like I did in Canada almost 50 yrs. ago... “Life goes on” said Robert Frost, my favorite American poet.
