How I Survived a Romance Scam

It has been a while.  The summer in fact.  I haven’t been sure what else I want to do with this space.  When I started it, it truly was a life saving outlet.  I needed to get it out of my head and give it somewhere to be.  And I was lucky enough to feel like I can share it.  I have found some more balance in life now and feel like I have a rhythm.  So things change, but I think I know now what to do with this space.

I just logged off my second to last session of this support group I have been a part of the last nine weeks.  It has been incredible.  The first week I logged on, I wasn’t sure.  It was mostly people older than my parents and their stories were different.  But I didn’t have much else to do to help me, so I figured I would keep going.  I don’t know this group of people very well but spending an hour with them each week has become such a highlight.  There stories vary but mostly, our feelings are the same.  We have experienced great loss.  We have experienced a truly ugly side of humanity.  We have questioned how you go on after your world crashing down.  And I have been so uplifted by each of them.  They are incredibly resilient people and want to help others.

This group is put on by a company called Cybercrime Support Network.  I learned that this company was started about 5 years ago.  A person was a victim of such a crime and wrote to an elected official about it.  Said elected official realized how difficult it was to figure out what to do when this happens.  She couldn’t find resources or support for this person so she started this company.  And it has done so so much good!  And a huge part of this group is education.  Each week we have a topic that we have learned about- from resilience to internet hygiene to dark manipulation tactics to VPNs.  Some of it I knew, some of it I thought I knew and some of it was very new to me.  It has been so great.

Now, with my own situation, there hasn’t been any progress.  The rates of getting any money back is very low.  And some of the agencies have said it isn’t enough money that they can use resources to find it.  None of it super fun to hear.  But that is reality and I have had to adjust my expectations.  But I have felt a bit helpless in what I can do about this.  It may not have been a ton of money but it is now helping them continue this con.  And I hate that!

So that is where this blog comes in.  And I need my herd!  The best thing we can do is educate.  Information is such a powerful weapon and we can use it for good.  So, I need my herd to share, to talk about, whatever you can do!  And we need to contact our elected officials.  They don’t know what they don’t know.  They might not know someone this has happened to, but you do.  You can share that and it will make the difference!