Desperately Seeking Empowerment for the Victims of Fraud

It is the last day of the National Consumer Fraud Week in Australia (15-19.5.2017) and I am researching the concept of #empowerment for my new standalone book Love on the Line 2: How to empower yourself after surviving the trauma of fraud. (The book will be out at the beginning of 2018 through Xlibris). I have been reading the news articles about the new 2016 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report on scamming which states that there has been a 47% increase in reporting fraud in Australia. The combined report from the ACCC and the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network also states that Australians lost the whobbling $200 million to Online fraud last year, including romance scams and financial fraud. What news! And what can we say about this report that would be constructive in helping the recovery of the fraud victims, especially for the victims of romance scams.

First of all, the rise of the reporting can show us that people are becoming more aware of the scammers on the social networks. That might be positive but it can also be the same kind of hike as is seen in Scandinavia with rape reporting. It is about the environment in which we live in. In Scandinavia, the definition of rape is much more severe than in other countries, like in Russia, for example, where there is not, any more, any concept of rape in the marriage by law. In Scandinavia, there is also a more open debate on the issue of rape, which allows the victims to feel safe in reporting the crime. However, that is not the case with the scamming victims, especially those who would like to talk about it on social media.

In Australia, it seem that at least the reporting and anonymous victims are more aware and safer in their reporting of fraud. That is not to say that they feel any safer at speaking out about scamming, especially romance scams, as the victim blaming is so rampant on both the social media and amongst the everyday talk about the issue. It is in the analogy with the rape culture where the victims feel ostracised and the scammers feel virtuous. So, who is being empowered, the victims of crime or the fraudsters who, in this world, are so free to commit their discretions?

My understanding about empowerment comes from my feminist background. The whole concept is fairly new because as a young feminist we did not speak about empowerment but about emancipation. In my own language, which is Finnish, I have only heard the translation to the world in the last three years. And in the other language, Swedish, which I also speak, my understanding of the translation has not yet kicked in either. So, how can you be something, you have no real worlds for? But it does have to do with power, right? And whose is the power?

Secondly, the report shows quite clearly, that the power between the fraudsters and the victims and the international crime syndicates and the law, still seems to be on the side of the criminal, despite a lot of new information and a lot of effort from the police. And I am lucky to be a member of the most supporting groups, both Online and in my State of Queensland in Australia.

What we as victims of trauma are so desperately seeking is recovery and after that empowerment.  Because, when one has been a survivor or fraud, especially romance scams, it will never leave him/her and will make the world seem less safe. It sort of takes you out of the cocoon of being right about everything and makes you humble in the face of the enormity and the complexity of the crime and the scamming scene. What we need is more information, more compassion and more awareness.

Luckily, there are methods that will help the person suffering from the trauma. Self-help methods or Online methods, like www.romancescamsnow.com where you can find a lot of information. And in the wait of my new book, there is also my current book, Love on the Line. How to recover from romance scams gracefully and without victimisation.  And from my website you can also start gathering more information for empowerment.

My mission is not to let the fraudsters win the race to empowerment but learn to shift the power to myself and to the others who have gone through a traumatic experience like mine. It can be anything. Luckily, at the same time as the social media is presenting the fraudsters more opportunities, it is also presenting the survivors opportunities for resistance. It is the matter of acting.

Empowerment means the will to change, to shift and to start the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. So, let’s act on it, shall we!
Just look at this ACCC report to be convinced.

Love on the Line TV Conversations with Patricia Meister in 2 Parts

Welcome to a new and interesting Love on the Line TV Conversation.

This time I have the pleasure to introduce to you Patricia Meister, from Bundaberg, Australia who is a great example of a person who had a positive outlook in a dare situation. Namely, she is a victim of fraud, of a Romance Scam to be exact. Though her experience, she has suffered a substantial loss of money but that is not the most important part in this conversation. She has lost a lover, someone, who she thought was nearing what could be a soulmate, forever. It feels like death, losing someone you trusted to a scam. It is a huge betrayal.

Luckily, Patricia has taken a positive approach to her own recovery and is doing everything to get on top of her disappointment. She has done everything possible to educate herself and others: joined support groups, both face-to-face like the QLD Police Fraud Prevention Group and also many Online groups which can be found on Facebook, especially through the RomanceScamsNow.com

I was privileged to drive up to Bundaberg and have this conversation with her. She told me the story of her complex scamming experience. Afterwards, we discussed romancing, recovery strategies and possible happy endings.

You can find this Love on the Line TV Conversation in two parts from  my YouTube Channel:

Part 1 & Part 2

And if you want to also read it. Here is the transcript of our conversation. Both part 1 & 2

Please enjoy and remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel, so that you do not miss our other conversations. You can also follow me on my blog to make sure you receive every story. Also check my Website for news, like the Love on the Line South East QLD Book Tour continuing on Tuesday September the 13^th at Logan Hyberdome Library at 10 am.

Here is the script:

LOVE ON THE LINE TV CONVERSATIONS WITH PATRICIA MEISTER

E: Welcome to Love on the Line TV Conversations. This is a special conversations from up state QLD in Bundaberg. In this winter sun shine, which is a little bit on our face, actually. And, I am here talking with Patricia Meister.

I am very honored to have you talking with me and thank you and welcome Patricia.

P: Thank you. I am honored to have you speak to me as well.

E: It is so interesting how we met, isn’t it?

P: It is, indeed

E: and we met through the QLD Police Recovery Group

P: Yes, that’s where we met.

E: And it is, in my opinion, quite interesting, how sometimes when you have been scammed like this. I mean like have. We’ve been survivors of scamming. You actually make new very, very interesting friends. Don’t you?

P: It’s opened a whole new door for me, in terms of meeting new people. So, in that way, it’s been a really positive thing. There is a positive thing.

E: Yes, and there are thing that are happening. It’s online. You had bought my book before. And I was really, really intrigued when you told me this is how you met that group. And there was another person there as well who said oh, they had listened to Love on the Line TV Conversations and that’s how they found the group. So, we might as well say that this group meets every second Sunday of the month at the Qld Police Headquarters. So, if you happen to be listening to us or looking at us. Then, here are two people you find who have actually found this group through meeting and reading books.

P: Yeah

E: Well. Tell me about your story. It is quite complex and we actually counted about ten scams. So, I’ll give it to you. Tell me.

P: My story is complex. I did actually, by accident, come across my scammer online. He groomed me for probably a good four weeks before he really started to ask me for any money. In that time, he romanced me. He gave me music. He gave me poetry. He spent a lot of time priming me, if you like. And so, the first request for money was actually not a huge amount. He had supposedly entered Malaysia with a large amount of money and had his goods confiscated by emigration.

E: I see

P: Then after series of events trying to get the goods back. The first request was for living expenses because his credit card supposedly didn’t work in Malaysia. So, the first request for money was round about $600. And, even though it felt wrong to me, I went ahead and I did that transfer. And that was the first transfer I made to Malaysia. It was probably the beginning of a series of events that lead me on an incredible fantasy journey that ended up relieving me off a large sum of money, in the end.

The second request came to get the goods out of emigration and then after that money was sent, which was quite sizable sum. The next amount of money was then because the goods then went to the head man of emigration. So, there was another large amount of money required, there. Then at that time the money was supposed to be deposited back to me. However, it never happened because the bank was funny about the amount of money. So, the next step was that we would send it by diplomatic courier. So, the diplomatic courier then delivered this supposed consignment of money. It was very professional and I, I couldn’t pick that it was fake. It had its own tracking menu. It had tracking sheets that I could access. However, then the money went to the courier company which then supposedly, the money then went to the Kuala Lumbar Airport where it was held up because, we then required an exit clearance fee.

E: Oh right. And a large one.

P: That was a large one. That was around about $25000. So, after that amount of money was paid, I was then told that to make it completely safe to come back here, we would then require a Diplomatic Red Stamp. So that was another amount of money, of course.

And, all the while now, I was starting to be very concerned about this consignment in that he had sent me an application form from Malaysian internal affairs that he had filled out with the address listed as the address of my business. And by that time I was so far in that it was very hard to get out because in my mind I had a consignment of money siting at Kuala Lumbar Airport that was listing me as a recipient. However, there was no consignment as we found out in the end.

But, it then sort of led into a Red Stamp situation where that was more money. So, then, finally, the money was acquired to get this Red Stamp and the consignment supposedly was on its way to Australia. And then I had a tracking sheet telling me that the consignment was in New Zealand and then there was another tacking sheet to tell me it was now at the Melbourne Airport.

At the same time, I got a SMS message from supposed diplomat with an Australian phone number, telling me that the consignment had now been held up at the Melbourne Airport and required an entry clearance fee of another $25000. So, at this stage, I guess, I was still believing that this was a reality, though I was starting to think: ‘OMG, so many stories. How can there be so many dramas?’ And you know, money was getting harder to get, by this stage.

E: And what was the thing that tipped it over?

P: The tipping it over in terms of me realising that I’d been scammed?

E: Yes

P: Well. I got the entry clearance money together. That week my scammer was supposed to be coming back here. We were also supposed to be doing Skype that week. And he was supposed to be picking up the entry clearance money from the bank that morning, to deliver it to the courier company and book his flights. End of story.

E: Yeah?

P: Well, of course that never happened. And I got a phone call at work, on that Monday afternoon and I had a rather, shall we say, unpleasant…  He was an Asian man. And, he then said to me that my scammer had been involved in a very serious car accident with his lawyer.

E: Oh

P: Of course, the lawyer was the main player in this scam all the time. The lawyer was the one that he dealt with emigration. The lawyer was the one, whose bank account I was supposed to be paying into. At the end it did appear that the lawyer was a Malaysian woman who worked with telecommunications. And, that was what I found, when I Googled that name which was a very unusual name.

Anyway, he was supposed to be in a critical condition. And all the while I was then getting emails from a so called Wellness Clinic. And being that I have a background in Medical Science, I started to sort of think to myself that if you are in a critical car accident, you are going to be in intensive care in a major hospital in Kuala Lumbar and I would not be getting an email from a wellness medical clinic with an Outlook email address. So, my son actually alerted me. He said: ‘Mom, there is no Wellness Medical Clinic in Kuala Lumbar.’ And he directed me to an embassy sight: US Embassy in Malaysia. And so, I went there and had a look and OMG, there was my story.

E: Ooh

P: You know. Almost. It was business man working overseas. He was a widowe. Scammers have incredibly bad luck.

E: I just wanted to ask you what really tipped you over. We counted now about nine different kinds of scams, which were one after the other, which your scammer, you know, tried on you and actually was quite successful. So, what was the tenth one that actually tipped it over?

P: It was the car accident. It was just one too many stories and I had read about people getting scammed because of accidents occurring and because of medical reasons. So, that really rang a bell for me. I wasn’t so savvy about the courier company and consignment and the confiscation of goods by emigration. I really was unaware of those kinds of scams but I had heard about the medical. And I used to keep thinking to myself, ‘well I haven’t had medical issue yet. So, when that happened, it just rang a huge bell with me. At that moment when I got that phone call from the Wellness Clinic, so called, I thought: ‘well, he is going to be in the major hospital, anyway. I would have a doctor phoning me.’

E: yeah

P: I wouldn’t have some incognito person giving me a ring. And, at that moment, I just kind of. I think, my heart just dropped to my shoes and I just though ‘OMG, I’ve been scammed’.

E: Yeah and by the time you counted the money, you had nearly lost a six figure sum, already.

P: Yes

E: So, it is quite a wakeup call. Is it?

P: It was a wakeup call. It was like. Actually, for the day. I couldn’t even finish my day at work. I was just OMG, you know.

E: Hmm. You also said you confronted your scammer?

P: Yeah, I did.

After the accident. You know the scam didn’t end there, because then they did try and hit me up for medical expenses. And by that time, wow, I was just out of money. So, then whilst he was supposedly in hospital, I then got hit up by the courier company for another $25000 for the entry fee which I refused to pay. They had then threatened they were going to hand the consignment into the Australian authorities.

And, I end up getting legal advice on that actually. My lawyer told me that I’d been scammed and there was no consignment, so ‘don’t pay any more money’.

E: Yeah, it’s quite interesting how long time. it went on for a quite a long time, six months you say?

P: Yeah, six to eight months

PART 2

E: Now, what I am very interested of course is the romancing. You said before that you liked my book because it was positive and I remember that because my son told me that, you know, ‘block him out, do all that, but remember the romancing’ and it was such a wonderful high. And I’ve heard you talking about it, too. And I think that we have there the common link that how on earth, you know, it is possible for a scammer to just crab your brain so much. So, what were your feelings about that?

P: I think that he groomed me very well. He found out as much as he could about me. I was at the time of my life where I was probably missing something in my life. And I was working very long hours. So, I didn’t really get out and about and socialise a lot. And, I’d never really gone online for anything like that and so. It sort of happened by accident in my life, really. It had its positives and negatives and I think that the thing I will say is that he was very polished. He was very educated man. He was incredible good with his grooming and his romancing. And he, I guess they tell you what you want to hear.

E: It hit every nerve?

P: It did and as you have said it in your book that it releases endorphins in your brain and they are basically the feel good hormones. And I think, for couple of months, until the money issue became a big issue for me. For the first few months of the scam, it became almost like an addiction.

E: Yes

P: His words of love. The beautiful music he would send, the poetry he would send. He really awakened a side of my personality that I had thought had died.

E: Yeah, I think that there is quite a lot of women who feel the same. This is what I would also say, that it woke up me into this world and I suddenly realised how strong this kind of thing is when you are getting your hormones and you are getting this high. And it is very much like a romance books. When you now read what he said, do you think that it is very much like from a romance book you read before?

P: Oh yes. When I do read back over it, I sometimes think: ‘OMG. How on earth did you ever get to the point that you did with this, because?’ But then when I read back over it and I think, well, he just made me feel like I was the most precious thing, ever.

E: Yes, I read some of the text messages what you got and I must say that, you know, they are very nice and very polished. And I would, even as, like an outsider, when I would read, I would like: ‘oooh, aah’. ‘That’s what he said to you’. That is true. I also had some of the very similar, like you know: ‘I never find anyone like you. You are the best and I love you so much’. And this was like you know, again and again and again in the text messages. And you had lots of emails. Oh no, no, they were not emails, they were on Facebook

P: I had and incredible amount of time put out for me. I wasn’t and easy snare, to be honest. I questioned everything. All the time. And he would come back with this incredible romancing and of course. When the money was there, the romancing would just become more and more intense.

E: Of course

P: There would be more music sent and more poetry sent and more dialog. And sometimes he would then want to be online with me, you know, not just once a day but twice a day.

E: Yes, to make sure that everything went well. Did you have some mess ups with sending things, like I did?

P: Initially, the bank security phoned me and more or less asked me how I had met this man, because it was out of character with my banking history, to be sending money overseas. And, they actually did say to me that they were problems with sending money to Malaysia and that they actually thought that I was being scammed. And I chose to ignore their warnings.

And the interesting thing was that right through the middle of it all, where the amounts were much higher that I was sending. They didn’t really question those. But they questioned the very first transfer and the last one. And they phoned me twice over the last one and said: ‘are you definitely sure you want to send this money and I said: ‘yes’. And, you know, even at that time, I was kind of starting to feel that things weren’t right.   

E: Yes, I understand completely. But then he has tried to come back again. A few times and more romancing.

P: The downpour of romance, and songs and the poetry was intensified on the second round. And, it was, I guess, because I haven’t taken a bait this time.

I hadn’t heard of him. He just fell off the side of the cliff, if you like and I was just left dangling there without the ledge to stand on. The phone number I’d been using in Malaysia was no longer working. The contact through Facebook stopped and virtually I did send him an email, at that stage, telling him that I knew he scammed me. And, I knew it didn’t bunch because it didn’t come back. So, I pretty much just sort of thought: ‘Well, I made a mistake. I financially almost kind of ruined myself’. Though I did keep my head to a degree with that and I didn’t let him take everything from me.

E: Yes.

P: But, he took enough to put me in dire straits for a short period of time. And I was lucky because I did have support systems around me that sort of helped me to get through that time, because it was a pretty devastating time for me. And, all of a sudden, it was like a withdrawal from all, because he just disappeared.

E: Yes, and then he comes back and asked for more.

P: The first real contact that I had back with him was about four weeks later. And I had a message sent to me: ‘Hello honey. It’s not what you think.’

So, then he followed through with that story. He always built a story out of a story. And he was so good at doing that. The next story was that he had been contacted by the FBI that I was quite correct in assuming that the courier company was fake and crooked. That the FBI had confiscated the consignment.

E: This was, like, also in the end, there was an identity theft with the FBI. That’s right? They wanted to have your IDs and even your passport?

P: Yes

E: How about recovery, then? What kind of recovery strategy you have now? Because, now, you are now at the stage where you know it is a scam but you are still a little bit into it. He is trying to get back to you and trying to involve your brain and your emotions into it. So, what know of recovery strategy are you thinking to do now?

P: Well, I have had to learn that I have to completely block everything, to do with him. So that I will then not have any contact whatsoever. Or he cannot contact me. And once I’ve actually achieved that goal, then, I will be able to move forwards a lot better, I Think, in my life. I’ve been very lucky with my recovery because I do have a business and my work that I really enjoy doing. And I do get to talk to people all the time, every day. So, I do have social contact there. And, I also have a number of different projects that I’d like to pursue.

E: I know that for me, writing my book distanced myself from the scammer and I had something else to think about and then, in that way I sort of lost the contact. And even the will to in any way be interested in him. And you have lots of lovely things happening.

P: Yes, and I think that the will to be interested does go at the time when you discover that you’ve been scammed, because it is such a huge betrayal of the trust. But on the other hand, as we talked about before, it is a type of addiction that you have. And so, you really need to fill that void.

E: That’s right. And you do have background in this.

P: You need to fill that with something different in your life. And for me, it’s opened up a whole lot of new direction for me that I could follow. And that’s been a really positive thing for me as well. So, I have managed to put together a tribute in the art gallery here for my mother’s talents as a dress designer in the 1940s and that’s something that I have wanted to do since she in 1999. So, that did occupy a lot of my time

E: Yes, and lots of possibilities there, too. I’ve seen the designs and they are fabulous.

P: There’s a lots of opportunities there to market these things in very productive fashion. And then, of course, I would really like to write a book on the experience but it is going to take some time. And I need to be a little bit distanced from it to really I think write it in a way that really is going to be appropriate.

E: Yes, you can join in our conversation in Happy Ending on how to rewrite your story which we are going to start here and have even eCourses and stuff like that, which are like according to what I had. What was my strategy in my book. You are very welcome to be part of that.

P: Yeah. I do find that it’s a bit raw now still. To go back and read over the dialog and think: ‘OMG and think: how did you ever? What were you thinking?’

E: What were you thinking? What did you have in mind? How did you imagined your happy ending would be?

P: My happy ending was. I guess. I’d had found this most wonderful man, who was going to be my soulmate forever and that we walk off into the sunset together.

E: Yeah, like today.

P: Which, of course, is not reality based. Real life is not full of romancing and fantasy journeys, is it?

E: No, it’s not a romance book. I think that romance books are a real exaggeration but they do get your brain and they get your endorphins going. So, at least some of that should be. We should be able to have right in our lives, I recon. Yeah, so, hopefully, we’ll find the new somebody who would be.

P: Yeah.  Hopefully, you never know what’s round the corner. And, I guess, maybe there is, sort of, you know, someone out there, that I’ve yet to find.

E: Well, thank you very much for coming and thank you very much for talking to me.

P: Yeah. Thank You.

E: (to the audience) You’ve been watching the Love on the Line TV Conversations special edition with Elina Juusola and Patricia Meister. And this is in Bundaberg. Please subscribe so that you won’t miss any other of our conversation. And have a wonderful week. Thank you so much for listening and watching.

Both: Thank You J

Special Report on the TAINTED LOVE. Exploring the Reality of Romance Fraud. Symposium in Brisbane 31/05/2016

Delia Richard, Sharon Armstrong, Dr Cassandra Cross, Davis Hillyard and Prof Reece Walters
This report here is the written out version of my  LOVE ON THE LINE TV CONVERSATIONS, SPECIAL REPORT on the TAINTED LOVE Exploring the Reality of Romance Fraud SYMPOSIUM.

The YouTube Love on the Line TV Conversations Report

Here is the script:

I am really pleased to welcome you to the Love on the Line TV Conversations SPECIAL REPORT on a very exciting event. Namely, the ‘Tainted Love’. Exploring the reality of romance fraud. A Symposium that was held in Brisbane last week. (31/05/2016)

The Symposium was organized by Dr Cassandra Cross and hosted by the Crime and Justice Research Centre at QUT.

I was privileged to be in attendance and display my book Love on the Line at the symposium, of which I am really grateful for. Because, we need more of the stories of the victims of romance fraud to be shared amongst the public.

What I am showing you here are the highlights of the Symposium as I experienced them. It is my take on the issue of romance scams. Especially about the prevention and support of the victims to enhance their or our recovery as I myself am one of the survivors.

If later my report inspires you to listen or see some of the whole speeches given at the symposium, the link to the recordings will appear below when it comes available. But you can check the QUT Crime and Justice Research Centre’s Website through the link.

I should warn you, though,  that this report does not give you all the details of Ms Sharon Armstrong’s plight when she was scammed to becoming a drug mule through a romance scam and arrested in Argentina and imprisoned there for two and half years. You can read all about it by clicking the links provided.

What I heard and am reporting here is how I relate to her personal survival and recovery story from the incident which started several years ago and has impacted her whole life and will impact just about every decision she makes from here on. I am very pleased to have recorded a separate Love on the Line TV conversation with her. So, stay tuned and subscribe so that you will not miss is for it is in the making.

It is warming to my heart to witness such compassion in an event of this kind and willingness to practical action in order to resolve issues around romance fraud although we know how ineffective our work sometimes is as there are more and more scammers appearing. But what is the most important issue that is being touched here at the symposium and can be changed is the way the victim survival and recovery is handled.

Sharon Armstrong’s story has touched me deeply. We met the first time last year when she was invited to speak at our QLD Police Headhunters for the Fraud Prevention Support group. This group meets every second Sunday on the month. Then, I blogged about her. Just click the link to read it.

Sharon’s story has similar kind of elements to mine. She fell fast and hard, just like me. She is a person who has had previous experience about similar situations which could have applied to her scamming circumstance if she would have known to see the connections. Just like me she did not.

His first message to me had me hooked, like I never been before.
To cut a very long and sordid story short, I fell hard and fast.

I should have recognised the grooming that was accruing. I mean in a previous life, I had worked within corrections and I had had many of encounter with sex offenders and opportunities to study their technique. But no, I had my rose coloured classes on.

With the benefit of hindsight, I now believe, the scammers respond to your insecurities, your desires and your kindness. They look for those who are trusting, compassionate, and looking either consciously or subconsciously or unconsciously for someone, or something to fulfill, what you feel will enrich your life in some way.

The fraudsters are clever and can change their technique as quickly as the need occurs, because when Sharon at first was anxious about the situation and just about nearly told the scammer that the situation with him and her was ‘too good to be true’. He told her that it was not about the money.

He tells me I would be his PA. Really, his fiancée, he says. How funny is that? I think now. Me, who has never held any intention of ever marrying again was being excited by the thought of this man wanting to marry me.

Sharon’s story is very moving. To me, it is very incredible that a woman of this caliber would be able to be scammed and framed like she had been. But thinking of how I too fell and was duped although my experience was just a brief encounter compared to hers, I now understand better the depth of the betrayal, she went through. She did all the right things, checked all the right sources, including the man’s said company, although she did not know then that later it was taken off the Internet. Luckily her family was her backbone, though.

I remember promising them that I would cope and I would get through this, regardless of the consequences.

I went through feeling of huge shame. The knowledge that my family was suffering and that I should have known better was overwhelming. Most days, I kept torturing myself as to why I hadn’t seen all the signs that now seemed so obvious. Finally, I reached the point where I knew that these thoughts were not healthy. I didn’t want to feel like a victim - anymore. I came to realise that I would survive this and come out with new knowledge and understanding of how these things happened.

So, how did I achieve this?

Family, friends, strangers support and unconditional belief in me, prayer, humour, positive thoughts, remaining focused, routine, working within the prison and knowing ther is always someone else facing tougher challenges.

Listening to Sharon made me deeply grateful to know that there are people who have taken up the fight for the survivors of romance scams.

The next speaker was Dr Casandra Cross herself. I have been impressed by her research, both previous and the new one.

Dr Cassandra Cross:

Just to give you context. I’ve been researching in this area for just over eight years now. In the previous life, I actually worked for the QLD Police service and that was where I was introduced to the problem of fraud. And that is when I started to talking to people like Sharon, who were brave enough to share their stories.

When we think about romance fraud; what exactly is it? I know I’ve had lots of questions, I guess from a lot of media, I’ve done. How is romance fraud different to just a bad relationship? And, I think they are both bad relationships. I think many people would agree with that.

So, the victim is defraud through the guise of a legitimate relationship and I think this is what’s problematic, because as we heard Sharon say. She was in that relationship and while she was questioning, she was blinded. I guess, had the blinkers on about the person and how she felt about him and how she thought he felt about her.

So, there is research on this that the Internet facilitates a more intense relationship. That people ate more open on the Internet. And can develop what is perceived to be a more intimate and intense relationship online than face to face. And the main finding to come out of this is the double headed victimisation. 

I can certainly say from the victims that I have spoken in this current research that it’s the loss of the relationship that is actually , I think harder to take, sometimes, than the loss of the money. Because that is what has the significant impact on them.

Dr Cassandra Cross stressed again and again that the impact of romance fraud is far greater than just the money. The feeling of shame and the blaming the victim looks to be one of the main problems of the victims not coming forwards and sharing their stories. The new research Cassandra is taking on will be explaining romance fraud from the framework of domestic violence. That is certainly my understanding and experience that there is a direct link there to be found. So, I am especially excited about the coming research and am looking forwards to having a Love on the Line TV conversation as well.

The two Government Officials who were in attendance and speaking at the symposium were very compassionate people and I was so happy to meet them.

Delia Richard spoke of all the interesting action the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking. She said that the romance fraud is a number one priority with the Scamwatch.

She also addressed the misconception about who and which gender was more targeted by the scammers. According to her the ACCC statistics show that it is about 50/50 but that men lose a bit more money. Delia praised Cassandra’s new research as very important because it will connect the romance fraud with the domestic violence and many victims ‘not so uncommon’ past relationship experience with violence in the family they grew up with. It can easily predispose the victims accommodating behavior as the keepers of peace in their relationships.

Lastly, David Hillyard who talked about the very successful Project Sunbird in Western Australia. I had previously heard a lot about this project and was very excited to hear what he said.

Part of this was touched by Sharon. It’s about that perfect business model and that perfect business model about low inputs but big outtakes. One of the other essential elements of this criminal behavior is that you can confuse the authorities both in one country or one state, or across the world. And this sort of scam is that perfect model. It falls between the cracks everywhere.

I said before, the earlier we intervene, the less losses people sustain but we are not stopping it. Programs that are out there that the scammers are operating, the criminal groups that are operating out there are recruiting as fast as we stop it.

So, I guess our last message is: They are still coming. And they don’t stop coming.

David finished with: “It’s a strange old world we are working with.” And I am certain he knows and has great experience in working with those people who need convincing about the fraudsters being what they are. Luckily he also said that by sending letters to people that have been sending money offshore, progress is being made. So we ended up with a hopeful note on all accounts.

I certainly learned a huge amount about romance fraud and I am able to go forwards to work on my own small way to raise the awareness about romance scams around the place.

I very much thank the speakers and you all for watching and listening. This will all be in my blog and on YouTube so keep subscribing. There is more to come with the Love on the Live TV Conversations. Next it will be that conversation with Sharon Armstrong I promised before, so stay tuned.

Have a very good day for now and keep fighting and #standup2scams as Sharon has put it.

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@ejuusola @standup2scams @CrimeJusticeQUT @DrCassCross @Scamwatch_gov @ConsumerWA

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What PornHarmsKids Symposium Thought Me about Pornography and Harm in the New Millennium

It has been 21-years since I attended a conference on Human Trafficking, Prostitution or Pornography. I quit for a while because after 15-years of researching these topics, traveling the world and talking about it, I had become disillusioned about the world. I actually related to just about anything through my research on pornography. I saw the patterns of power-over and subjugation everywhere.

Now, I realise that it is because our memory is built through patterns and anything outside these patterns we notice and remember. For me, there was nothing outside the patterns of violence I detected around me. My brain had been collecting material since a very young age and at that time I could relate everything, including children's play and dolls through the dichotomy of power over and subjugation that can be found at the heart of the idea of the pornographic message. I felt I had to get out and save myself from too much harm. Luckily, moving to Australia was the solution and a new career in age care and community building was the salvation. But how long can it last before the universe provides new impetus for thought for someone who is trying to ignore it the best she could? Not long. Somewhere in my subconsiousness, I did keep up with the issues and the connections kept adding up. Then I found myself a target of a romance scam and wham, the world made sense again. 

My book Love on the Line. How to Recover from Romance Scams Gracefully and without Victimisation is a result of that shock of becoming a victim of a scam. Through it I explain the bigger picture that I see through the patterns built in my brain about power over and subjugation through pornography, romance book reading and scamming. Now I am detecting scams in everything, especially in how we relate to each other as human beings. I am already in the process of writing a sequel. But before it my mission was to update my knowledge about pornography and harm it brings to us in the new Millenium.

Luckily, I saw the online add for the PornHarmsKids Symposium. It was held at the University of NSW on the 9th of February. I got my plane ticket and donated in my fee as advised and all and all, I was a little late but got there anyway. And this is what I learned on one day listening to very professional speakers and discussing the topics with other concerned attendees:

Unfortunately, I learned that nothing much has changed in 20-years I have not been active in this field. Or maybe everything has changed, depending on your view of things. I now, hold a personal 35-year historian view based on my own research about how the message of pornography harms human beings; women, men and children; those that are vulnerable and being used as pawns to earn money for those others with callous minds or otherwise disruptive behavior thought patterns about the matter of power-over and subjugation. I'll be frank. 

The most profound change is visibility. Or maybe not! Remember the billboards? We drive past them with the family everywhere. Well, during the 1980's porn was plastered directly on them. It's message was interfering with our lives most anywhere, I remember those sexualised women sitting on some fancy cars on billboard and I remember having to explain all of it to my son and my daughter. Even porn magazines were advertised along with alcohol and tobacco. We fought them down in Europe, USA and Scandinavia and the world followed through. The argument was: porn is everywhere. And it was. Unfortunately, just as the solutions for those times were put in place, Internet appeared and the visibility shifted to homes and anywhere with access to it. The message remained unchanged. Though, now we could view it from the comfort of our own space and more of us could find and watch porn without interruptions.

The other profound difference has come through brain research, actually. For now we KNOW, what we only had an inkling about during the 1980's. Our brain is affected by what we see. It builds patterns and our actions follow through, if we let them. And, now we also know that it take around 25-years to grow a fully functioning frontal cortex with the ability to rationalise. So, we know that young brains are affected and harmed the most by what they pick up along the growing process. PornHarmsKids Symposium was all about how to tackle that huge problem we are faced with by free access to online pornography. There are some alarming sign detected about our behaviour as human adults and kids in relation to how we see the world and act on impulses of the ideas that are presented to us. This can be really bad news for women and girls as our lives are heavily affected through vulnerability and conditioning. I am not saying that the men and boys are not affected. They are but the power-over and subjucation clause of pornography clearly points to the victim as female. It is hard to detect, I know. 

In fact, one of the speakers at PornHarmsKids Symposium, Dr Tucci, actually theorised that the different way the boys and the girls react to pornography points to inequality. He said that he could not understand what it was in that in boys, porn trickers their arousal response, while this does not happen in girls. Conditioning perhaps, he suggested. Well, I know! After all we live in a patriarchy and the messages in porn are molded to mirror the power-over and subjugation clauses inbuilt in the very structures of our society. Not a very hard thing to draw a conclusion from there. 

For me the rest of the symposium was about finding what practical advice, each and every speaker could give in order to best tackle the problems at hand. Three big ones come to mind:

Melinda Thankard Reist forwarded the messages that young girls want to say to boys about relationships:

And the @Cypercop1 Susan McLean gave advice to parents who are struggling to cope with the ever expanding world of pornography and how to explain and guide their children to avoid abuse and hate.

And lastly, Collett Smart gave us the 10 Body Safety Rules that can help a child to recognise where the boundaries lie:

There is an excellent PornHarmsKids website to go to for more information. From there you can get the videos and the articles that keep coming about the symposium and about the issue. I am really pleased that I went. Meeting all these brave and courageous people has given me hope. Also look up the Twitter handles @PornHarmsKids and @CollectiveShout. I know that young people themselves are very concerned and they will come up with some solutions of their own, once they are educated about this issue in an open and nonjudgmental atmosphere. 

Until that time, it is our responsibility to keep working at it. It is our responsibility to insert hope, recovery and happy endings positivity to the world. Hopefully you'll follow along and take action for the betterment of the situation and the world. Every era needs their own solutions. Let's find the ones that work now in the new Millennium.