Case History .. Number One

 Case Histories of Memorable Scam Experiences we hear of. 

Case History ..  Number One

We will call the lady, Wendy, that is not her real name. 

Wendy had been widowed and then remarried. The new marriage was not particularly happy, she acknowledged she had married to soon after the death of her husband but he had swept her off her feet.

One day, unexpectedly, she got a friend request on Facebook. A man just a little older than her. Tall, pepper in salt hair, very good looking. The man, we will call John. Not the name that he had given her. 

He was an engineer, they were going to meet, but suddenly he got a contract that he really could not turn down. So he had to travel to the Middle East to do this contract. 

Wendy was very disappointed, she was living a loveless life, John was providing care, love and attention that Wendy had missed when her husband died. They sent text messages every day. John did not video call, although once or twice he did try, but it didn’t work, and she didn’t get to talk to him, but she did see him, which made her feel better. 

John was very loving and attentive. They discussed the fact that Wendy was married and would have to be divorced because when John came back they were going to be married. 

Everything was very smooth. There were not a lot of demands for money, so Wendy had no reason to think that this was not all real. 

One day John was very upset. The project that he was working on went badly wrong. He needed some replacement parts for the building that they were constructing, because there had been a collapse of part of the building work. A worker had died. He was very distressed, and Wendy was very distressed, because it was supposed to be working to the point where he could leave and come to her. 

She did not know what to do and was very upset. John asked her if it would be possible for her to give him a short term loan. She had already indicated to John that she was a business owner and it was obvious that she was a wealthy lady. 

John wanted to borrow $300,000. It was a huge amount of money and at first Wendy said no. Not at all, She was very upset because John had approached her for the money. When she asked him why he had come to her, he said because he knew she could let him have the money quickly. Through the bank, he would have to apply and wait. If she sent the money, then he could start off the building repairs, he could pay compensation to the family of the worker that had died and he could work towards coming to her quicker. 

John offered to call his lawyer. He said that his lawyer would draw up a document. A loan agreement. It meant that he would sign it, the lawyer and Wendy would sign it. It meant that she would get her money back. Wendy was satisfied, and told John to instruct the lawyer to draw up the agreement. 

She sent the money. John was very happy, work was going well for five days. He told her about paying the family of the dead workmen, and was very happy to do that. Wendy felt very good that he was such a kind man that he was looking after his workers. 

Just seven days after she had sent the money, John had another disaster. Police had come to arrest him. The family of the dead worker took his money, then called the police and accused him of murder. He told Wendy that for $100,000 They would let him go. 

He promised to be on the next plane out of the country and come to her. So Wendy did what she should’ve done right at the beginning. She called the police in the place that she knew he was supposed to be. He had given her the name of a town where he was working and the hotel he was staying. The police knew nothing about it. 

She asked them if they would go to the hotel, because that’s where John was staying. Or at least that’s where John had said he was staying.The police had to tell her there was no such hotel in the town. 

Wendy was just looking on Facebook. Trying to find his name or anything about him. She came up on the page of ScamHaters United. She looked at the pictures on the page, and there looking at her, with a write-up all about him, was John. Except he was not called John. He was called Tony. On the page, the real name was given. Tony Baroud. 

She read that he was from Lebanon. So she googled his name and discovered yes, he was called Tony, he was from Lebanon, he was not called John, and he was not an engineer. 

So she came to talk to us. Wendy was in a panic, and at first, it was hard to keep her calm and get the full story. When we had finished talking, Wendy found it difficult that anybody could be so cruel as to do this to her. They talked to her almost day and night. They had been so attentive and so loving. 

She was pleased that she had thought of getting an agreement before she had sent the money for the loan. For some reason in her mind, she did not connect that if there was no John, then the document was worthless. 

That was when a panic setting with Wendy. Because we had to explain that it was not an official document. It was a letter written by the scammers, signed by the scammers, signed, as if it was a lawyer, but it was one of the Scam gang. They even added an official looking seal at the bottom of it. 

Wendy realised none of her money was coming back. She was hurt and she was betrayed. All Wendy had done was to trust the person who came to her in the first place as a kind, polite, friendly man. 

Yes, she realised that she had been pushed into declaring a love for him, because he had said he loved her very quickly. But her home life was not happy and she had quickly accepted the love words and the attention of this handsome man. 

Wendy was one of the bravest women that I have ever met. We kept in contact with Wendy, and sadly under two years later, Wendy got cancer and died. 

Wendy was a very intelligent and well educated lady. She was a business owner and ran the business very successfully. The thing that was not successful in Wendy’s life was the love that other people had for her. Her cruel husband only married her for the money. 

Wendy did not fit into any of the usual (false) perceptions of  a Scam victim category. As I say, she was intelligent, had friends and was successful. 

She was in her mid 50s. She was not a widow or a divorcee. But the lucky Scammer just happened to find a lady who had great need of love and affection. 

Can you believe and understand the evil that came into Wendy’s life that day? 

The evil that told her how much she was loved and cherished. 

The deep evil that it planned and plotted to take such a lot of money from her. 

Then even to go back shortly after to try for more. Scammers knew all about her sadness and problems in life  and yet, they conspired to break her. To break her heart, and leave her bereft. But they could not break her soul. 

Wendy had friends. Please, do not take everything at face value. Right from the start, you should be looking to see who it is who is so perfect and has come into your life. The story of Wendy taught us a lot here. It taught us of the deep cruelty inflicted by others in pursuit of money. They wounded Wendy deeply and threw her away. All because they wanted the money that she worked very hard for.