“It’s just me and him inside my head”. These are the words of Ann, a 62-year-old grandmother from Manchester as she recalls what it was like to be caught in the grips of a charming romance scammer. The events that led her to be caught in this scam all started with her children growing up and moving out of the house. She found herself lonely and caught in the cycle of her daily routine, without an end in sight, or anyone to share her days with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ann recalls waking up every morning to go to work, returning later that night, and feeling the emptiness of her home. She hadn’t entered her living room in 3 months, because she felt there was nothing in there for her. It seemed like things would drag on like this forever, that is until she got an unexpected message from A man named Michael.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that he thought that she was beautiful and wanted to talk to her. She blew him off at first, claiming to be busy. But eventually, the two began to talk, and they hit it off. He would send her messages every morning and every night. She began to expect it, and she started to fall in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day finally came when Michael would confess his love for her, and Ann confessed her love for him back right away. And a few weeks later, Michael proposed to her. He said that he wanted to propose in person, but he couldn’t wait to ask. She agreed. She was excited, and she went shopping for a wedding ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weeks later, there was an emergency. Micheal messaged Ann while she was at work. He said that he needed money badly, and it was a terrible emergency. He needed $5,000 immediately. Ann told him that she didn’t have that kind of cash to loan out, but he insisted that it was an emergency. Ann was deeply unsettled. She understood that it was an emergency, but he was acting out of character. She told him that she might be able to help him with the money he needed, but she would have to wait until the next week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The very next week was Ann’s birthday. She recalls feeling hurt when Michael reached out to her and didn’t even tell her happy birthday before he started pressuring her about the money. She sent him $5,000. Shortly after, she sent the money, she got a message from a man claiming to work for the bank she made the transfer to. He said that the money could not be released until Micheal paid some fees. Micheal said that he didn’t have any money, and he aggressively pressured Ann to send more transfers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recalls buying so many giftcards to send money transfers that she had enough to decorate the walls of her house. But after she sent the transfers, it still wasn’t enough. He wanted more. Ann didn’t have any more, she already sent him everything. This is when he began to force Ann to borrow money from her daughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now Ann was in a horrific financial situation. Micheal had sucked her bank account dry with all of his “emergencies”, and she had nothing left. She lost her car and her job, and now the bank was coming for her house. Ann was at her lowest point ever. She decided she was going to end it. She took an overdose of drugs, and she lay dying on the floor of her house. Luckily, her daughter came to visit and rescued her in the last moment. She spent three weeks in the hospital. When talking to Michael over the phone, she said “my grandchildren are gonna grow up without a Nanny because of you” he replied, “they’ll get over it”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ann was working on the process of putting her life back together. After she left the hospital, she had to stay in government housing for 7 months. The next step in the healing process was to find out the truth about Michael. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ann reached out to Social Catfish in order to find out the truth to break Micheal’s devastating grip on her life. When looking into this case, it became clear that Michael was a scammer. We also researched all of the banks that Ann sent money to, and we found that all of the documents were falsified and that all of the people involved were fake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best way to avoid being romance scammed is to figure out whether or not the person you’re talking to online is truly who they say they are. All you need to do is upload a photo of the person into the search bar below. run your first search today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n