Episode 5: My Forever Love

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Voyage. I'm Darren Marler, your
host for all Things felonious. Welcome to

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allegedly. How can someone prove their
love to you? They can say they

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love you. They can write it
in messages to you online hundreds of messages.

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They can type all the right things
to you. You can feel that

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love in your heart. But what
if that person who seems to love you

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suddenly wants a lot of your money. Emmy winning actress and Owd stars in

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the story of a woman who may
or may not be the victim of an

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increasingly popular crime, the romance scam. Listen on and decide for yourself if

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the love between these two people was
real or just digital. Wake up,

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my angel, I'm staring at your
photo on my phone. I fell asleep

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looking at it. I went to
sleep with you, and now I wake

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up with you. It is my
honor to spend forever with you. I

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can't leave without you, my queen. If you're looking for love, the

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Internet is ready to provide it.
Digital romances have become a fact of modern

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life. But like pretty much everything
on the Internet, the ease of access

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of the digital space can be positive
or negative, or maybe both at the

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same time. Hi. My name
is Susan Patton. The man who wrote

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that message to me is not my
husband. He sent me pictures of himself,

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passport photo, driver's license, even
a photo with him holding a note

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with the date. All were doctored. The face he used belonged to a

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minor celebrity from a reality show.
I fell in love with him anyway.

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Then money got involved. Let me
back up a second. I can remember

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it was a specific day when I
realized I was emotionally in trouble. It

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was a Wednesday in July of twenty
twenty seven months into the pandemic. I

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was sweating in my little art studio, sweat rolling down my face. Canvases

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all around me, some finished,
some unfinished. Suddenly I was overcome with

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darkness. That's the only way I
can think to describe it, Like a

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dark cloud. I wanted to curl
up in a corner. I was numb.

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I couldn't talk to my husband about
this sort of thing. I'm in

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my seventies. I thought something like
this, just busting out into tears should

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have been something of the past.
Now I was just honestly, really lonely.

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I was desperately lonely for me,
loneliness has always been a part of

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my life. As a four year
old child, I was left alone with

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my sister six years old a lot. My parents divorced, and our mother

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had to go to work six days
and two nights a week. The nights

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were the loneliest. We've learned to
fix our own meals, get ourselves ready

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for bed, all of those things
kids need and want a mommy or a

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daddy to help you with. We
wanted mommy to be there reading us bedtime

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stories like she did before the divorce. She wanted to too, but it

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was what it was, and she
had to work. I remember the nights,

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especially when a storm would be raging
outside. My sister and I would

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look out the windows of our apartment
and wonder if we were going to die

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that night. When you're that small, it feels real. It felt like

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the storm might just take us.
My older sister would take my hand and

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we'd get our pillows in our blankets
and we'd crawl under a table and we'd

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hold on to each other until we
fell asleep. That fear went away as

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I got older, but the loneliness
never did. When I step out of

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my art studio, I see my
husband sitting where we always sits. Day

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after a day, he says all
he needs of books, his TV and

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his wine. He's right, he
has no friends, no desire to go

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any place. He definitely isn't the
people person. Every afternoon the wine comes

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out. By night he's drunk,
and if I'm not home, he is

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even more drunk. Hey, look, don't get me wrong here. He's

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a nice guy. He's a good
husband in many ways, takes care of

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my needs shelter, food, healthcare, and he knows his drinking is a

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problem, but he doesn't want to
or maybe he can't stop. While he's

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reading or watching TV and drinking.
That dark cloud is getting bigger. I

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start to think of ways to kill
myself a lot. I knew I wouldn't

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do anything because I couldn't leave my
dog. We are constant companions. We

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go walking every morning and in the
early evenings, and that's when I see

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couples walking hand in hand. They
say hi. One evening, this couple

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sees me and tells me they're walking
to a local cafe for a glass of

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wine and to watch the sunset.
That just made the loneliness and the darkness

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worse. There's just no denying it. I long for a male companion that

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wants to walk with me in the
evenings, hold hands with me, someone

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that reaches over to give me a
sweet kiss, just to say I love

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you. And you know what else? I want sex? Yeah, I

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want sex. I want to have
hot, sweaty sex. My husband hasn't

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wanted to have sex in years.
The pandemic didn't cause all this, It

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just made it more undeniable. My
depression isn't simply a result of the pandemic.

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These problems have existed in our marriage
for years. You might ask,

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well, why didn't you leave him? Then? Money, guilt, fear,

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take your pick. So Susan did
what millions of peop will do online

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every day. She went on social
media. One afternoon, I was on

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my social media account and I see
a friend request I'm of a very handsome

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man with a foreign name. I
thought twice about it, and then I

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said to myself, Ah, what
the heck. If he becomes a problem,

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I could just block him. September
eleventh, twenty twenty, that was

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the click that changed my life.
The next eighteen months, my mystery man

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who told me his name was Alexander
Smith from Florida lavished me with romance and

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passion and injurgue and suspense and heartbreak. I thought they was happy in my

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life. But now that I know
you, I understand life can be so

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much more. You are the person
I was supposed to meet. I just

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prayed that I can be enough to
earn your life. I would do anything

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for you. Wake up, my
beauty, wake up my view. You

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can't keep your talent hidden from the
world any longer. I know you're going

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to have a wonderful day today.
I wish you all the best. I

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love you so much, baby.
I can't sleep at night thinking about you.

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I really loved my wife, but
it was nothing like the love I

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feel for you. I've never known
such love in my life. You are

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my everything. You are the breath
that keeps me alive. I can never

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live without you. Queen, my
sweetheart. We chatted NonStop all day.

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We talked on the phone. He
filled my life with hope. Our lives

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became intermingled. If I was out
chopping with my sister or my husband,

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I would go to the bathroom to
sneak a message to him. Beginning of

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October, he told me he could
hardly work because all he could think about

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was me. If I'm being honest, I was just as absorbed with him.

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Then the middle of that October,
I was watching TV and I saw

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his face. I searched online and
easily found all the pictures he'd sent me,

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supposedly of himself. I confronted him. He insisted they were pictures of

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him, and that he hadn't created
his social media page a man that worked

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for him did. I begged him
to prove that he was real, so

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he sent me pictures like hostages do
holding up a newspaper with that day's date,

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man holding a note that had the
date and had said he was real

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and I should trust him. And
he still had the face on it of

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some man who obviously is a celebrity, a reality personality, and definitely not

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him, not his name, not
his background. So I knew, obviously

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he's lying to me, but I
couldn't let him go. I knew if

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I did, I'd be alone again, and I love mysteries, intrigue,

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and all of this made me even
more curious as to who he really was.

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While all of this was going on, even though my husband was physically

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close by our worlds were becoming more
and more separate. I could feel he

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said something was happening because I was
always in my art studio or out walking.

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My husband knew not to ask questions
you don't want the answer to,

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and I kept on like that every
morning. Each morning I cry out to

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God with gratitude, May today be
your best day. Yet every day is

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better than the last. Now in
my life because you are part of it.

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If I were a poet, I
couldn't do justice to how I feel

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about you. I no longer walked
alone in the evenings with my dog.

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Alexander and I chatted almost every evening. He told me he wanted to hold

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my hand and he wanted to watch
the sunset with me. I had my

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companion. Even though I had no
idea where he real he was or who

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he really was. He would send
me loving messages in the middle of the

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night. I began to beg him
to meet me somewhere anywhere. I had

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to know who he was really.
He sent me a driver's license, a

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passport, and employee ID. Each
document had a different birth date. Each

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document was clearly altered and had the
exact same picture of the celebrity on it.

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I know part of it was the
intrigue of who he really was.

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He gave me an adventure. We
talked about so many personal things. I

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told him my deepest, darkest feelings, things about my life that I have

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rarely told anyone, including my husband. We talked about cooking. We both

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liked to cook. We talked about
his daughter. He wanted me to help

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him make his daughter a strong and
independent woman. He said he just wanted

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to be with me, to hug
me and never let anyone hurt me again.

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It was so sweet and gentle with
his word. Finally, he agreed

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we should meet. In order for
him to leave the RIEKIE was working on,

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I needed to request vacation for him. I know how this sounds.

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He gave me the name and the
email of a man that worked in the

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legal department for the company he worked
for. He said to request two weeks,

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then he would figure out where to
meet. I sent the email.

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Took a few days for the man
to respond. He said he had to

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do an inspection before releasing Alexander for
vacation. Supposedly, Alexander was the chief

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engineer of this platform. A couple
days later, I got an email back.

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The vacation was denied. There were
three machines that needed immediate repair.

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As soon as these machines were repaired, Alexander could have his two weeks.

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He called me. He said all
I had to do was send sixty five

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thousand dollars. I yelled at him. I told him it was a scam

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and he just wanted money. All
night, he kept sending me messages,

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begging me to believe how much he
loved me. Susan, I'm not the

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fool. I don't want your money. I don't want to make you said,

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All I ever want in this life
is to make you the happiest woman

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on earth. Don't you want us
to be together? I was heartbroken,

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both with this confirmation that he was
scamming me and the disappointment the loss of

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hope. As throughout the eighteen months, I just wanted to believe in him.

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I ignored his messages, but I
still couldn't let him go. I

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decided to play his game. I
told him I was applying for a loan.

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This was not true. I told
him the loan had been denied because

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I didn't make enough money. Then
I told him I could get the money

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if he co signed the loan,
or he should go online and apply for

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the loan himself. Of course,
he couldn't do either of those things.

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He just couldn't put his private information
out on the internet. That was his

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excuse. We didn't talk for separate
days, and I missed him so much.

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It was this push and pull that
continued for the next twelve months.

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I knew I had to let him
go. Sweetheart, your birthday is coming

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off. I want so badly to
be there to celebrate with you. I

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want to take you to a fancier
restaurant, drink champagne, and then go

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dancing. And when we dance,
I want to hold you so close and

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so tightly to never let you go. I can feel the warmth of our

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bodies slowly moving together across the dance
floor. Your soulmates, my love,

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my life. We can never leave
each other. I love you beyond your

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understanding. Then, on my birthday, he sent me a picture, again

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had the fake face, and again
with a letter with the date, as

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if that meant he was real.
He continued to beg me to send him

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the money. He always had very
creative reasons. I continued to tell him

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to take out a loan himself.
He continued to tell me how much he

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loved me. I was struggling so
much with a deception with my husband.

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I knew, no matter what,
he didn't deserve this, but I just

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couldn't give up my secret world,
my world with Alexander. I couldn't go

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back to just watching my husband sitting
in the same place every day and night.

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My husband had his own separate world, a world with his drinking.

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Alexander messaged me he had just found
out a payment for a job he did

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in China was cleared and ready for
the delivery. He had authorized the man

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and his company that handled things like
this to deliver the package to me.

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The job had been finished a few
years ago, but there was a contract

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dispute the delayed payment. He gave
me the name and email of another man

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to contact. I emailed that man. He responded he would arrange for immediate

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delivery upon receipt of six thousand to
pay for the delivery that was coming from

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China. He said it was so
expensive because a Chinese diplomat and a security

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guard had to be paid. Again. Obviously, I know how all this

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sounds. The packet supposedly contained two
point five million dollars. I told Alexander

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I didn't have six thousand. He
kept saying, if I loved him so

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much, why didn't I trust him
enough to send the six thousand. After

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a lot of arguing, I hate
to say it, I did it.

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I took out cash advances on several
credit cards. Each time I went to

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a bank to get more money,
I got sick. Just the thought of

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doing this truly made me physically sick. It was the deception and the fact

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I really couldn't afford to be taking
out all these cash advances. Paintings weren't

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selling. I was living on my
social security. I wanted to believe in

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him so badly promised me I could
keep thirty percent of the money to do

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whatever I wanted to do. I
was always telling him I didn't have enough

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money to handle the expenses of painting, galleries, bees, etc. He

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didn't want me to have to struggle
or worry. Ever again, I had

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to go to several bitcoin machines because
of the limits they had on each machine.

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I was learning the ins and outs
of bitcoin too. Finally, the

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six thousand was sent. The delivery
had commenced and the package would be to

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me within a week. Then guess
what. Of course, the courier had

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been detained in Austria for transporting too
much cash. Supposedly they had X rayed

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the package and could tell there was
a lot of cash in the package.

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Ultimately, he wanted twenty thousand.
Suddenly it wasn't so romantic after everything I've

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done for you. You are self
centered and materialistic. Oh you care about

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his money? If you love me, why won't just send the money.

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You'd take advantage of my love.
Farewell, Susan. Several days, maybe

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a couple of weeks went by,
when suddenly he contacted me again. It

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was as though nothing had happened.
He contacted me again, all excited.

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This time, the company he worked
for had issued COVID bonuses. He was

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supposed to receive one hundred and forty
thousand for keeping his crew safe and working

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throughout the pandemic. He told me
that a man that worked for his company,

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a mister Clancy, really wanted to
help us and to send the bonuses

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directly to me. That way I
could pay the sixty five thousand and the

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twenty thousand and keep the rest for
myself. Alexander told him I was his

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wife, but because we weren't actually
married, he couldn't send a check directly

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to me. Mister Clancy said he
would deposit Alexander's money into his personal account

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and then send me a check for
it. But to do this, he

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wanted payment for his trouble. He
wanted two thousand, eight hundred dollars sent

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to him through bitcoin. It's no
sense, I know, I refused.

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I told Alexander no more money was
going into the black hole known as bitcoin,

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we argued. Finally, I was
given the name, address and bank

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account of his dear friend in Texas. I could transfer the money from my

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account directly into her account. She
would forward it to mister Clancy. I

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hesitated again, and then finally borrowed
another two thousand, eight hundred dollars and

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made the transfer. It's easy to
think this kind of thing couldn't happen to

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you, but it happens to people
all the time. The FBI concluded romance

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scammers con Americans out of a billion
dollars in twenty twenty one. Guess what

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age bracket reported the highest losses those
aged seventy and up. Cryptocurrency fraud is

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an increasing element of these scams as
well. Reported romance scams rose eighty percent

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in twenty one according to the Federal
Trade Commission. Over the last five years,

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no other fraud category has caused higher
losses. Something else that was in

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the FTC information. Speaking of the
scammers, quote, the details they share

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about themselves will always include built in
excuses for not meeting in person. For

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example, many reportedly claimed to be
serving overseas in the military or working on

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an offshore or rig end quote.
This happens to thousands and thousands of people

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every single year. The FBI report
specified that quote. The bad actors are

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known to target women over age forty
who are widowed, divorced, elderly,

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and or disabled. End quote.
The report also noted that quote. To

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avoid meeting in person, romance scammers
often claim to live or work in other

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parts of the country or world.
The check for one hundred and forty thousand

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was to arrive on Monday, August
ninth, twenty one. Monday came and

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went. Where it goes from here. It's honestly so crazy. I don't

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even want to explain it. I
think part of the scam is to make

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things so confusing. You don't know
what to think. Apparently another dear friend,

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a mister Sheldon, now had the
money and contacted Alexander, saying that

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he had accidentally deposited the check in
an old account that he hadn't used in

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a long time, and there were
back fees and other issues that would cost

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00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:27.880
four thousand dollars to be paid before
they would release the money to him.

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That's not how banks work. I
know that Alexander begged me to send the

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four thousand. We argue again for
weeks until and I'm embarrassed to admit it,

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but it happened. I borrowed another
four thousand dollars. This other friend

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of Alexander's insisted the money be sent
as cash to a woman in Virginia.

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I gathered the cash and slipped to
mail the cash, hiding it in books

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so no one could see how much
cash was in there. Again, the

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us of the deception about what I
was doing and where I was going was

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really bothering me. I was getting
sick every time I did these crazy things.

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Next, I received a message from
Alexander saying the bank consisted. I

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opened an account at their branch for
them to release the money to me.

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It had to be a corporate account, and to open this account, I

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was to send another fifteen thousand in
cash to the same woman at the same

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address. Then they would send me
a debit card and I could take out

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as much money as I needed whenever
I needed money. It was enough,

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even in my state at the time. I knew how ridiculous this was getting.

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I told Alexander there would be no
more money for anything. I had

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been foolish enough and was now so
far in debt I could barely make the

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payments on the money I borrowed.
He refused to believe I didn't have any

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money, and how could I love
him so much and not help him.

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He would pay me back as soon
as he got back to the States.

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We fought about my refusal to send
money up until the end. Yet through

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it all he continued to tell me
how much he loved me. I was

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what kept him alive and all that
sort of thing. I knew his hands

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from the pictures he sent me holding
documents. I knew the sound of his

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00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:17.960
voice from talking on the phone,
and his heart, but I had no

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00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:22.680
idea who he really was or where
he really was. For eighteen months,

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He was my life, my love, and my anguish, my love.

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I want to give you slow,
sensual kisses every morning and every night.

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These are the kinds of words that
stole my heart. This is the kind

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of passion my heart was so thirsty
for. Yeah, they were demands for

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00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:51.079
money, six thousand this, four
thousand for that, But it was just

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00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:56.200
money. Yes, I sent the
money, but my heart needed this passion

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00:22:56.279 --> 00:23:00.000
more than it needed the money.
My heart didn't need the money to sustain

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00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:04.680
life. My heart needed to feel
a heartbeat to sustain life. I had

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00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:10.799
never felt this kind of passion and
yes, love, in so many years.

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I just didn't want it to end. I was alive again. I

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00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.880
felt sexy again. And at the
same time as I felt so close to

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him, he remained unknowable to me. I couldn't go see him in person.

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I couldn't look in his eyes.
There's something else you need to know.

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His name how he appeared on social
media. It was a foreign name,

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and from the beginning, my intuition
said he had a Russian connection.

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I'm an intuitive person. I can
feel things about people, and I was

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certain he was somehow connected to Russia. I searched online for Eastern Bloc alphabets.

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The alphabet used for his social media
page wasn't Russian. I kept researching.

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Voila, it was Ukrainian. Yeah, it was another lie, but

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00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:06.440
it only made me more curious.
Who was this man? Where was he

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00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:12.519
actually living? There had been other
indications he was Ukrainian like he loved pictures

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of me with my head covered.
He always talked about wanting a woman with

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00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:21.000
a heart of gold. He said
he could see our shoes next to each

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00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:25.920
other's in the cubby by the front
door. His colloquialisms were foreign. He

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00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:29.920
spoke English quite well, but often
didn't know the meaning of common words.

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In February of twenty twenty two,
I received a last message from Alexander.

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00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:44.119
Forgive me, please. I'm desperate
to hold you. It's not possible for

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00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:48.920
me to forget you. Nothing will
ever make me not love you. We

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00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:53.519
will be together. We won't argue
anymore. God wants us to be together.

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God is merciful. No, you
can meet too. We're meant to

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00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:03.920
be together, Susan. I will
treasure you until the day I die.

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No one has ever taken care of
me the way you do. I love

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00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:18.960
you. In February of twenty twenty
two, Russia invaded the Ukraine. I

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00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:26.839
haven't heard from Alexander since. With
all the trouble, with all the heartache,

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00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:33.160
he will always hold a place in
my heart. It's clear from Sciss's

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00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:37.880
account that there was true romantic love
here. Is it possible Alexander felt it

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00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:42.880
too? Could all of his kind
words have been just part of an elaborate

318
00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:48.000
charade or their true feelings On both
sides of this relationship, he made me

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00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:52.880
feel again. He made me want
to get up in the morning. He

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00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:57.839
also he helped my marriage. On
one occasion, my husband read a text

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00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:02.640
message sent to me that was obviously
a love note, calling me sweetheart,

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00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:07.000
the way Alexander would write to me. Since the call came through an Internet

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00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:10.359
app, there was no phone number, I just passed it off as a

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00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:14.720
call where I had no idea who
it was from. Then Alexander got drunk

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00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:18.559
and madled me a postcard. It
had a picture of him and me next

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00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:22.359
to each other and read how much
he loved me and how he wanted us

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00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:26.640
to be together for the rest of
our lives. Again, I just passed

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00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:30.960
it off as some nut. The
picture came from my public photos on social

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00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:36.000
media. I also had previously had
two stalkers on social media that my husband

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00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:40.799
was aware of, so it was
plausible. Then something I didn't expect happened.

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My husband decided to give up drinking. I feel it may have been

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related to him realizing he could be
on the verge of losing me. I've

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00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:53.640
always told him I would not spend
the last good days of my life with

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00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:59.759
a drunk. He knew in his
heart something was going on. Losing me

335
00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:04.160
was not something he wanted. Since
then, he now wants to go places

336
00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:08.119
with me. We even took a
road trip. He would never have done

337
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:12.559
that before. He helps me with
my art projects. We even went out

338
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:17.519
on a Saturday night recently. I
know he has a good heart and he

339
00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:21.720
loves me. I realize I just
have to help him understand what my needs

340
00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:27.519
are. I am back to no
romance, no passion, and walking alone

341
00:27:27.559 --> 00:27:33.359
in the evenings. I miss my
walking companion. I miss the good night

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00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:37.359
kisses, even if they were probably
sent from across the world, and the

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00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:41.119
hope that someday he would actually come
to see me. If he called me

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00:27:41.160 --> 00:27:45.759
today and wanted to meet, I
would not hesitate, but I would jump

345
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:49.039
on the first plane to go wherever
he wanted to meet. Not because I

346
00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:53.400
still love him, because I just
want to know the truth. We have

347
00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:56.759
a confession to make. Susan is
not her real name. In fact,

348
00:27:56.799 --> 00:28:00.319
the voice you've heard isn't from the
person who experience this story. The voice

349
00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:04.480
you've heard is the incredible Emmy winning
actress and doubt who we may know from

350
00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:07.920
The Handmaid's Tale, The Leftovers,
and many other TV shows and movies.

351
00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:12.000
The real Susan's husband still doesn't know
about all of this. Alexander is not

352
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:15.519
the name the man told her either, which you've heard just now are a

353
00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:21.640
real woman's written account of her experience
with an online scammer. Alexander's messages aren't

354
00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:23.480
real either. We wrote them,
but modeled them on the style he would

355
00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:26.880
write to Susan. We've reviewed the
photos she references in the story, as

356
00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:30.200
well as correspondence with this man,
dozens of pages of it, pulled from

357
00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:34.599
their conversations over social media to corroborate
most of her claims of their interactions,

358
00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:37.640
including numerous requests for money to be
sent. But the voice you heard in

359
00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:42.079
the names you've heard were invented for
this episode to maintain the real Susan's privacy.

360
00:28:42.359 --> 00:28:45.920
So in a way, I suppose
we've catfished you, our listener.

361
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:51.079
We're sorry about that, but maybe
it's a reminder of how easy it is

362
00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:53.839
to believe something is real just because
we're told it is. As for Susan,

363
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.400
she thought Alexander might have died in
the Russian invasion of the Ukraine,

364
00:28:57.559 --> 00:29:03.359
but sure enough, a few weeks
ago he messaged her again. Maybe the

365
00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:12.200
story is not over yet. Allegedly
is a production of Voyage Media. The

366
00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:17.200
series is produced by nat Mondel,
Robert Midas, and Dan Bennimore in association

367
00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:22.119
with Darren Marlar's Weird Darkness. This
episode, My Forever Love, was directed

368
00:29:22.119 --> 00:29:25.960
and produced by Dan Bennimore, written
by Susan Patton, edited by Nick Schoup,

369
00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:30.960
original music by Derlas Gonzalez. Starring
Anne Dowd as Susan and Jonathan Roggier

370
00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:36.000
as Alexander. If you're enjoying the
show, please give us a five star

371
00:29:36.039 --> 00:29:40.559
review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you're
listening, and subscribe now for future episodes.