Multiple Faces Detected
June 1st, 2022
When it comes to getting entangled in a romance scammer’s lies, it can be extremely difficult to get out once captured. Many of the lies and schemes cooked up by romance scammers are couched in between a beautiful promise that your life will be better on the other side of the unpleasant thing they want you to do. They give you a little peek at the beauty to keep you on the hook until they’ve drained you of everything you’ve got. And when you have nothing left, they demand more.
Charlotte has never been married, she had been engaged more than once, but in each case, they were unable to make it work. Despite the disappointments in her love life, she wanted someone to spend her life with, so she decided to join match.com to try to find someone.
When she first met Micheal online, she describes herself as being “swept off her feet”. She describes Micheal as having a poetic communication style. Romancing her and taking her mind off of her day-to-day existence, and carrying her away into a land of fantasy where the future always looked bright.
Within a week, Micheal was making confessions of his love for her, at first, she resisted, feeling that it was all happening too fast. By the time Micheal started signing his emails with “from your husband”, she was already into deep to resist. Despite her reservations, she started to reciprocate the same love and affection Micheal was displaying for her. Within six weeks, she started having conversations with her mother about marrying him.
Micheal claimed to be on a business trip to Cannada. When he broke the news to Charlotte, he asked her not to be mad at him. He told her that although he had to travel to another country, he would only be gone for 6 weeks. The six weeks turned to 6 months, and Charlotte began to worry.
Micheal Put Charllote at ease. Telling her that he would in fact return to her and make her his wife. They even decided on the date, May 27. Charlotte was beyond excited. She told everyone she knew. Friends, family, coworkers, and all. She went dress shopping with her mother and bought the first dress she tried on. She was so excited about her wedding and meeting Micheal who was still on his business trip. She was making the plans and buying everything they would need, but she would still have to wait until the day of the wedding to meet her future husband for the first time.
Although she was upset by her fiance’s absence, she understood that he was on an important job. He would bring home $14 million with him when he came back to America, and he said the money would be shared with his beautiful bride. Or so he said…
The time came when the people around charlotte began to get suspicious. Her friend found it odd that Micheal, the man who she was supposed to marry couldn’t take the time to come and see his bride. She also found it strange that he made so many excuses for everything. Something was up, and she had to find out what it was.
Charlotte’s friend ran a reverse image search on Michael’s photos and found out that he wasn’t who he claimed to be. So the wedding was off, but the scam was far from over.
But of course, Micheal would deny it. Of course, it was all a miss understanding and he would be home to his bride soon. He would just need one little favor before he was able to leave his job site. He would need her to send him a part worth $100,000 because it had broken on the rig. And, of course, he would pay her back out of the $14 million checks that he was getting from his Canada job. To show that he was really as well off as he claimed to be, he even had charlotte sign into his banking app for him and pay his bills. When Charlotte saw how much money his bills were, she believed him. She used his money to pay his bills, and she would now trust him with the cost of the part.
Charlotte when to the bank and took out a loan for the full amount of the part. The loan was to be paid back within 6 weeks. That’s how long it would take Micheal to finish his job and get on a plane to the US to see her. She got the loan, sent the money, then bought a plane ticket for Micheal and waited the 6 weeks. Once the six weeks were over, she waited at the airport to meet him. He never came. She never met Micheal or got her money back. And perhaps worst of all, there was no wedding.
The banking app that Charlotte signed into was a fake website designed by the scammers behind the carefully constructed persona named “Micheal” who was designed to captivate and woo Charlotte. The “money” and the “bills” were all just numbers on a screen, and the wedding was a beautiful lie, all designed to get money from a US bank, signed for, and debted to Charlotte.
Avoid Romance Scams
We love bliss as much as the next guy, but when it comes to protecting yourself, knowledge is power. Be like charlotte’s friend, run a reverse image search with the search bar below.
