Kitabı oku: «The Geese That Lay The Golden Eggs», sayfa 2

Departure for Ivory Coast

Let’s be clear in our minds that Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ghana, are almost always involved in any fake love stories, because these are the places where the swindlers live, and they need to have the money sent there. Our dear Vincent warns Luciana he is about to leave for Ivory Coast for his work as an art dealer. But this is wonderful news for her. Once he has finished his African trip to buy inlaid wooden masks, he will return to France, but not without first stopping off in Italy to embrace his beautiful lover from Rimini.

How exciting! The dream is coming true. Luciana starts to fantasize about their meeting at the airport. Her holding a notice on which she will have written “VINCENT” in big letters. Him, handsome and elegant, with his suitcase labelled Abidjan, and sunglasses; perhaps a small souvenir for her or her child.

Luciana can’t wait, and she begins organising all the details of her welcome for Vincent. “Shall I make a banner to put up in the hallway at home? Perhaps not, it’s silly.”

She doesn’t want to seem too taken and treat him as if he were the only man on earth. Much better to think about more concrete things like a special dinner, with all her best dishes: saffron-flavoured lasagne, blueberry tart, a good Italian wine. Everything must be simple, but perfect, to welcome the man who is going to change the course of her life. Luciana can’t wait to embrace him. She takes up going to the gym again, she lunches on salad and mozzarella. She wants to lose two or three kilos in the time she has left before she meets Vincent.

Luciana becomes more beautiful and her friends notice this. Her eyes sparkle as she tells her story, how lucky she has been to have met a special man on Facebook. A few of her friends speak of caution: «Be careful with social media! Things are not always what they seem!» But Luciana barely listens. She expected these warnings and doesn’t take heed. Her happiness springs from having met the man of her life, and her friends’ gossip will not ruin it for her.

But one day she receives bad news that dampens her contentment, that feeling of being lucky, privileged almost by fate. Vincent sends her a message from Ivory Coast asking her for help. He’s desperate. His briefcase has been stolen and with it his wallet and credit card, his mobile phone and all the money he had with him. What’s more, the thieves chased him by car and while he was trying to get away from them he ran over an 8-year old child who was seriously injured and is now in hospital. At this point, Vincent risks prison if he doesn’t immediately pay 2500 euros for medical treatment.

The fog begins to clear in Luciana’s mind

Many women would have paid, just as they pay in other Romance Scams, but Luciana starts hearing little alarm bells ringing, and she begins asking things, asking, asking: a photo of the run-over child, his name and details, the address and bank coordinates of the hospital where the money is to be transferred.

Vincent is a little offended by her mistrust. He tells her so. Then he patiently explains that the hospital does not accept bank transactions from Europe. The only way to pay is by Money transfer.

The fog clears in Luciana’s brain and she emails the embassy in Abidjan asking for information about the self-styled Vincent, she provides his FACEBOOK profile, and little else. She discovers the man is an impostor who is known to the police because he is part of a gang specializing in romance scams.

The little alarm bells

Luciana starts adding all the information in her possession together. The alleged Vincent pretends he is French because Ivory Coast, a former colony, uses French as its official language. He’s never left Abidjan and has pretended to go there, to be able to receive the cash payment in his homeland.

Luciana doesn’t send him the money and she’s clever to realise, in time, that it’s a scam. The request for money sets off a little alarm bell inside her. Intuition and reason prevail over her emotions, and the scammer loses the match he has so laboriously played.

Any woman, anybody - when asked for money - should awake from their romantic obfuscation. The automatic reaction should be: Money = Wake up!

Then tell the unscrupulous looter to sod off. But it’s not easy to let go of the dream. Luciana cries for days on end, after reporting the scam. She says she felt completely stupid, an idiot:

«He used such psychological violence - Luciana explains during an interview - as to literally bring me to my knees. He even used to ask me if I’d slept well, if I’d eaten and if I’d had a good day at work! It’s obvious that if I’d been thinking straight I would have understood that it was impossible that there was such a nice polite man who was going to fall in love with someone like me, neither beautiful, nor young; but unfortunately, as the saying goes, love is blind»⁶.

Mary

Mary’s story is told by her son Lucien. A nasty story, but with a happy ending, if it can be called that when you get your own money back.

Mary has just turned 59 when she’s contacted by an American sailor who wishes her a happy birthday and asks her to be friends. The man says his name is Michael Miller and he’s 53.

She’s been living in Italy for a decade. French by birth, she used to be married to an Italian journalist from whom she’s divorced. She has a son Lucien, born of her marriage, who is a high school mathematics teacher and who lives in Rome, like his mother.

Michael’s first contact happens on her birthday. He asks her to be friends, she accepts. He sends her (a photo of) an enormous bouquet of red roses with a happy birthday message in English.

«What did you do for your birthday?» Michael asks her the following day, in bad Italian.

«It was nice! I had dinner with my friends and we had a lovely evening.»

«Do you have a lot of friends? Who do you like? I'm jealous.»

«Do you speak French? - asks Mary - my English is not very good.»

«Avez vous beaucoup d'amis? Qui aimez-vous? je suis jaloux,» he repeats admitting he’s translated the phrase on Google, then he continues the conversation with copy and paste from an online translator.

«Well if you’re using Google just choose Italian - Mary urges him - because in French I feel like I want to correct all your mistakes.»

«Do you have many friends? Who do you like? I’m jealous.»

«Don’t talk nonsense!»

«I can’t stop thinking about you. I saw your photo a month ago, but I’m shy and I only found the courage to contact you with it being your birthday!»

«Really?» asks Mary flattered. «What did you find so attractive in me? I’m just a normal woman.»

«Normal? Say normal is false. Saying you’re normal is just not true. You’re beautiful.»

«How old did you say you are?»

«53, and you?»

«I’m 59, I’m older than you. Men always look for young girls. What attracts you to such a mature person?»

«Your photo shows me an elegant lady, you're a beautiful woman. Mary, you mustn’t underestimate yourself Mary. Look at yourself with love’s eyes, as I see you, and you’ll see you’re beautiful!»

«Love? You’re going rather fast now!»

«Yes, I’m going fast, but I’m following my heart that’s going even faster than me!»

A week after her birthday Mary has the sensation she’s known Michael for a long time. He contacts her every day at the same time, and his requests to love her are increasingly persistent. He says nice things, and although his Italian is only approximate, he confesses to her that he’s never felt such overwhelming feelings before. He’s had other affairs, but nothing important, because he’s always believed that to build a sincere relationship he had to find his soul mate. He believes that God has created an ideal lover for every being on earth, and he’s lucky to have managed to find her and fulfil his dream.

To live together, get married and lay together one beside the other as a single body; this is human happiness. There’s nothing more beautiful!

Mary is intoxicated by these words, by Michael’s attentions, as he floods her with pictures of beautiful scenes at sunset, flowers, mostly red roses, with the phrase «Je t’aime,» or «Je t’aime beaucoup,» or alternatively «I love you.»

Strangely he doesn’t send her any pictures of himself in other poses or moments of his daily life. Mary only has two pictures of Michael, one close-up and another full-length view. Both pictures show him in uniform and are of an attractive man, with a high forehead, a proud gaze and just a hint of a smile. Not much to fall in love with. However, Mary is so enraptured by his words, promises, allusions to perfect sentimental and sexual happiness, that she doesn’t ask for more. To share the dream of a soul mate is what she wants too. She believes in it. She wants nothing else. Michael’s words are a daily dose of pleasure, a spoken and virtual intuition that is the premise to their real-life meeting, which will happen very soon. Michael wants that, Mary wants it, especially after messages like this:

«Darling I miss you so much, you’ve become necessary for my soul, my heart. You’re my day and night.

You’re the sun and the moon to me. You’re my queen. I miss you so much and the days separating me from you are much too long and cruel. Oh, how I would like to cut the ribbon of time which separates us from our first meeting! Love me Mary! Make me happy and never betray our dream!».

Finally, our meeting, but first I’m going to Abidjan!

Strange the coincidences in life, because Mary’s story also has links with Ivory Coast. And quite by chance, Michael needs to go precisely to Abidjan to clinch a deal. He intends to leave the marines and plans to set up a diamond import-export business with his severance pay.

A million carats worth of diamonds a year are extracted in Ivory Coast. So, Michael, who is planning his future business and success, has an appointment with a manager from the mines who will suggest the right quantities of precious stones to export, the purchase prices and the sales prices on the European markets.

The forecast is for huge profits, so the Marine has ploughed all his savings into getting together the sum to be paid in advance to start his export business to Europe. He has a lot of money set aside because he earns more than eight thousand dollars a month. Then he’ll pay the manager of the mines the contractual balance with his military service severance pay.

Mind you! The most exciting part of the plan, as told by Michael, is that he’ll start his journey towards Europe with Italy, Rome, where he’ll stop off to embrace Mary, and plan their future together; to crown their dream of a happy union and looking ahead - why not - even get married.

After another week of online chat, with Michael’s usual loving attentions, the anticipated time of departure for the Ivory Coast comes around.

He calls her as soon as he gets to Abidjan and tells her he’s had a good journey. They’ll talk again online the following day.

Instead three long days go by with no sign of Michael. Mary starts to worry, she doesn’t know what to put this silence down to. She’s anxious. Then she finally receives a call from Ivory Coast. The person contacting her is a doctor in a clinic who tells her that Michael is seriously ill. He was taken to hospital after being attacked by three criminals. He’s having an operation on his spleen. It was Michael himself who begged the doctor to contact her, because before going under the knife (he’s very seriously injured the poor man) he thought about Mary knowing she’d be worried and asked them (we imagine in a faint whisper) to contact his woman.

The doctor talks at length to Mary (almost as though he hasn’t got much else to do) and ends the telephone call by informing her that the following day Michael himself will probably be able to call her.

Worried out of her mind Mary sends him messages, without any result. Then the following day she sees a photo of him, sent to her smartphone. His face is swollen, it looks painful. The operation has gone well he explains, speaking softly and painfully. They’ve removed his spleen. He must rest until he recovers.

He tells her that his attackers stole 90 thousand dollars off him. He has nothing now until he’s paid his severance money. He hasn’t even got the money to pay the clinic. What’s more he’s signed the contract with the manager of the mines and he must cover the cheque he paid as a guarantee. He wouldn’t want to ask her for help for anything in the world, but he’s desperate!

Mary can’t really understand why he went around with so much cash on him and she asks him. Michael explains that he was going to deposit it at the bank in Abidjan, to cover the cheque for 50 thousand dollars he paid as an advance on the diamond shipment agreement. Upset, he explains his position to her, tormenting himself because he knows it isn’t normal to turn to her to ask for help. He’d rather die, but he’s deeply distressed! He’s got to find a solution because if he doesn’t cover the cheque the deal will fall through, and he’ll also have to pay a fine.

The rest of the story unfortunately, as you can imagine, is an impoverishment of poor Mary in favour of the crook, who is not called Michael, but is a young African and part of a gang specialised in romance scams.

The story told by Lucien

«My mother had sent several remittances to Michael, in Ivory Coast, for various reasons. It began with 50 thousand dollars through Western Union‎ and Money Gram, because she was upset by the attack on the man she had fallen in love with and his serious condition. She used up all her savings to help him, because anyway he told her he would pay the loan back as soon as he was better again.

Once the shipments for the sale of the diamonds began he would personally come to Rome to bring her a cheque and start their future together. But the man had a great deal of financial obligations at that sad moment in time. We all know the cost of a clinic, rehabilitation, the expense of hotel accommodation, and the second tranche for the import-export business.

My mother even sold her apartment - says Lucien - to keep up with the constant demands of that man, who convinced her with false, urgent and unavoidable reasons. When she realised she’d been scammed, she became depressed. Sad and without any financial resources left, she tormented herself every day for having been so stupid when she should have realised it was a scam and sought advice. But she didn’t.

I sent my mother to be treated, to help her overcome her moral disorientation. But wounds like that are difficult to heal at her age…».

The providential money transfer receipts

Luckily Mary had kept all the Western Union‎ and Money Gram receipts. She also maintained contact with her scammer, while her son Lucien sought information amongst his journalist friends and went so far as to consult an Interpol branch, where an agent got to work investigating and had the members of the gang arrested.

Subsequently, after it had received proof of the sums sent, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ivory Coast took steps to return the money to her.

But Mary’s pain at having been hit like that in her feelings will last a long time yet. Every so often she suddenly awakes in the night because she dreams that someone is taking a bag full of diamonds away from her. She cries out for help and sees a man in the uniform of a Marine laughing mockingly.

Mary grieves every time she awakes and thinks about Michael again. She imagines him as he was in the photos which she gazed at so many times. She can hardly believe that Michael doesn’t exist; that his words of love were phrases copied here and there, from romantic texts or invented on the spur of the moment to lure her into a romance scam.

Her computer at home is always turned off now, a piece of equipment that she can’t even bear to dust without feeling distressed. The internet is a place of death and suffering. She wouldn’t want to go on a social networking site for anything in the world.

Silvia

The protagonist of this story does not want to give her real name. She’s a young woman of 32 who in the spring of 2016 received a friend request from a forty-year-old Frenchman, a handsome guy who said his name was Henry Dupont. We’ll call her Silvia:

«He messaged me immediately on Messenger - says Silvia - telling me I was his type and he’d fallen in love with me. He put lots of little hearts and kisses, he wrote sweet things to me. I felt a little uncomfortable, because his zeal seemed excessive, considering that I barely knew him. In fact, I didn’t know him, I’d only seen a picture of him, which although nice, was not very meaningful for me as to who this person was.

So, I ignored him for a couple of days. I didn’t want to be invaded like that in my private life by unsolicited affection.

Henry contacted me again, I answered out of politeness. I read his loving words and meanwhile I thought that perhaps I was acting unfairly towards Gianni, my companion who I hadn’t been getting along with very well lately. We were arguing for every silly little thing and going out together less often than before».

Henry turns up online again every evening, he talks to Silvia and tells her about his life. He tells her he’s a widower with two children, a boy and a girl. Then he touches on the very sad topic of his wife’s death which happened several years earlier. He speaks to her of his loneliness, with two small children to bring up without their mother. He sends her touching photos of the children with their daddy (a sad and disconsolate man!). Silvia very correctly informs him that she already has a companion and is not interested in other affairs, especially with people she doesn’t know directly. But Henry doesn’t desist, he sends her more pictures with flowers, beating hearts, endearing little teddies and phrases full of tenderness.

Silvia is cautious, and this can be deduced from her words. She’s not a woman who is used to making light-hearted decisions. If she did, she would feel guilty towards her companion because, although their relationship is a little difficult, she’s aware that he doesn’t deserve to be cast aside.

The woman’s resistance to Henry is effective, however her slightly veiled initial interest increases day by day. After all it’s unusual to be the object of so much attention and affection. There is reason enough to be flattered.

One evening Henry writes to her that the following day he will fly to Ivory Coast, where his family has a real estate business. Silvia wishes him a pleasant journey.

For two days she hears nothing from him. Then he starts writing to her again spending time chatting online to her. He tells her that those moments are the only peaceful ones of his day. He isn’t happy in the environment around him. In fact, he doesn’t go out at night, he doesn’t mix with anyone and above all he doesn’t trust anyone because he’s in a dangerous place. The roads are lined with prostitutes, robbers, pickpockets.

One evening he tells her he’s chatted to his daughter. She’s sent him a kiss writing: “SMACK!” in large letters. Silvia is moved by this and smiles. She tells him it’s beautiful having such affectionate children.