Q: For three months, I was involved with a man online. It started when he asked me to be his friend on Facebook. He said that he was a mutual friend of one of my long-time friends, so I accepted his request.
I later learned that my friend didn’t know him, but this man followed my friend on Facebook so I thought it was all OK. I believed that my friend simply forgot who he was.
After constant contact day and night, our friendship grew very quickly from nice friendly messages, into loving messages.
I truly believed it was all real until I realized that it was nothing but a romance scam. He got very upset with me and said it was all over because I wouldn’t send my personal information via a link that he’d sent me.
I realized then that he was using someone’s identity and I was being scammed. I feel so stupid and ashamed that I let this continue for so long.
Even though he has stopped messaging me, I cannot stop searching to see if he has come back. I just can’t seem to let it all go.
How do I really move on from this and will I ever forget it happened? Advice would be appreciated.
– Scammed and Hurting
A: You’ve been on an emotional seesaw, feeling the high of what you thought was romantic pursuit, then crashing from the realization that the pursuer was scamming you.
You can now congratulate yourself that you recognized his true intent in asking for your private personal information. That could’ve led to identity theft, financial…
