“Scammer on Pinterest”
Hi José Carlos:
When I have to live experiences that shake me, I always wonder what does life mean to me? Nothing happens by chance, nothing is coincidence. In some way, through this fact I have been able to understand the damage suffered by the people who live it but I have also understood that we are called to overcome it, choose between being victims or taking an active role in reporting. On two occasions I have had to face romantic scams that have not achieved their goal because they have been detected in time. Apparently the scammers have not taken any money but, beyond what they could have physically taken away from me, if they have hurt my feelings, my emotions, my sensitivity.
I am Rosy Fonseca, I write as a woman, journalist and communicator. I write from my status as a woman and I perceive that many women, we have been victims of the "Romantic Scams" and I am convinced that beyond fear and silence, we can report this crime. I write as a journalist and communicator because we have a great social commitment and through any means of communication we can inform, sensitize and create opinion states of other people, around this problem.
After having lived a romantic scam in 2017, I subscribed to Romance Scam. I must accept that the first time, I was "absent from malice", something incredible for a mature woman but that happened, I believed every lie the scammer prepared for me. Discovering it was like a lunge and to get out I had to seek therapeutic help. Having overcome that event and knowing the warnings and recommendations in these situations, I thought I was safe.
Two years passed until one afternoon in June 2019, a message on Pinterest told me that "Sam Richard" wanted to contact me. Outside the danger that was approaching, I decided to respond. On the screen of my cell phone, the photograph of a blond man with a beautiful smile was displayed. I thought it was great to have friends on Pinterest, I thought that maybe I could give myself a chance and that's how I decided to accept it. Until then I did not know that through Pinterest you could make friends or be a space to look for love.
Not always the first contacts are successful or achieve their mission. In the picture this man looked quite young and I asked him his age. He replied that it was a picture of when he was younger. On the other hand, I don't speak English and my scammer told me that I could speak German and English and that I was learning Portuguese. For my part I confirmed that the best language to communicate then would be Portuguese because I currently studied it and understood its language a lot.
So we started sending messages, either through Hangouts, Pinterest and through your account via Gmail. I was moving carefully and my scammer noticed it because he asked me why I didn't trust him. However, communication with the days became constant and fluid. One afternoon he told me that he was glad to trust him and told me that he was a well drilling engineer, who was working on an oil platform in the Red Sea. That he was a widower, he had a 10-year-old son, the product of a relationship with a Russian woman, whom he had met on a train trip to Ukraine. She had died in an accident and the boy was in a boarding school in Russia. That day he sent me his first photos and those of his son.
One day I looked for his name on Pinterest and wrote it, what happened surprised me and scared because two users appeared (“Sam Richard” and “Sam Richardson”), who seemed to be different but had the same Gmail account (samuelalex8983@ gmail. com). Because of that, I asked him who he was. Because of his ability to lie he told me that he was not the only person in the world, his name was Sam Richard. This little mistake generated the doubt in me and he got upset, days later I apologized and we continued talking and getting to know each other. In spite of everything I tried to forget the incident .
Everything seemed fine but in the middle of July, one morning, I received an urgent message via Hangouts, where the criminal told me that his child was on an excursion and had lost the card to get cash, which he had given him. For his work he could not move from that place and needed money to solve the problem.
The message put me on alert, I told him I was sure he would have the ability to solve it. I told him that I had worked in remote areas of my country and that when the children are young, the first responsibility is to ensure all their well-being, that being far from home, there could be no loose ends.
That day I received several messages where he tried to convince me but he did not succeed; on the contrary, it was increasingly evident that he wanted to cheat me. Finally I could see clearly what was so obvious. There was a piece that did not fit the puzzle, I wrote a message without confronting it and said goodbye.
Over the days I tried to put my ideas in order and take action. I gave myself the task of searching the pages of scams for the name of the person to whom this offender impersonated his identity. I finally checked in one of the galleries that it was about you. I was shocked, several of the photos were the same as the scammer had sent me. As I deepened my research, I could perceive the extent of the damage they caused.
In order to gather evidence, I followed up on the changes of your page on Pinterest, I took several “screenshots of your profile”. From the first time of the incident I made a screenshot of the profile of "Sam Richard". Now, while watching from my PC, it is notorious that I was constantly changing; preparing, perhaps, the next blow.
My interest in keeping track of the scammer reminded me that when the disgust arose, this man had changed the design of his page and changed his address. I had written it down in a notebook and I verified that it is the same one that links directly to the account that I currently use on Pinterest.
https://www.pinterest.com/samrich8983/? ... t_s=header
José Carlos and I want to express to you how much I regret what has happened to you. From my space in Romance Scam I will be attentive to inform you of any news, and help other people. The word is powerful, we must denounce.
No doubt some experiences change us forever. People who have not yet had to live situations like these do not quite understand why we should take care of our privacy so much. Taking care and precautions is not paranoia, everything is part of an experience that shakes anyone's life. Now I have no doubt that scammers are everywhere. In the network we are all exposed.
See you soon, take care of yourself.
Rosy Fonseca
“Tita Romero” on Pinterest
P.D: Any mistake, please excuse me. The text has been translated with the help of Google.