SUUR KIITOS: SYDÄN SAALIINA. Romanssihuijarit verkossa - kirja ja Uhrin ääni-mitalli maailman huijausten uhrien auttamisesta.

Voiko olla mitään hauskempaa kuin tietää, että kirjani, SYDÄN SAALIINA. Romanssihuijarit verkossa, jonka kirjoittamiseen ja levittämiseen olen antanut niin paljon omasta itsestäni on saavuttanut menestystä maailmalla. Ja vielä niin suurta menestystä, että minulla on ilo ja kunnia esitellä se uudelleen toimitettuna ja laajennettuna painoksena omassa synnyinmaassani Suomessa. Lukijakunta saa sen käteensä maaliskuussa 2018, kansainvälisenä naistenpäivänä, DOCENDON kustantamana. Voit sen jo tilata tästä.

On loistava asia kuulla myös, että suomalainen lehdistö ja TV haluavat puhua tästä vakavasta asiasta, mikä aiheuttaa niin paljon surua niille, jotka ovat omakohtaisesti kokeneet romanssi- tai muunlaisen huijauksen. Heitä on kaikkialla. Juuri pari päivää sitten, hankkiessani lentolippua Suomeen, ja kertoessani, miksi olen sinne menossa, matkatoimiston nuori virkailija, minulle lippua myydessään kertoi, että häntäkin oli kerran huijattu. Niinpä me sitten vaihdoimme huijauskokemuksia ja yhdessä mietimme miten tulisi sosiaali mediassa käyttäytyä huijauksilta välttyäkseen. Ja lopulta hän otti kirjanmerkkini ja sanoi heti tutkivansa kotisivujani saadakseen lisätietoa asiasta.

Sitten vuoden 2014 ja kirjani Love on the Line. How to Recover from Romance Scams Gracefully and without Victimisation jolloin itse jouduin romanssihuijauksen kohteeksi, olen kokenut samanlaisia keskusteluita, melkein joka päivä. Kerronhan tietysti asiasta kaikille. Keskustelen ja kuuntelen. Ja melkein aina, minulle kerrotaan joku uusi tarina kertojan tai hänen ystäviensä kohtaloista internethuijarien tai muiden huijarien parissa. Tapahtuuhan jossain maailmalla RomanceScamsNow.comin mukaan huijaus jopa joka viides sekunti. Rahaa liikkuu biljoonittain uhreita huijareille ja maasta toiseen huijareiden manipulaatioden myötä.

Internethuijauksista ja kuinka niitä voi välttää ja kuinka niiden aiheuttamasta traumasta voi selviytyä tulee puhua. Se, kuinka voi välttyä vaihtamasta huijausten tuottaman dopamiini-riippuvuuden  johonkin toiseen, esimerkiksi huijareiden jahtauksesta aiheutuvaan riippuvuuteen on myös tärkeä puheenaihe. Mitä enemmän keskustelua ja koulutusta suuri yleisö saa, sitä pienempi mahdollisuus huijareilla on saada kynsiinsä haavoittuvassa tilassa olevia ihmisiä. Huijauksen uhrit myös ovat oikeutettuja saamaan apua ilman arvostelua. 

Ilokseni huomasin juuri saaneeni kunniakirjan toiminnastani romanssihujauksen uhrien parissa the Society of Citizens Against Romance Scams (SCARS) - yhdistykseltä. Se on maailman laajin romanssihuijauksia vastustava organisaatio. Huomiointi, Uhrin ääni (Victims Voice) 2018, välityksellä saan taas lisää voimia jatkaa huijauksen vastaista toimintaani kaikkialla maailmassa.  

Kohta, siis maaliskuussa 2018, se tapahtuu Suomessa. Kuinka hauskaa onkaan ajatella, että olen pian synnyinmaassani ja voin puhua asiasta missä vaan ja joka päivä, omalla äidinkielelläni. Täältä siis tullaan Suomi! Varautukaa ottamaan vastaan kirjani ja varatukaa puhumaan huijausasiasta vakavasti ja ennakkoluulottomasti. 

Annetaan siis huijauksen uhrien äänen kaikua varoituksena ja muille esimerkkinä. DOCENDOlle nostan hattua hyvänä ykkösenä, asian eteenpäin levityksestä. Kohta siis nähdään.

Sydän saaliina. Romanssihuijarit verkossa out on the International Women's Day (8.3) in Finland

There is absolutely nothing that compares to the message I just got from my Finnish publisher Docendo. My new book SYDÄN SAALIINA. Romanssihuijarit verkossa (Heart as Pray. Romance Scammers Online) will be out on the International Women's Day in Finland. That is on Thursday the 8th of March! I am going! And it can be already preordered from here.

I am so stoked that they have chosen the International Women's Day as the publication date. I mean that it is my life's purpose to help especially women to empowerment, any way I can. And what day would be better than the International Women's Day to celebrate my new book?

This years theme for the day in Australia is: Leave No Woman Behind. It reminds us that there is much suffering in the world. So many people face disasters. Especially women are struggling all over the world and even though that we might have it fine and dandy in our everyday life, others have it much worse and need our help. And it is not only the women in the so called developing countries, it can be happening in your own neighbourhood. I base my knowledge on research on facts when I say:

Apart from being a refugee or caught by a tsunami or war or some other disaster, someone might be suffering from domestic violence, or from sexual abuse. Many are, right next door! Or, someone has been scammed by a romance scammer who discuises himself (mostly) as a good person from his targets own neighbourhood. Some victims to fraud have lost lots of money to scammers. Some others who have fallen to the fraudsters manipulations have lost no money, but have a broken heart and cannot get over the trauma. It might take years or a lifetime.

This is where you as a WOMAN can come into the picture. Leave no woman behind! Engage yoursel! Call your friends, invite them to your life from their misery. Especially if you know that they might be a victim of violence or fraud. Make sure that you are caring and understanding to their needs. No advise should be given that places you above the victims of trauma.

If you, yourself feel strong and fine, it is great. If your own emotional world is strong enough to take the heat and delite the suspisious frauster looking mail, and social media friendship offers, good on you! If you are strong enough to leave a violent situation behind, even better. It places you to a position of power and you can use this power by helping to empower other women who feel emotionally downtrodden and vulnerable. No need to clout. Instead, offer them informed advise, based on true facts and research. Read my book. It is soon available both in English and in Finnish. Just go to my Website to get more information.

As a woman, I feel strongly about building women's communities around the world. I feel strongly that there should be space for us to discuss our troubles and get encouragement to be the best we can be. And it is with other women that I have experienced the empowering presence, the caring communal feelings and the dedicated mutual efforts to make this world a little bit better place to life for all of us.

Leave No Woman Behind. Lets make a conscious resolution to be more aware and to keep on educating ourselves about the burning women's issues of the world. Lets make a conscious resolution to engage and commit ourselves to helping other women to reach our full potential.

Start preparing for the celebration! Finland, start preparing for my book. It will be explosive and hopefully it will make you think, recover, heal, engage and act for other women, so that no-one is left behind.

Learning about Fraud Recovery through Translating My Love on the Line Book to Finnish

Docendo, my Finnish publisher asked if I would be willing to translate my own book to Finnish.

‘It would be published early next year (2018)’, they said. 

I was really hesitant to do it.

‘You could work on it and improve on it’, the editor suggested. ‘Some chapters could be extended and so on. It would be a new extended edition, just for Finland’.

So, I got excited about this possibility, but was still very uncertain to begin on my own. 

‘I need a good editor’, I counted. 
‘Well, you have one, right here’, the editor said.

What a relief! Finally, I could rely on someone to brush up my spelling and grammar. If you have been corrected all your life, it truly leaves you with low self-confidence. But I am determined to help others recover from the trauma of fraud, especially romance scams, so I had to overcome my fear.

Despite that, my mind was somehow permeated with dread. How could I cope? Would it take ages and ages to fit my two language boxed side by side, in my head? I saw my dyslexia as a barrier, once again, in accomplishing the task. It seemed like an endless highway of doubts and anxieties. I was depressed – again. A low moment. Luckily, my ex-husband came to my rescue.

‘I will help you’, he said through Skype from other side of the world.

I knew his language skills were perfect. I am so grateful. And so we have been working on it for about two months now and getting better at it.

Skype is such a great working tool, I have learned. It enables you to really be in the same room with your team despite the distance of half the world. And translating something I had worked really hard on my second language to my mother’s tongue has given me a whole new perspective to my own writing. I am even getting to appreciate my own thinking patterns. Sometimes I go like WoW! Did I really write that? And there are new words I have learned, as well.

Language is such a wonderful thing. There are words that are trendy, and translations that seem to get lost between languages. Sometimes there are excitement with finding new words that have been created and learning about them give you some delighted moments in time. You can really appreciate the meaning behind the words. And your understanding had expanded a bit, once again. Besides, you can learn a lot about yourself and about the subject matter at hand. Mine is fraud, by the way.

The book I am translating is called Love on the Line. How to Recover from Romance Scams Gracefully and without Victimisation, if you haven’t read my blogs before. I have gotten a new kind of depth to my writing and I am understanding myself better now. My ex, there on the other side of the world is really supportive and without his skills and language competency I would be in trouble in remembering every expression, after living in Australia for the last twenty odd years. How great is it to remember! And how great is it to finally get an equivalent meaning to a word like empowerment. (It is voimaantuminen, by the way). I had never even really realised that before a couple of years ago, there was not a word for this expression. Now, it is used very often in many situations. Some have even commented that they are sick of it. It is such a positive word and used too often, they complain. Does it go with the more downtrodden Finnish mind set? I feel it does, and I am delighted to finally be able to freely use it.  

Other things I have learned is that now, after two years from writing my first book, I am still feeling the same. But I have evolved. My recovery has truly moved to another level. I am eagerly writing my second book Love on the Line 2. How to Empower Yourself after Recovery from Trauma. And it is coming along very well. I am so very excited about it as well. And extending some chapters for my Finnish readers feels like this book is evolving with me. Now I know much more. Now I have contacts and a whole community that is working for the same cause. I am a member of trauma and fraud prevention support groups and know other people who are there and that helps, not only me but others as well. Great development!

I am trying to keep my Website up to date with information. Sometimes it is lacking behinds some, due to my enthusiasm to get these books on the go by the deadlines I have. So, thanks for being patient with me and supportive and everything. Especially I am thanking my ex for he is a great fellow and we are having such fun doing the translation.

What I am saying is: Watch this space! More will be coming, soon.