Friendship fraude

This morning, I heard a story on the radio that set my hair on end. Unfortunately, such things happen more than you expect!

The topic was about a woman, who had send 250,000 € to an overseas account. A couple of years before, she had lost her only daughter and was overwhelmed with grief. Then she met a man, who helped her to cope with this grief (online). He told her one day, she'd get a mail with a prosperous deal. She should take this - and of course, the woman believed him. So when she got a 'proposal of business' a year or so later, she trusted this to be real and sent money. Which she lost, of course.

The internet crawls with such schemes. There are a lot of people around who only want your money. I can't tell how many mails I receive, in which 'prosperous' business deals are proposed to me, or someone tells me I've inherited a big sum from an unknown person. Who does believe that??? According to the police, many enough! Most of the time, people spend about 5,000 to 10,000 € on such schemes. And not many go to the police because they feel ashamed afterwards.

Another thing you should be careful of, is friendship requests at social networks. Especially when you are a single woman of a certain age. Then you'll get request from young(er) guys. If you accept, they'll hang up a story about how unlucky they were (in affairs, in love, whatever) and need your help. Can you please buy them an airline ticket, so they can come and visit? I never accept such requests and I certainly don't put any actual information (like my address, phone number, etc.) on Facebook, Twitter or any other site.

Best thing to do is go to the police if you suspect anything wrong. They can help you!