The Pain of Being Scammed is Eating Me Alive
My name is Melanie, but my friends call me ‘blob’ because I’m fat. It hurts to be called fat even if it’s true. And when someone who doesn’t call you fat, tells you that you’re beautiful and doesn’t even care if you’re older than him, you’re sold.
He was the only one who showed interest in me while I was invisible to other men. He listened to me while everyone else was busy with their own lives. He showed up everyday to talk to me and I was the centre of his attention and he was mine. I knew I was helplessly falling for him.
After my long, unhappy and loveless marriage, I thought I finally found my prince charming. It was a dream come true because I really wanted to be happy with a man and spend the rest my life with him.
I met him on Tinder. After a few days of chatting on Tinder, he suggested we move on to Hangouts. We talked every day. He was divorced and a father of a five-year-old daughter, Lisa. He said he divorced his ex-wife because she cheated on him. His circle of friends disappeared along with his ex-wife as they were her friends, and they took her side.
He told me he was an independent engineer working in South Africa. Supposedly, it would take him around twelve weeks to finish the project, and he would then come over here to meet me and we would discuss our future together for he was falling in love with me, too. Even though I thought things were moving a little bit fast, I was excited.
Two months later, he told me that there was an accident happened at the construction site and a few of his workers got injured. As their boss, he was responsible for the cost of repairs and the medical bills as well. To make the situation worse, he had trouble accessing his bank account in Canada and asked me to do a transfer of $76,000 from his bank account into the account of a construction company. Of course, I volunteered. Anything to help my lover, right?
So, he gave me his account password and I transferred $76,000 from his account into the company’s account. I was surprised to see that he had almost $2 million in his bank account. I was also proud for he trusted me with his money.
A few days after the money transfer, he told me he ordered the replacement construction material along with the damaged machinery and had to pay for it. So, he asked me to log in to his bank account again. This time though, the account was inactive! He told me he contacted his bank and had to pay a fee for the bank to release his money and it would be $8,000 but without the access to his account it was impossible.
He was so stressed about the situation, but he kept telling me that he would try and find a solution. Eventually, he was able to raise $3,000 from his colleagues but he still needed the rest. Since his account was frozen, he asked me to do a money transfer from my own bank account. He would finish the project and come and see me afterwards. But the problem was, I didn’t have $5,000.
So, I took a loan from my bank to help him. The interest was huge but that was the only way to meet him in person. He was going to pay me back anyway. But there was another problem. For the customs to release the construction material and the machinery, he had to pay an additional $17,000.
I didn’t have that kind of money and when I told him that I couldn’t help him, he was so angry. The next day, he talked to me as if nothing happened but in the end of our chat he once again asked for money and told me that I would help him if I wanted to. How was I going to get $17,000? Then he recommended that I should sell my house or get another loan so that we could be together. So, I mortgaged my house and sent him the money.
He sent me a photo of himself with a huge smile on his face and then he ghosted me. That was the last time I heard from him.
I was so ashamed; I didn’t share my story with anyone. My friends think I only have money problems because I had to sell my house and move into a small flat, but the truth is, the pain of being scammed is eating me alive.
Melanie Baxter
