After worming their way into the heart, the scammer, Bryan J. Lee, told me he had a side hustle on the oil rig he worked on that gave him access to purchase and sell barrel allocations. He told me he needed 10k to have the barrels released. Here is just one of the many documents he produced.
After that, he had me log into his bitcoin "wallet" that was also a sophisticated, fabricated website they created with a history of transactions that matched what he had been telling me over the course of nearly two years. He had me try to transfer money to his sister and to one of the companies involved in the oil barrel hustle. He claimed his connection out on the rig was no good. I fell for it and tried, feeling I may have aided in money laundering, but was reassured. A few days later, he contacts me to tell me that the company has frozen the account due to the different IP addresses and different attempts. After weeks of needling me, I gave in and sent another 10k.
Both of these were loans. I don't have that kind of cash and right after all this, I lost my job.
He promised to pay back his debt and since his contract was up, he would be leaving the rig and joining me in my state. He claimed to have attempted a transfer and sent a document to prove it was entered, but then I received an email from the fake cryptobank claiming that it would take another 45K to cover some b*s* international finance taxes they rattled off. I knew then it was over. I had been had. I filed a form with the FBI and contacted my bank and put a fraud alert on my credit.
I am devastated financially and seething with anger, embarrassment and humiliation. I know I am not alone here.