It Happens

It is never easy to discover you are being scammed, especially not when you put your heart into something. But it happens and I guess I would rather lose a few dollars, which is all it really was, than allow someone to starve to death.

I am not easily duped, so when someone approached me for help, after first making friends with me, I really wanted to do the right thing. I wrote letters to all sorts of places trying to verify who they were and received nothing back from any of them. Then I wrote a person who was supposed to be a reliable source and received a slightly strange reply. Still I managed, with the help of friends, to send a very small amount of money. Eleven dollars a piece, which we were thanked for again and again and told it bought enough food to keep three people alive for three weeks and some days. We could do this, even on our meager earnings.

Now, though, the correspondence, which initially had been for friendship and sharing of cultural information became a no ending cry for money. Ostensibly school money in this case. A friend who works with disaster areas over seas and here heard what I was trying to do and said absolutely do not send any money at all! It was hard, but we ceased to send money. Still trying to have faith in my “friend” I counseled him about where to go to get help, but things were fast starting not to add up.

Finally I told him about a person I knew who might be coming to his country and could possibly help him and, whereas I’d only received replies early in the morning, or early evening our time, I got an email back almost immediately. His grandmother had died and he was crying and an orphan and so desperate he might take his life. I wrote back trying to encourage and console for a couple of days then I noticed that all trace of him had disappeared in places where that shouldn’t happen.

That was when I connected with another person I had seen him chatting with online and we compared notes. The death of his “granny” which so devastated him had not even been mentioned to her.

I have been scammed. I only lost $11, but my heart is bruised and, of course, I will be much less inclined to believe anyone else again.

Living and learning can be painful.