I haven't read much of this thread, and I won't. Posts are too fast and furious.
But three or four years ago when I was single, and had been for a while, I went to a dating site. Found one. Then the story began, she was really foreign, so on and so forth. I spotted a story too good to be true, so I followed along. The bottom line is the mobster that was trying to sell this young Eastern European woman had a gun to her head, but he would relinquish if I sent $4000 to her dead drop account via wire, (hyperbole, but close enough that you get the idea). They even got some "Ivana Humpalot" sounding woman to call me, (only she sounded a tad more wired, because she had a gun pointed to her head.) The story I have told just skims the surface, the emails, getting past the security police, the naked pictures, delivered to me, the whole nine yards. I am telling you, I can absolutely see someone getting sucked down that rabbit hole. I finally told her that I would call the FBI, and that pretty much ended things, funny how abruptly her demeanor shifted. I knew it was a con, but I cannot tell you how bad the sense of loss I felt was. And how much I doubt I felt for just a second!
If this helps, someone told me that Americans get bilked out of 100's of millions of dollars this way every year! Loneliness leads to suspension of belief.
I have personally heard of rumors surrounding Manti, with this original story, before the revelation today, that things were just not right; but, what the hell did I know?
Again it is like the serial killer that people were amazed about, because he seemed like such a normal guy, when they are covering up the fact that anybody should have known what was in those bags, the one way doors, "enter only", or just have noticed the smell! Guilt covering laziness is an amazing thing, I hope that everybody understands how easy it is to get sucked into a story like this. Thanks to God, that I had such a suspicious nature after my last marriage ended, but we just had a house foreclosed on around the corner, of a gentleman that put his life savings into a life's dream from the Ukraine.
