Woman misses man who scammed her
Even after being conned out of about $100,000 – and although she knows he doesn’t exist – Sally Kabak admits she still misses ‘‘Michael’’.
‘‘I miss his voice, I miss his laughter,’’ the 67-year-old teacher’s aide, from Wellington, said a fortnight after the man who had promised to marry her and help raise her granddaughter ended contact.
‘‘He’s not real, but at the time he was very, very real. Twice, three times a day, we would have these long conversations: ‘I love you, I want to marry you.’ He just knew all the things to say. He totally had me hooked.’’
Kabak, who has long been an internet user, was drawn into an internet romance scam. Although she did not want to add up the piles of money orders because she ‘‘doesn’t want to know’’, the documents show she made 20 payments ranging from $800 to almost $14,000 between August 2015 and last month.
She has complained to police in a bid to recover at least some of the money – and is speaking out in the hope she can help others. ‘‘I don’t think I’m an idiot. He was just so, so convincing, and so genuine in his feelings, I thought,’’ although she now knows there were warning signs. ‘‘Some things didn’t sound right [but] my heart was ruling my head [telling me] ‘this is fine, don’t be silly’.’’
About two years after her husband, Norm, died, Kabak began internet dating. Soon she was contacted by ‘‘Michael Aiden Paige’’.
They began having lengthy phone conversations and sharing intimate emails. Michael’s story was that he was a Frenchman, who lived in Auckland (he had an Auckland phone number) who had to travel to South Africa for work.
He never agreed to a video chat or meeting, but sent photos of a clean-cut, middle-aged man.
Just as he was meant to be leaving, an enormous bunch of roses, with a hand-written card, arrived at Kabak’s home.
‘‘My world makes lots of sense to me only cause (sic) of you, am sorry I would be away but know am coming back and our future has already began (sic) ,’’ the note read.
An email urged her to consider the relationship formal.
‘‘I just want to look into those eyes and ask you where have you been all this years?’’ He wrote on June 1, after asking Kabak if she would ‘‘make this official, lets (sic) go out’’. Michael even spoke at length to Kabak’s granddaughter, who she is raising, urging the youngster to ‘‘look after grandma’’.
Weeks later he promised marriage ‘‘and to buy a house with a swimming pool’’.
But eventually Michael’s story turned dark. He was not able to bank his pay; he had to pawn his watch; he had malaria; he needed money to break his work contract or he would be away for a year. He claimed to be sending Kabak money.
She was convinced to send him money, not through her bank, but through MoneyGram, a payment service which cannot be easily traced. Only the last, and largest payment, was through FirstRand Bank, for an account based in Pretoria.
Kabak now hopes she can prevent others from falling into the trap
Last year, NetSafe was contacted by 57 people who had collectively been scammed out of almost $1.3 million. This was down on 2014, when 67 people reported they they had been scammed out of $1.57m.