Episode 5: My Forever Love

0:01 Voyage. I'm Darren Marler, your host for all Things felonious. Welcome to allegedly. How can someone prove their love to you? They can say they love you. They can write it in messages to you online hundreds of messages. They can type all the right things to you. You can feel that love in your heart. But what if that person who seems to love you suddenly wants a lot of your money. Emmy winning actress and Owd stars in the story of a woman who may or may not be the victim of an increasingly popular crime, the romance scam. Listen on and decide for yourself if the love between these two people was real or just digital. Wake up, my angel, I'm staring at your photo on my phone. I fell asleep looking at it. I went to sleep with you, and now I wake up with you. It is my honor to spend forever with you. I can't leave without you, my queen. If you're looking for love, the Internet is ready to provide it. Digital romances have become a fact of modern life. But like pretty much everything on the Internet, the ease of access of the digital space can be positive or negative, or maybe both at the same time. Hi. My name is Susan Patton. The man who wrote that message to me is not my husband. He sent me pictures of himself,

1:36 passport photo, driver's license, even a photo with him holding a note with the date. All were doctored. The face he used belonged to a minor celebrity from a reality show. I fell in love with him anyway. Then money got involved. Let me back up a second. I can remember it was a specific day when I realized I was emotionally in trouble. It was a Wednesday in July of twenty twenty seven months into the pandemic. I was sweating in my little art studio, sweat rolling down my face. Canvases all around me, some finished, some unfinished. Suddenly I was overcome with darkness. That's the only way I can think to describe it, Like a dark cloud. I wanted to curl up in a corner. I was numb.

2:28 I couldn't talk to my husband about this sort of thing. I'm in my seventies. I thought something like this, just busting out into tears should have been something of the past. Now I was just honestly, really lonely. I was desperately lonely for me, loneliness has always been a part of my life. As a four year old child, I was left alone with my sister six years old a lot. My parents divorced, and our mother had to go to work six days and two nights a week. The nights were the loneliest. We've learned to fix our own meals, get ourselves ready for bed, all of those things kids need and want a mommy or a daddy to help you with. We wanted mommy to be there reading us bedtime stories like she did before the divorce. She wanted to too, but it was what it was, and she had to work. I remember the nights, especially when a storm would be raging outside. My sister and I would look out the windows of our apartment and wonder if we were going to die that night. When you're that small, it feels real. It felt like the storm might just take us. My older sister would take my hand and we'd get our pillows in our blankets and we'd crawl under a table and we'd hold on to each other until we fell asleep. That fear went away as I got older, but the loneliness never did. When I step out of my art studio, I see my husband sitting where we always sits. Day after a day, he says all he needs of books, his TV and

4:00 his wine. He's right, he has no friends, no desire to go any place. He definitely isn't the people person. Every afternoon the wine comes out. By night he's drunk, and if I'm not home, he is even more drunk. Hey, look, don't get me wrong here. He's a nice guy. He's a good husband in many ways, takes care of my needs shelter, food, healthcare, and he knows his drinking is a problem, but he doesn't want to or maybe he can't stop. While he's reading or watching TV and drinking. That dark cloud is getting bigger. I start to think of ways to kill myself a lot. I knew I wouldn't do anything because I couldn't leave my dog. We are constant companions. We go walking every morning and in the early evenings, and that's when I see couples walking hand in hand. They say hi. One evening, this couple sees me and tells me they're walking to a local cafe for a glass of wine and to watch the sunset. That just made the loneliness and the darkness worse. There's just no denying it. I long for a male companion that wants to walk with me in the evenings, hold hands with me, someone that reaches over to give me a sweet kiss, just to say I love you. And you know what else? I want sex? Yeah, I want sex. I want to have hot, sweaty sex. My husband hasn't

5:34 wanted to have sex in years. The pandemic didn't cause all this, It just made it more undeniable. My depression isn't simply a result of the pandemic. These problems have existed in our marriage for years. You might ask, well, why didn't you leave him? Then? Money, guilt, fear, take your pick. So Susan did what millions of peop will do online every day. She went on social media. One afternoon, I was on my social media account and I see a friend request I'm of a very handsome man with a foreign name. I thought twice about it, and then I said to myself, Ah, what the heck. If he becomes a problem, I could just block him. September eleventh, twenty twenty, that was the click that changed my life. The next eighteen months, my mystery man who told me his name was Alexander Smith from Florida lavished me with romance and passion and injurgue and suspense and heartbreak. I thought they was happy in my life. But now that I know you, I understand life can be so much more. You are the person I was supposed to meet. I just prayed that I can be enough to earn your life. I would do anything for you. Wake up, my beauty, wake up my view. You can't keep your talent hidden from the world any longer. I know you're going to have a wonderful day today. I wish you all the best. I

7:09 love you so much, baby. I can't sleep at night thinking about you. I really loved my wife, but it was nothing like the love I feel for you. I've never known such love in my life. You are my everything. You are the breath that keeps me alive. I can never live without you. Queen, my sweetheart. We chatted NonStop all day. We talked on the phone. He filled my life with hope. Our lives became intermingled. If I was out chopping with my sister or my husband, I would go to the bathroom to sneak a message to him. Beginning of October, he told me he could hardly work because all he could think about was me. If I'm being honest, I was just as absorbed with him.

7:58 Then the middle of that October, I was watching TV and I saw his face. I searched online and easily found all the pictures he'd sent me, supposedly of himself. I confronted him. He insisted they were pictures of him, and that he hadn't created his social media page a man that worked for him did. I begged him to prove that he was real, so he sent me pictures like hostages do holding up a newspaper with that day's date, man holding a note that had the date and had said he was real and I should trust him. And he still had the face on it of some man who obviously is a celebrity, a reality personality, and definitely not him, not his name, not his background. So I knew, obviously he's lying to me, but I couldn't let him go. I knew if I did, I'd be alone again, and I love mysteries, intrigue, and all of this made me even more curious as to who he really was.

9:03 While all of this was going on, even though my husband was physically close by our worlds were becoming more and more separate. I could feel he said something was happening because I was always in my art studio or out walking. My husband knew not to ask questions you don't want the answer to, and I kept on like that every morning. Each morning I cry out to God with gratitude, May today be your best day. Yet every day is better than the last. Now in my life because you are part of it. If I were a poet, I couldn't do justice to how I feel about you. I no longer walked alone in the evenings with my dog.

9:46 Alexander and I chatted almost every evening. He told me he wanted to hold my hand and he wanted to watch the sunset with me. I had my companion. Even though I had no idea where he real he was or who he really was. He would send me loving messages in the middle of the night. I began to beg him to meet me somewhere anywhere. I had to know who he was really. He sent me a driver's license, a passport, and employee ID. Each document had a different birth date. Each document was clearly altered and had the exact same picture of the celebrity on it. I know part of it was the intrigue of who he really was.

10:30 He gave me an adventure. We talked about so many personal things. I told him my deepest, darkest feelings, things about my life that I have rarely told anyone, including my husband. We talked about cooking. We both liked to cook. We talked about his daughter. He wanted me to help him make his daughter a strong and independent woman. He said he just wanted to be with me, to hug me and never let anyone hurt me again. It was so sweet and gentle with his word. Finally, he agreed we should meet. In order for him to leave the RIEKIE was working on, I needed to request vacation for him. I know how this sounds. He gave me the name and the email of a man that worked in the legal department for the company he worked for. He said to request two weeks, then he would figure out where to meet. I sent the email.

11:24 Took a few days for the man to respond. He said he had to do an inspection before releasing Alexander for vacation. Supposedly, Alexander was the chief engineer of this platform. A couple days later, I got an email back. The vacation was denied. There were three machines that needed immediate repair. As soon as these machines were repaired, Alexander could have his two weeks. He called me. He said all I had to do was send sixty five thousand dollars. I yelled at him. I told him it was a scam and he just wanted money. All night, he kept sending me messages, begging me to believe how much he loved me. Susan, I'm not the fool. I don't want your money. I don't want to make you said, All I ever want in this life is to make you the happiest woman on earth. Don't you want us to be together? I was heartbroken, both with this confirmation that he was scamming me and the disappointment the loss of hope. As throughout the eighteen months, I just wanted to believe in him.

12:31 I ignored his messages, but I still couldn't let him go. I decided to play his game. I told him I was applying for a loan. This was not true. I told him the loan had been denied because I didn't make enough money. Then I told him I could get the money if he co signed the loan, or he should go online and apply for the loan himself. Of course, he couldn't do either of those things. He just couldn't put his private information out on the internet. That was his excuse. We didn't talk for separate days, and I missed him so much. It was this push and pull that continued for the next twelve months. I knew I had to let him go. Sweetheart, your birthday is coming off. I want so badly to be there to celebrate with you. I want to take you to a fancier restaurant, drink champagne, and then go dancing. And when we dance, I want to hold you so close and so tightly to never let you go. I can feel the warmth of our bodies slowly moving together across the dance floor. Your soulmates, my love, my life. We can never leave each other. I love you beyond your understanding. Then, on my birthday, he sent me a picture, again had the fake face, and again with a letter with the date, as if that meant he was real. He continued to beg me to send him

14:01 the money. He always had very creative reasons. I continued to tell him to take out a loan himself. He continued to tell me how much he loved me. I was struggling so much with a deception with my husband. I knew, no matter what, he didn't deserve this, but I just couldn't give up my secret world, my world with Alexander. I couldn't go back to just watching my husband sitting in the same place every day and night. My husband had his own separate world, a world with his drinking. Alexander messaged me he had just found out a payment for a job he did in China was cleared and ready for the delivery. He had authorized the man and his company that handled things like this to deliver the package to me.

14:46 The job had been finished a few years ago, but there was a contract dispute the delayed payment. He gave me the name and email of another man to contact. I emailed that man. He responded he would arrange for immediate delivery upon receipt of six thousand to pay for the delivery that was coming from China. He said it was so expensive because a Chinese diplomat and a security guard had to be paid. Again. Obviously, I know how all this sounds. The packet supposedly contained two point five million dollars. I told Alexander I didn't have six thousand. He kept saying, if I loved him so much, why didn't I trust him enough to send the six thousand. After a lot of arguing, I hate to say it, I did it.

15:35 I took out cash advances on several credit cards. Each time I went to a bank to get more money, I got sick. Just the thought of doing this truly made me physically sick. It was the deception and the fact I really couldn't afford to be taking out all these cash advances. Paintings weren't selling. I was living on my social security. I wanted to believe in him so badly promised me I could keep thirty percent of the money to do whatever I wanted to do. I was always telling him I didn't have enough money to handle the expenses of painting, galleries, bees, etc. He didn't want me to have to struggle or worry. Ever again, I had to go to several bitcoin machines because of the limits they had on each machine.

16:18 I was learning the ins and outs of bitcoin too. Finally, the six thousand was sent. The delivery had commenced and the package would be to me within a week. Then guess what. Of course, the courier had been detained in Austria for transporting too much cash. Supposedly they had X rayed the package and could tell there was a lot of cash in the package. Ultimately, he wanted twenty thousand. Suddenly it wasn't so romantic after everything I've done for you. You are self centered and materialistic. Oh you care about his money? If you love me, why won't just send the money.

17:00 You'd take advantage of my love. Farewell, Susan. Several days, maybe a couple of weeks went by, when suddenly he contacted me again. It was as though nothing had happened. He contacted me again, all excited. This time, the company he worked for had issued COVID bonuses. He was supposed to receive one hundred and forty thousand for keeping his crew safe and working throughout the pandemic. He told me that a man that worked for his company, a mister Clancy, really wanted to help us and to send the bonuses directly to me. That way I could pay the sixty five thousand and the twenty thousand and keep the rest for myself. Alexander told him I was his wife, but because we weren't actually married, he couldn't send a check directly to me. Mister Clancy said he would deposit Alexander's money into his personal account and then send me a check for it. But to do this, he wanted payment for his trouble. He wanted two thousand, eight hundred dollars sent to him through bitcoin. It's no sense, I know, I refused.

18:07 I told Alexander no more money was going into the black hole known as bitcoin, we argued. Finally, I was given the name, address and bank account of his dear friend in Texas. I could transfer the money from my account directly into her account. She would forward it to mister Clancy. I hesitated again, and then finally borrowed another two thousand, eight hundred dollars and made the transfer. It's easy to think this kind of thing couldn't happen to you, but it happens to people all the time. The FBI concluded romance scammers con Americans out of a billion dollars in twenty twenty one. Guess what age bracket reported the highest losses those aged seventy and up. Cryptocurrency fraud is an increasing element of these scams as well. Reported romance scams rose eighty percent in twenty one according to the Federal Trade Commission. Over the last five years, no other fraud category has caused higher losses. Something else that was in the FTC information. Speaking of the scammers, quote, the details they share about themselves will always include built in excuses for not meeting in person. For example, many reportedly claimed to be serving overseas in the military or working on an offshore or rig end quote. This happens to thousands and thousands of people every single year. The FBI report specified that quote. The bad actors are known to target women over age forty who are widowed, divorced, elderly, and or disabled. End quote. The report also noted that quote. To avoid meeting in person, romance scammers often claim to live or work in other

19:44 parts of the country or world. The check for one hundred and forty thousand was to arrive on Monday, August ninth, twenty one. Monday came and went. Where it goes from here. It's honestly so crazy. I don't even want to explain it. I think part of the scam is to make things so confusing. You don't know what to think. Apparently another dear friend, a mister Sheldon, now had the money and contacted Alexander, saying that he had accidentally deposited the check in an old account that he hadn't used in a long time, and there were back fees and other issues that would cost four thousand dollars to be paid before they would release the money to him.

20:29 That's not how banks work. I know that Alexander begged me to send the four thousand. We argue again for weeks until and I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it happened. I borrowed another four thousand dollars. This other friend of Alexander's insisted the money be sent as cash to a woman in Virginia. I gathered the cash and slipped to mail the cash, hiding it in books so no one could see how much cash was in there. Again, the us of the deception about what I was doing and where I was going was really bothering me. I was getting sick every time I did these crazy things. Next, I received a message from Alexander saying the bank consisted. I opened an account at their branch for them to release the money to me.

21:15 It had to be a corporate account, and to open this account, I was to send another fifteen thousand in cash to the same woman at the same address. Then they would send me a debit card and I could take out as much money as I needed whenever I needed money. It was enough, even in my state at the time. I knew how ridiculous this was getting. I told Alexander there would be no more money for anything. I had been foolish enough and was now so far in debt I could barely make the payments on the money I borrowed. He refused to believe I didn't have any money, and how could I love him so much and not help him. He would pay me back as soon as he got back to the States.

21:56 We fought about my refusal to send money up until the end. Yet through it all he continued to tell me how much he loved me. I was what kept him alive and all that sort of thing. I knew his hands from the pictures he sent me holding documents. I knew the sound of his voice from talking on the phone, and his heart, but I had no idea who he really was or where he really was. For eighteen months, He was my life, my love, and my anguish, my love. I want to give you slow, sensual kisses every morning and every night.

22:37 These are the kinds of words that stole my heart. This is the kind of passion my heart was so thirsty for. Yeah, they were demands for money, six thousand this, four thousand for that, But it was just money. Yes, I sent the money, but my heart needed this passion more than it needed the money. My heart didn't need the money to sustain life. My heart needed to feel a heartbeat to sustain life. I had never felt this kind of passion and yes, love, in so many years. I just didn't want it to end. I was alive again. I felt sexy again. And at the same time as I felt so close to him, he remained unknowable to me. I couldn't go see him in person.

23:23 I couldn't look in his eyes. There's something else you need to know. His name how he appeared on social media. It was a foreign name, and from the beginning, my intuition said he had a Russian connection. I'm an intuitive person. I can feel things about people, and I was certain he was somehow connected to Russia. I searched online for Eastern Bloc alphabets. The alphabet used for his social media page wasn't Russian. I kept researching. Voila, it was Ukrainian. Yeah, it was another lie, but it only made me more curious. Who was this man? Where was he actually living? There had been other indications he was Ukrainian like he loved pictures of me with my head covered. He always talked about wanting a woman with a heart of gold. He said he could see our shoes next to each other's in the cubby by the front door. His colloquialisms were foreign. He spoke English quite well, but often didn't know the meaning of common words.

24:30 In February of twenty twenty two, I received a last message from Alexander. Forgive me, please. I'm desperate to hold you. It's not possible for me to forget you. Nothing will ever make me not love you. We will be together. We won't argue anymore. God wants us to be together. God is merciful. No, you can meet too. We're meant to be together, Susan. I will treasure you until the day I die. No one has ever taken care of me the way you do. I love you. In February of twenty twenty two, Russia invaded the Ukraine. I haven't heard from Alexander since. With all the trouble, with all the heartache, he will always hold a place in my heart. It's clear from Sciss's account that there was true romantic love here. Is it possible Alexander felt it too? Could all of his kind words have been just part of an elaborate charade or their true feelings On both sides of this relationship, he made me feel again. He made me want to get up in the morning. He also he helped my marriage. On one occasion, my husband read a text message sent to me that was obviously a love note, calling me sweetheart,

26:02 the way Alexander would write to me. Since the call came through an Internet app, there was no phone number, I just passed it off as a call where I had no idea who it was from. Then Alexander got drunk and madled me a postcard. It had a picture of him and me next to each other and read how much he loved me and how he wanted us to be together for the rest of our lives. Again, I just passed it off as some nut. The picture came from my public photos on social media. I also had previously had two stalkers on social media that my husband was aware of, so it was plausible. Then something I didn't expect happened. My husband decided to give up drinking. I feel it may have been related to him realizing he could be on the verge of losing me. I've always told him I would not spend the last good days of my life with a drunk. He knew in his heart something was going on. Losing me was not something he wanted. Since then, he now wants to go places with me. We even took a road trip. He would never have done that before. He helps me with my art projects. We even went out on a Saturday night recently. I know he has a good heart and he loves me. I realize I just have to help him understand what my needs are. I am back to no romance, no passion, and walking alone in the evenings. I miss my walking companion. I miss the good night

27:33 kisses, even if they were probably sent from across the world, and the hope that someday he would actually come to see me. If he called me today and wanted to meet, I would not hesitate, but I would jump on the first plane to go wherever he wanted to meet. Not because I still love him, because I just want to know the truth. We have a confession to make. Susan is not her real name. In fact, the voice you've heard isn't from the person who experience this story. The voice you've heard is the incredible Emmy winning actress and doubt who we may know from The Handmaid's Tale, The Leftovers, and many other TV shows and movies. The real Susan's husband still doesn't know about all of this. Alexander is not the name the man told her either, which you've heard just now are a real woman's written account of her experience with an online scammer. Alexander's messages aren't real either. We wrote them, but modeled them on the style he would write to Susan. We've reviewed the photos she references in the story, as well as correspondence with this man, dozens of pages of it, pulled from their conversations over social media to corroborate most of her claims of their interactions, including numerous requests for money to be sent. But the voice you heard in the names you've heard were invented for this episode to maintain the real Susan's privacy.

28:42 So in a way, I suppose we've catfished you, our listener. We're sorry about that, but maybe it's a reminder of how easy it is to believe something is real just because we're told it is. As for Susan, she thought Alexander might have died in the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, but sure enough, a few weeks ago he messaged her again. Maybe the story is not over yet. Allegedly is a production of Voyage Media. The series is produced by nat Mondel, Robert Midas, and Dan Bennimore in association with Darren Marlar's Weird Darkness. This episode, My Forever Love, was directed and produced by Dan Bennimore, written by Susan Patton, edited by Nick Schoup, original music by Derlas Gonzalez. Starring Anne Dowd as Susan and Jonathan Roggier as Alexander. If you're enjoying the show, please give us a five star review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you're listening, and subscribe now for future episodes.