She came into my office, bursting with her good news…maybe a better word is gushing. She wanted to change her estate planning and put new beneficiaries in place. She couldn’t wait to tell me that her life has changed and she has met the man of her dreams…..all in two weeks!
I replied, “Is he handsome, a businessman, and from Europe—does he come in and out of the USA? Is he interested in everything you’re interested in?”
Wow, Mr. Baer! Are you Karnac the Magnificent? Have you met my new beau before?
Here is the answer: I met him when I was a federal prosecutor, only at that time he was running a boiler room scam—phone banks, hundreds of phone calls to vulnerable people selling penny stock.
Now, he sits on a computer and goes online to social media and dating sites to meet these “suckers”, as he called them in the 1980’s.
My next question to my anxious client: Has he asked you for some money just until he meets you to defray some travel costs when he comes into the country?
Again, the astonished look, and then a droop in her shoulders…”Yes.”
She understood…. the man of her dreams was just another slick con, who was looking to score some pocket change. If he had hooked her in further, the pocket change would have grown into her life savings.
We got on top of this early, no money changed hands, but did she really learn something from this? She seemed to; she realized that she hadn’t done her homework and just jumped into love.
But you know, I have a feeling this will happen to her again, but the next time she won’t come to my office to talk. No one wants to hear bad news, or to be made to look foolish. Sometimes our fear of embarrassment clouds our common sense – love on the internet – for me the jury is still out.
Take it for what it is…. It’s just how I see it.
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