Blog 3 - Haunting mistakes of the past...

Two folks that commented on my previous blog seemed to be interested in knowing a little bit about my "scam story". So here goes...

In 2005 , I was literally broke, cuz after marriage I was considered out of student status here in USA so i could'nt find work no where without job permit. And my husband had left his home town in TN and moved in my apartment in KY to live with me. He has never had a legal job and this time he was trying to do it all right, (which was a hard thing to do for him) for the sake of our love. Yea...I know..sounds like those hindi movie love stories but it is what it is! And to make matters worse, I was scammed by a so called African friend that I use to chat with everyday thru the internet chat. I was going thru a hard time, living on charities and needline and he offered to help me.

The help involved one of his friends that lived in UK (according to this African guy) who was suppose to send him a money order of $6000. The African guy told me that he will ask the guy from UK to send it me in USA , so I can keep $500 out of it for me and send the rest to the African guy thru western union.

Being absolutely naive and stupid I believed in him and did as he told me to do. I started sending him a $1000 a day thru western union after depositing the check of $6000 in my bank account. I did tell the folks at my bank to check the money order and make sure it is not fake and they did approve of it to be a true money order.

after a few days I went to my bank after depositing the money order in my account and they told me i was over drawn with $5000+ .Thats when they finally told me I had been scammed. My account was closed. I did talk to the supervisor of the bank and told her my whole story about how the folks at her bank were not able to tell me that my money order was fake when I asked them while depositing it. To shut my mouth, the supervisor of the bank gave us $500 cash after she came to know how broke we were and said she understood it wasnt my fault in the scam but since they cannot contact the guy in africa or UK , I will have to pay back the over drawn amount in time and until then my account will remain closed. due to that one incident I have not been able to have a bank account or do any job that pays by check. I do not have $5000 plus amount to pay my bank, in fact we are very poor family and might never be able to make that much money.


I know the folks at the bank were telling me at that time, " How honest and faithful can u be? U got 6000 bucks from this guy that dont even live in USA, you are broke as hell and not once did it come to ur mind to keep that money for urself?? If u had waited a week before sending him that money atleast we would have been able to tell u that the money order is fake!" YEah...agreed I was naive , innocent and stupid but I was honest , a person of my words , I kept my words and what did i get in return?? A life time debt to live with? No way to be able to open an account any where in USA or any place to cash my pay checks even if I do get a job? Who says u reap what u sow?? I sure didnt ...


I remember very well , my husband telling me at the time I had the money orders in my hands, " What if we keep the money? $ 6000 is a lot of money and we are literally broke, sweetheart! We can live on it for a few months until I find a job." How I wish I had listened to him then, instead of giving him the lecture to be true to urself and ur God, cuz oneday we will have to pay for our sins....DAMN me!!

 

Circumstances?? If i answer this honestly ... the circumstances were of a young silly lady (me) with zero knowledge about internet scam, who had lost her mind to think and see the catch in the situation and further more blinded by the need of some desperate financial help!

That is the exactly how i feel about it when i look back at what i did... a big mistake that can simply never be undone...