Romance scam victim speaks out on "psychological manipulation" that cost her $2.5 million

my goals were to retire and see the world and I couldn't wait to get retired I had met my financial objectives I was looking so forward I was on top of the world I have never married and I thought you know what if I want to get married Now's the Time to do it so I thought I'll try a dating site I did match.com and two weeks passed and that's when we started talking together we were going to see each other meet each other in person uh within the week then he he traveled with his business and so he had to leave and go to California and do a business meetings and I was very flexible with that because I've worked all my life I know what it's like of putting work first every morning I would get an email of a poem that he wrote for me every morning I would also get just hi honey how are you doing how is your night when I get to the states I can't wait to be with you within a month he was just very very heavy in terms of the dating relationship and this is a mistake if I made a mistake it was that I didn't cut it off then 150,000 250,000 75,000 make a check for 250,000 and then make another 50,000 check I sent money to China and Hong Kong at the end and people say how can you give money to a stranger he wasn't a stranger at that point I mean the way they know how to hook you you and psychological man manipulation you know they know how to do what they do they have a script they have a book that tells them everything of what to do I knew in August 2019 that I would probably end up being poor with him and I just thought okay I can live with him and be poor that's okay as long as we're together I sold my home in May the reason being is that I had no more money when the secret service called me and he said you know you have been a victim of a romance scam and when he said there wasn't even a Santos around that was hard to get my brain wrapped around I'd never been around people of that character living with it now is the hardest of hard I can't go to the Future what do you worry about the future me not being out on the streets cuz I don't have any money and at the very beginning I mean I had no money my house was sold I had no place to stay except for my car and um I had some very good good solid girlfriends and they took me in for the first eight months which was really good because I think I would have probably committed suicide you don't know how they mess with your brain they manipulate they punish you oh it's dramatically changed me yes you know it's not the material items that make a difference for me it's the fact that I don't have any freedom I don't have freedom anymore to go out with my girlfriends have dinner I don't have freedom to go do this or this experience it's not that I don't have you know money or drive a new car blah blah blah it's the fact that I have no Freedom I'm very very limited because of this scam

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 159,792

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, romance, scam, psychological manipulation

Id: PtjL555xWqg

Length: 4min 51sec (291 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024