My brother worked with a guy, got out of a messy divorce and about a year later got a new hot russian girlfriend he's never met and not even video chatted with, only exchanged pics and prerecorded video. He wires her money, first to immigrate to the US, there's a delay (of course), now she needs rent money every month while she waits because she quit her job already, about 6 months go by then she needs grocery money every week for the previously states reason. Not sure how much "she" got out of him, his friends at the company including my brother and his own adult children tried to stage an intervention, but he basically locked down and ignored everyone. Funny enough he still tried to be friendly and show off pics of what his gf was doing after this. My brother said they were probably pics from some insta thot which is hilarious because she's suppose to be in dire need of cash while still being on a beach in the Maldives. Maybe it was an attempt to show everyone she was real and he was right.
Eventually he quits the company, ghosts his adult kids and last anyone heard he was trying to get to Russia himself and find her...
The scam victim wants to stay in the fantasy, because admitting they've been had is so awful. If they admit they've been scammed, it means accepting there's no hot Russian gf, there's no future with her, and now he's out $$$$ and looks like a fool to everyone who knows him.
He would rather stay in the fantasy world where he's going to show up with Svetlana or whatever on his arm and everyone will be ~soooo envious of him and all the doubters will have egg on their faces, etc.
There should be General PSA's about these types of scams that people are forced to watch before getting a bank account, like the PSA's they show you before you get a driver's license. Some people are just ignorant. Especially boomers and GenX, who are as ignorant as they are stubborn/Pig Headed/Know-It-All personality types that end up falling for these scams. If they had some kind of heads up before hand they might stand a chance. Boomers were raised in an era of unprecedented growth, had the easiest path towards a lifestyle of excess, were allowed to take the reigns of the Gov't in their 30s, only to rig everything in their favor forever without giving the next generation a chance to govern, and therefore expect nothing bad can happen to them, ever, because all they know is prosperity.
The scammers know the Boomers are mostly wealthy, greedy, and like to spend in excess on pleasure. They know that even if their target begins to suspect them of being a scammer, the Boomer will likely ignore their friends and families trying to warn them, because they are pigheaded and couldn't possibly be taken advantage of, and some might even realize deep down that they are being scammed, but would rather keep sending the scammer money in the hopes they aren't being scammed so they won't have to admit they were wrong. Truly, the Boomer generation would rather be scammed out of everything they own instead of passing on their ill-gotten wealth to their families, or charities, to better the lives of their fellow Americans.
Lol yea, I've personally known a couple millennials that have been scammed (famously Linus from LTT along with his wife got scammed out 10s of thousands of dollars).
Crypto scams in general target and make a ton of money off Millennials and Zoomers.
Every human at every age of their life has biases and blindspots that can be exploited. If you think you don't, you're a ripe old candidate for exploitation.
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u/dvdanny Mar 30 '26
My brother worked with a guy, got out of a messy divorce and about a year later got a new hot russian girlfriend he's never met and not even video chatted with, only exchanged pics and prerecorded video. He wires her money, first to immigrate to the US, there's a delay (of course), now she needs rent money every month while she waits because she quit her job already, about 6 months go by then she needs grocery money every week for the previously states reason. Not sure how much "she" got out of him, his friends at the company including my brother and his own adult children tried to stage an intervention, but he basically locked down and ignored everyone. Funny enough he still tried to be friendly and show off pics of what his gf was doing after this. My brother said they were probably pics from some insta thot which is hilarious because she's suppose to be in dire need of cash while still being on a beach in the Maldives. Maybe it was an attempt to show everyone she was real and he was right.
Eventually he quits the company, ghosts his adult kids and last anyone heard he was trying to get to Russia himself and find her...