Why Victims Don’t SPEAK OUT
Why Victims Don’t Speak Out About Being Scammed
I joked a bit in that piece I wrote. But I left a few things out.
Now that I have been scammed, this is a word to the scammers, but mostly to those vulnerable to being scammed. Share this piece, spread it around. Yeah, go ahead, maybe it will go viral. Just my luck. Share it with those you think may be vulnerable, let them know to be careful.
I hesitate to post this. For most of you who will read this it probably doesn’t apply, and it is toooooo much info for you, and I may sound like a jerk (or at least like I behaved like one), or at the least, this is humiliating to post to the public.
But, if it prevents one other person from getting scammed, or one of you can share it with a friend, etc., it is worth it. It is frequently not revealed because it is embarrassing. Who wants to admit this?
And besides, we don’t really talk openly about…sex…in our culture. I still think our culture is uncomfortable with it. Certainly not talked about openly publicly. Except for public scandals. Well, who am I to follow the norms, eh???
If you are a scammer, look elsewhere, or better, get a life and leave others alone. It is sometimes so hard to tell, and emotions get ripped apart, and it feels horrible because the person scammed feels humiliated, stupid, duped, violated (almost raped), and damage is done, and it is so unkind, so unkind to trick someone.
Anyone can be fooled, anyone, eventually, and especially if one is lonely. It also gives me a new appreciation for why rape victims most often stay silent, and don’t scream out to others that they have been raped…and forgive me…I could not possibly know what that feels like and to any victim of assault that may read this, absolutely no offense intended nor am I intentionally or unintentionally trivializing that horror…I have been with someone who lived through that.
And if you have not been scammed, you may not get all of this. That is fine. May it stay that way. If you are a single person, and lonely, and vulnerable at times, I wrote about this for both myself to help myself get through this and over this, and, also for you. If anything I wrote tips you off to someone else’s behavior, good.
I am still learning, and a friend just told me that the I-tunes cards can be transferred into cash for themselves, they somehow sell them using the I.D. numbers on the card.
Also, what I did not mention in my story. And this should have tipped me off big time, but alas, my brain was not working AT ALL at that point, having been distracted by alluring pictures. Attractive? Yes. Overly endowed in the breast department? Yes.
Standing in front of a Mercedes with a set of Mercedes keys leading one to believe that is them and that is their car? Yes. Taking a picture of themselves using the keys to block a sexually arousing part of the body (geeez, do I have to spell it ALL out, okay, okay… nipple, there…). YES. Not afraid to show the top half of their body? Yes.
Okay, for purposes here, that is MORE than enough information. All of this can go equally if you are a female, just substitute pictures and body parts and alter the story a little bit. You get the picture.
Be careful. I thought, being a reasonably educated person (but short on common sense at times, although experience brings wisdom) that I was hip to getting scammed. Live and learn every day.
There are people who do this full time. They are smart and know how to manipulate. If it is happening to you, stop it cold turkey. I use this term, because it is like a drug. The sexual stimulation, the affectionate talk, the attention, can be addicting, just as powerful as a drug, and just as damaging. That (the term “cold turkey”) is not a metaphor.
I repeat what I said earlier. Anyone can be fooled, anyone, eventually, and especially if one is lonely. And who has not been lonely or felt alone at some point, even if others are around?????
Neal Klein
Life After Emilee, on the loss of my wife to pancreatic cancer. I’m not accepting comments right now but please feel free to get in touch via my Contact page.