You're Just Too Good to Be True by Sofija Stefanovic

Author:Sofija Stefanovic
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781743485903
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2015-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Using everything I’ve learned from Graeme and Kath, I set up a dating profile of my own. I use a real photo of myself (with part of my face obscured, so if someone puts it into an image search engine it won’t come up with other photos of me, revealing my identity). I use a pseudonym (Aurora). In my profile I state that I am a writer, that I’ve been talking to romance scam victims, but that I would like to get the other side of the story as well. I ask for scammers to contact me and tell me some stories. I promise respect and anonymity. My hope is this: if scammers are typically young men in internet cafes, working around the clock scamming people, they may want to show off. I’m crossing my fingers that an eighteen-year-old Nigerian guy who’s relieved someone of $500  000 will want to tell me about his stroke of genius, the way he drew the victim in.

I get a few messages from men who have been approached by scammers (things like: ‘You should check out sweetbabe313, she says she is a Swedish nurse, but I’m pretty sure she’s a scammer’). I also get a couple of guys who try to strike up conversations unrelated to scams.

I do not hear from one single scammer.

I decide to make another profile, but this time trying to attract fraudsters in the conventional way, by posing as a scammer’s dream.

Scammers love seniors. I consider using a photo of my mum, but she works as a psychologist and I’m worried her clients will come across it and think she’s on the market. I settle on a photo of my great-aunt, who died a few months ago. The photo was taken when she was in her seventies, and it’s unflattering. My great-aunt has just sat down awkwardly and her woollen turtleneck has bunched up, giving her the appearance of a double chin, and a confusing, lumpy chest. The light has caught her eyes in a way that makes one of them look lazy. Because I feel guilty for using my dead great-aunt to make a dating profile I decide to cut a decade off her and say she is sixty-one – as if this will exonerate me.

My (late great-aunt’s) profile:

I am a divorced lady who wants someone to have fun with. I am looking for a long term relationship with someone who is willing to put in an effort.

I have two grown children and I have four dogs, who are a lot of fun.

If you like walking dogs, watching movies, going out to dinner, I’m your lady.

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