Right now, for my case, I have reported and called all that I can for now. I have been on the phone too much and retelling the worst days but I think I have done all I can for now. I had to report to another agency this week and I forget how much it takes out of me. So now it is just a whole lot of waiting and saving. So, to help pass that time, information is my best medicine. Information calms my soul, well as much as it can be right now.
Soon, I will be able to join a support group, and I am so excited. This support group contains 15 individuals that have been victims of romance fraud of some kind. They have done this group for over two years and have a new group every 7 weeks. The groups generally have a third men and two thirds women. The average age is 45. There are on average 3-4 people that have stories that involve crypto currency like mine. They have had people that work in the tech industry in these groups. They have had people call in from shelters because they have lost everything. This happens to anyone and a lot.
The FBI has a department called the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or the IC3. As it says, this is where you submit all complaints concerning internet crimes. Which can be such a wide variety of scams and such. This is where my reporting began. I give them all the information I have and then wait.
They publish an annual report of what is going on in the world of internet crime. Overall, the number of victims went down from 2021 to 2022 by 5% but the amount of money lost increased from 6.9 billion to 10.2 billion. That’s right, that is so much money. Just last year. That is an average of $12,735 per person. The problem is that some types of crime are much more lucrative than others. And romance fraud happens to be one of them.
Last year, the IC3 received 19,021 complaints of what they call confidence fraud or romance scams. This was number 11 on the list of complaints. The total loss of that was $735,882,192. That is number 5 on the list of total lose for types of internet crimes. That is an average of $38,687.88 a person.
And I am one of those 19,021 and my $46,000 is part of that $735,882,192. I never love statistics very much and I really don’t love being a part of this one. But I am.
And now you know someone that is part of this. Please talk about it. Please create awareness however you can. This doesn’t have to happen as much. Let’s try get these numbers lower.
What happened to me is a felony. That means the level of crime is harmful or dangerous to society. Felonies generally include charges such as- property crimes, sex crimes, drug offenses, white collar crime, and violent offenses. It is no small thing and we can do better.
Things you can do-
- Share my story. However seems fit, please share to create awareness. Here is the link- romacescamthriver.wordpress.com
- Google the start by believing campaign- its amazing!!! Startbybelieving.org
- Listen to The Survivor’s Guide to True Crime podcast https://www.kararobinsonchamberlain.com/sgtc
- Think about the True Crime you consume- does it celebrate the survivor or the perpetraitor? Do the storytellers have the survivors or deceased persons permission? Just think about it.
How I Survived a Romance Scam 
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