Why do you have to lie to me ?

 

I am so so sick of scammers!

They are everywhere, playing their little games to try to entice you to do just about anything and everything they can think of. Let me tell you what they have tried, and have done to me.

As some of you may know, I have some websites that I sell my art work on.  I have several, plus my own website.  I’ll wait and list the web addresses at the bottom. I told you that to tell you this……

Last week I get this email from a person who said they were a personal shopper for an “Important import/export mogul.

Ok, I need to stop here to explain something to those that might be novices…. ( any of these jobs are a alert button that should go off so that you can do some digging into this person, because from my experience, they are trying to scam you….  They are – import export moguls,  international jewelers, contractors who build big, real important buildings in exotic places, Dubai is a favorite, and of course people from small out of the way foreign lands who have recently moved to the US.)

This person said she was with this company that after I looked it up, did not exist.  And, she said she worked for this man importing and exporting his important wares.  He had seen my Etsy shop and wanted to make an extremely large purchase.

Ok, I looked the address of this mogul up and it was for a gift shop in Japan.  Not a important import export mogul.  Just a modest shop.  So, my ‘this person is a scammer button’ went off.

I sent this female personal shopper a letter and told her that I would be glad to sell this import/export mogul all my creations, but she and he needed to go through Etsy and purchase them from my Etsy shop.

She told me that she had a liason that would contact me about picking up the items that said mogul wanted.

I told her to forget it, I would not do business with anyone unless they were willing to go through the correct channels established by the company I sold my art work through.

Today,  OMG, today I get this damn email from some Asian type giving me the email for this liason.

OMG!  How many times do I have to say this….?

I just deleted the email and I will delete any other emails that come, because I am up to my eyeballs in scammers. And,

 

I wish I could say that this was my first encounter with a scammer, but oh I can not do that.  Scammers have been bothering me since I joined Match.com after I divorced and moved out on my own.  You might want to say I was easy prey, but I did not stay that way long.

I already wrote about one of these said scammers, not like the one’s that try to steal your bank account, or the ones who try to get into your credit cards, these are the ones that play with your emotions and only to steal your identity.  And, I can tell you that most of us don’t understand why anyone would want our identity, but if you give it to someone, it will be hell getting it back.

I had this guy, he befriended me on Match.  The photo that he supplied was absolutely to good to be true.  He said he just wanted to be friends, because I looked like such a sweet and kind person.  You must understand that I had not dated for 32 years.  “32 YEARS”!

This went on quite a while, he learned my computer use schedule and he would send me  messages and sonnets and tell me his woe’s as he “built a hospital in China”.  After time, it got very romantic, and then hot and bothered…. I don’t remember when I first decided he was just scamming me, but I got very suspicious, but what the heck…. we could keep going as long as it took to find out what his plan was….

Ok, this went on for weeks!  Usually they attack and run, but this guy played this through no matter how long it took.

One day while at work, I get this phone call from him and he was crying… sounded pretty fake but I listened as he told me his daughter, who he had taken to China with him because he was going to be gone so long was in the hospital.  He said that she had been hit by a car during the day while with her private tutor while he was a work.  I was sympathetic, but an alert went off in my head.  You see Match tells you from the get go what to look for and what to do when you find a scammer.  I’m not playing this like they told me to, not at all.

I really got pretty mad that he would try such a despicable reason.  I was so torn at first because half of my co workers were saying he was a scam while others were appalled that we would think such a thing.  I didn’t know what to do. Until, he called one day to say that he had run out of money and couldn’t afford the hospital for his daughter any more. What, I thought he was an international contractor who affords private tutors and he can’t pay his daughters hospital bills.

He started pestering me for money.  Over and over again I told him I couldn’t afford to send him any money, I didn’t have money to send.  Then, the minute I quit communicating with him at all was when I received the email telling me that  his daughter had passed away and it was all my fault.

OMG!  that is about as low as it goes.  I thought to myself that I had heard it all.  I could not believe that someone would go to those lengths to get my money.  Oh, but I was wrong, because that wasn’t the last scammer in my life while on dating sites.  Oh, not by a long shot.  Every time I would think that no one could top that, and then some despicable ass would show up and prove me wrong!

 

 

http://www.etsy.com/allbeckyscreations

http://www.allbeckyscreations.com

http://www.facebook.com/allbeckyscreations

Match maker, Match maker……

 

Night after night, am I really alone?

 

On November 15, 2011 at exactly 9am I divorced my high school sweetheart and father of my two (three) children.  I’m not even gonna tell you how long we were married before I divorced.  Not gonna do it.

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Around 6 months later I was toying with the idea of dating.  One evening while shopping after going to dinner with my kids, both my daughter and daughter in law announced to me that I would have to wait at least a year.  ” You aren’t ready yet” my daughter announced.  And I said, ” Oh, really and who decided that?”  Before I got those words out of my mouth, they both said with resounding voices, ” You just aren’t yet, give it a year.  You just aren’t ready now.”  I looked over past the clothes racks as a woman looked at  me with a smile on her face, laughing under her breath.  I wasn’t laughing.

I spent  two years on dating sites.  I dated nice men, but I must admit that most were not.  I came into contact with many scammers, trying to get my money and identity.  The dating sites all give you warnings, they give advice on what to do if one hooks you, and how not to be hooked.  I did it anyway.  I would always initially talk not knowing whether they were. Then at a point, sometimes quickly, sometimes not I would realize what they were about.  Sometimes I would quickly end it, but I must admit it became a challenge.  I would talk it out as long as possible, being very careful to never give anyone any personal information.  I became amazed at the crazy stories these men would concoct.  I found myself making stuff up too, just to make it juicey.  And, I became quite acquainted with phone sex!  I know many people who have taken long distance chatting into a long term marriage, but believe me…. that didn’t happen to me.

I will begin with the first such scammer.  The  most tame of all the others.

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On February 7, 2012 I had a *****.com party.  Ha!  I kept being told no one ever did that before.  So!  I’m celebrating.  My kids have finally given me the go ahead to date!  Ha!  Of course I waited, I was afraid they were right.

It took us forever to write my profile.  It had to be right and my best friend, Michele’s husband took numerous pictures before I would pick one.  Well, Michele picked one.  I think they were tired of me saying no to every last one.  We drank beer, we drank wine and by the time I was done, I thought it was perfect!  Ha!

Before the night was over, I had numerous messages, emails from men.  Men of all ages.

Eek!  What to do, what to do?  What am I suppose to do?  God, I was nervous!  I forgot that it had been 40 years since I had dated anyone besides my ex.  I had no idea what was about to happen to me, none.

Excluding all the obvious jerk , somehow my common sense left me and I started talking to a man from California.  Since I had just begun my dating adventure and did considered myself hard up or tired of the process, (yet) I don’t know what got into me?  Nope, I have no idea.  But, smart Becky started communicating with this man every day by message.  He only had certain times he called because of “his son” that lived with him.  I just went along with it hook, line and sinker.( I know, I know…. don’t ask)

Within a few weeks, for lack of anything else to call him, let’s say his name was Timmy. (that isn’t his real name)  He always called me at night when I should have been in bed asleep, but I sat up like a goober and talked to Timmy.  Timmy was German, he had moved to California after attending school, I assumed it was in Germany. Ok, the first thing that he said that should have told me to run, was that he had  a degree in contracting.  I remember thinking that sounded stupid, but I just keep on talking.  (You did hear me say that I wasn’t desperate, didn’t ya?) He had also told me his “wife” had left him after his son was born.

His father had been a US soldier stationed in Germany during World War II.  His mother had been a factory worker in Hamburg.  They met while his father was on furlough.  Timmys father was from California so when his wife left him, after he graduated from college, with his degree in contracting he moved back to his fathers home town.  A place he said he had never visited before he moved there.

Timmy told me that he built highway systems “all over the world”.  He spoke 3 languages.  But, he was recently unemployed.  Timmy was looking for a job while his son was in school. “He was very wealthy, or so he said”.  I immediately told him I was not.  I told him this so if he was a scammer he would leave me alone.  No such deal.  So I kept talking to him.

The conversations continued for a good while.  He told me about bringing his son to Nashville to meet me.  He talked about moving to Nashville, since he could live anywhere he wanted because of the job he didn’t have.  The thing that finally jarred me into reality was something he said about his former wife.  Or not!  He said that he had caught his girlfriend messaging friends on Yahoo messenger after they moved to California.  I told him that I thought that he was married.  “Oh, I was”, he said.  That was before they got married.  Ok, even stupid people would pick up on this.  Wouldn’t they?  I think so.  Then, I started asking more questions about his job, his degree….  turned out that he said he had lived in Sweden since he was a small boy.  He moved there with his grandmother after his mother died given birth to him.  “?” All of a sudden I woke up from the fog I had been deluding myself with.  I told him that I didn’t believe any of this story, there is no such thing as a contractors degree.  He said, “there is in Europe”.  No!  I told him that I needed to get up early, so I needed to go.  I was so ashamed of myself, plus I was scared.  Had I told him anything I shouldn’t?  Did I give him my address, I didn’t think I had?  Thank God I didn’t have a land line.

The next morning he called before I could walk out the door to work.  He had an anxiousness to his voice.  He said he would Never Lie To Me.  I told him that I would prefer not to talk to him again.  He tried on several occasions to contact me, but I didn’t answer.  I felt very naive and ashamed.

Was I desperate?  I really didn’t want to believe I was.

                               I continue to believe that “He” is out there.

Somewhere!