Healing and Growth After Fraud

First writing about her story nearly six months ago, she was scammed by three different scammers at the same time, one of whom continued to contact her after being scammed, leaving emotional messages on many different numbers after being blocked multiple times, and things got even more tragic with voice messages. Here, she describes how she has since dealt with her experience and offers perspective and advice for others on how to recover from their own difficult experiences.

It’s been a few months since the scam. I still ask myself how I let it happen. To be honest, I was in a weak position last year because of some personal losses. It was nice to have someone come into my life and show me so much care and attention. Of course, once I found out it was all a scam, I immediately forced myself to cut all emotional ties. The first few weeks were terrible - the person who had been actively involved in my life for the past two months was gone. It would have been better if they didn’t exist, but I really believe that things happen for a reason. Whether it’s good or bad, there are always lessons to be learned.

Losing money is still painful; however, I count my blessings every day that I was fortunate enough to stop the losses before they became worse. As strange as it sounds, I should give credit to the scammers for not having them. 2 and 3 - Despite being scammers themselves, they were the ones who broke the news for me. I was grateful that they were kind enough to leave me alone afterwards. Scammers'''' greed can be ruthless - scammers are not. 1 kept contacting me afterwards to deny that he was a scammer and that his fake platform was legitimate. He said that in order to rebuild our trust, he would help me get my money back, but we both knew that would not happen. Once you transfer your money to a fake platform, it''''s gone. They would never give my money back, except for the initial small withdrawal they allow you to make to convince you that the platform is real. I played along and told him to "confess" (I already knew the truth but wanted to see what BS he was going to feed me) because these scammers only know how to talk to their victims using s and that''''s all they can say. A bunch of fluff was exchanged a few more times and I blocked him again.

Fact: These fake exchanges usually disappear after a few months because the scammers operate under a different name. HKYY no longer exists and now operates as HKICTC.

Also, if you can''''t download it from the app store, it''''s most ly not legitimate.
As a wrap up, I found the guy whose photos the scammers stole, and he was actually a victim of the SZP scam as well, because his photos (and many others) had been stolen and used endlessly in these scams. I learned that he was young, looked immature, working class me (aka didn’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto accounts), and lived on a different continent — nothing the “perfect soul mate” profile I was led to believe. I know many victims blame these photo owners and even think they are the scammers themselves, but that’s not the case. Photos are usually stolen or bought — these scammers have endless folders of photos to share — and the only thing they usually refuse to do is have a live video chat with you; however, I learned that with certain apps nowadays, they can even manipulate how they want to look!

On the bright side, I made a friend: I got to know another victim from the same scam platform. When we first met, she had just realised she was a victim of SZP’s scam but was still in denial about who the scammer was. I couldn’t let her continue living this lie and really wanted to help her break free – I supported her and reminded her every day that none of this was real but she needed to let it go on her own. Her scammer eventually cut her off – but at least it was over. We still talk every day and are glad to have each other to share our experiences.

As an important part of recovery, I continue to focus on helping others in any way I can. I know some people have suffered significant losses and everything seems hopeless and impossible.

Money is important but your life comes first and your family and friends do care about you. If you feel you can''''t face this on your own, consider contacting them.
If that''''s not an option, contact an anonymous support group. Also, stop blaming yourself - humans have feelings, and these scams are designed to play on emotions. Without feelings and emotions, this scam wouldn''''t work.

What I really want to emphasize from reading testimonials from many other victims is - trust your instincts. Those red flags? Look into them. If they don''''t make sense, do a Google search. There were many times during the scam when I questioned the legitimacy of the whole thing, but my emotions blinded me. I still blame myself for not doing my due diligence, but I can''''t change the past. I don''''t lie, and if my other two scammers hadn''''t warned me, I wouldn''''t have gotten over it then, and I would have suffered a lot more. I didn''''t know what the SZP scam was until this happened to me. The scam will always be there and continue to grow, so the best thing we can do is keep educating ourselves. Learn how to protect yourself. Read the news. Update yourself - take care of yourself.
I hope my can provide you with some comfort, and something to relate to. At any time, please contact the volunteers on GAFA - speaking up really helps. What I really want to emphasize from reading many other victims'''' testimonials is - trust your instincts. Those red flags? Investigate them. If it doesn''''t make sense, do a Google search. I doubted the legitimacy of the whole thing many times during the scam, but my emotions blinded me. I still blame myself for not doing my due diligence, but I can''''t change the past. I wouldn''''t have lied, and if my other two scammers hadn''''t warned me, I wouldn''''t have gotten rid of it at the time, and I would have suffered even more. I didn''''t know what the SZP scam was until this happened to me. The scam will always exist and continue to grow, so the best thing we can do is to keep educating ourselves. Learn how to protect yourself. Read the news. Update yourself - take care of yourself.
I hope my s can provide you with some comfort, and something to relate to. At any time, please reach out to the volunteers on GAFA - speaking up really helps.