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saylorsmill98 Asked April 2018

Help me...I am the victim of a romance scam.

Reached out on Facebook to who I thought was a relative to a wonderful friend of mine (who is now deceased). The person to whom I thought was the person on Facebook responded to me on Instant Messenger. We started up a nice texting relationship. Long story made short....the person that responded, impersonating my friends relative was the con artist. I got scammed out of my identity, got caught up in forged checks against my bank...now owe the bank a large sum of money which I will never be able to pay. I am Social Security Disability for ten years...that is what I live on. My bank has confiscated 2 of my disability checks. I have no money to live on or pay my bills. What are my options?

AgingCareCM Apr 2018
saylorsmill98,

I'm sorry that this has happened to you. Other posters have already provided excellent advice above, but you may find this article to be of further assistance in your attempts to recover from this ordeal:

https://www.agingcare.com/articles/steps-to-take-after-falling-for-a-scam-187073.htm

The author of this article, Carrie Kerskie, is an expert in frauds, scams and identity theft, and you can find other articles by her on these subjects here:

https://www.agingcare.com/expert/carrie-kerskie

Best of luck to you.

lstuscany Apr 2018
This is a fear we all have. I’m so sorry this has become a reality for you. You’ve had some good suggestions. I would add contacting Social Security and have the SS $’s sent elsewhere, other then the bank, for your own survival. Either a new bank, or as a SS check to your address. I’d also see if social security will assist you (fat chance), but as you’re on disability, who knows. They may assign you someone Who might help you from their end.

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SueC1957 Apr 2018
Stop all contact with the other person.
Do not delete any emails from him/her or you. You want that as evidence.
Call the police right away.
Call your bank and explain the situation and change all your account numbers and debt/credit cards.

NEVER give out your identity, where you live or bank # in the future.
I wish you well.

BuzzyBee Apr 2018
Firstly do all of the changing and cancelling accounts etc.
THEN
I may be over the top (I usually am) FBI? I mean it is Identity Fraud?

Good Luck

GardenArtist Apr 2018
Put a credit freeze on your credit accounts with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Notify all your creditors, cancel your charge accounts, change your checking and savings accounts.

And as Real advises, seek help from law enforcement. You might also try to find an attorney who deals in credit fraud to consider suing the scammers, although it's probably unlikely you could recover as I'm sure they've changed names, skipped town, or become invisible.

I'm sorry to read of this happening to you, or to anyone else.

Isthisrealyreal Apr 2018
Have you contacted law enforcement? This needs to be done right away, time is not on your side in these situations.

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