Falling For An Online Romance Scammer
This story is a work of fiction. Any bases on actual events or personal experiences is mere coincidence.
Cory was 28 years old and had just gotten out of a bad seven year relationship. He didn’t know how to start over and was still mourning the loss of his relationship when he met Drew.
Now Cory was just playing a game and not really looking for anything like a relationship, he was just trying to keep his mind preoccupied and not worry about any of that. But when he met Drew, that all changed. Drew seemed so sweet and nice, told Cory about how his parents had died when he was 13 and he nearly died too, about how he had served and was a police officer.
Cory didn’t expect he was being scammed, not at first anyway. He didn’t realize that Drew wasn’t even his real name. Cory just didn’t think it was that. And so him and Drew talked on for days and then a friend of Cory and Drew’s said they had found Drew’s Facebook and that Drew wasn’t his real name. Cory was of course upset by this cause he didn’t lie to Drew and tell him a fake name but he decided that it wasn’t worth getting upset over, he had fallen in love with the person, not their name. So he continued to talk to Drew, they even called each other boyfriends. Then after Cory got Drew something he really wanted Drew broke off with Cory and told him he wanted to try things with another guy and that he would give Cory another chance if that didn’t work out.
At first Cory didn’t want to do it but he really loved Drew and so decided to take him up on it, but Drew started growing distant and getting angry with Cory, even changed his number on him, but kept asking Cory to buy him stuff or telling him these thing he wanted. Cory kept doing it, just in hopes Drew would keep his word, this went on for over 5 years. People were even telling him that Drew trying to back out of his promise to date him was proof Drew was scamming Cory but Cory didn’t want to believe it. He wouldn’t let Drew out of the promise anyway and Drew knew that. Even though at this point Drew had been in multiple different relationships and still hadn’t given Cory the chance he had promised.
But Cory did find it odd that after each time he bought Drew something Cory kept trying to get out of his word. Soon people started coming to Cory talking to him about Drew, telling them what he was doing. Cory of course told Drew, cause he didn’t want involved in talking about someone behind their back. But more people just kept coming at Cory trying to warn him off.
Cory did start thinking it wasn’t mere coincidence, he wasn’t stupid, if it was one person saying it, that could be written off, two same thing, but this was three and more people saying the same thing about Drew. There was no way this could be mere coincidence. But Cory also knew that people could and do change and he hoped that was the case with Drew. But soon Drew vanished on Cory and the two hadn’t spoken in a year. Cory was left devastated and destroyed.
By the second year Cory had started putting word out about what was going on between him and Drew, and then even after Drew vanished he kept trying. People kept telling Cory to move on. But Cory knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. Cory kept asking to himself, how is this caring about others? Letting someone go around doing this to people? That just allowed Drew to continue to do things. Worst part is Drew was white and Cory was black and Cory couldn’t help feeling that white privilege was going on here. If a black man was doing what Drew was doing, they’d be all over the internet as a romance scammer, shoot even if they didn’t do it people would believe it. Some people were even telling Cory he brought it on himself by buying things for Drew.
Cory was very heartbroken by the lack of care for others and sense of morality. “How could people be so cruel to allow this?” Cory thought to himself.
Guess, he’ll never know.
