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The article that follows was written by a client whose first language is not English and was revised by rewrite.com. As it was written to publicize her plight and that of others like her, it is posted here as a public service as well as a sample work. All client work is confidential, but other samples are available upon request!Con
Artist Lovers Are Destroying the Lives of Black Women
It’s
happening all over the country, but especially in the black community.
Gullible,
kind-hearted African and Caribbean American women with hopes for a future filled
with love, commitment and children are having their hearts and bank accounts
drained by financial criminals posing as potential life-mates. Some lose tens of
thousands of dollars in savings. Some lose houses. All are left feeling violated
and with their emotional and financial lives in ruins.
Like
me, many of these women meet their assailants through Internet dating services.
They read about someone who might be the man of their dreams and take the time
to date him and to get to know him, but all the while they are being
systematically conned. Like me, too, many of these women work in nurturing
professions but know little about the financial world. Many are nurses,
pharmacists, or physicians’ assistants. A sister nurse in New York told me
that she had met a man in church with whom she eventually married and had a son.
She owned a house when she met this man. He encouraged her to sell the house so
they could buy a new one as a couple. Once the house was sold the money was
placed into a joint account. What she did not know was that her husband had
opened a separate account with the same bank. He then linked the two accounts
online and transferred the entire balance into his name. So the whole time they
were out looking at new homes he was really preparing to run away with her
money. One morning she woke to find him and her life savings gone forever.
What
can be done to prevent these crimes? First of all, women must be more careful,
wherever and however they meet their potential partners. They must learn to
recognize telltale signs such as when a new partner appears to have no family
and perhaps claims that they are all dead. Men in their 30’s or 40’s who
claim that they have never been married and deny having any children may be
telling the truth, but they may be looking for their next victim. Also, the con
artist lover tends to be very generous at first and to talk passionately about
social issues to gain his victim’s trust. In my case, the thief spent half his
time on his cell phone taking phony “investment calls” and the other half
telling me that my savings were earning too little return. I didn’t allow
myself to consider that his other “investors” never appeared in person and
probably never existed. I was too afraid of appearing “paranoid” or
“untrusting.” Like thousands of other women, however, I learned that it is
better to be overly cautions than to suffer devastating emotional and financial
harm.
Secondly,
legislators should work with banks and investment firms to establish more
effective authorization procedures for account transactions, particularly where
joint accounts are concerned. These days more and more investment accounts are
managed online, and bank officials many never see their clients or be able to
personally verify their involvement in transactions. Thus, many procedures that
may presently require authorization from one party to an account should probably
require authorization from both, and the mechanisms for verifying authorization
need to be made as nearly infallible as possible.
Finally,
both civil and criminal procedures for bringing the perpetrators of these crimes
to justice and for recovering the assets they have stolen need to be
strengthened. Police and prosecutors must abandon the attitude that financial
crimes are not crimes and must stop hiding behind the conman’s excuse that
“she gave him the money.” This way of thinking has neither moral nor legal
justification and simply plays into the hands of thieves. Granted, the legal
system requires evidence before justice can be done. However, district attorneys
must accept the responsibility to act on victims’ claims and to actively
assist them in assembling the financial records and other evidence they need to
back up their testimony. They must prosecute these criminals aggressively, and
legislatures must provide them with strong penalties that will give teeth to
their actions. Similarly, civil courts must become more responsive to the
evidence and testimony presented by these often otherwise helpless victims. For more Samples and a Free Estimate—Contact Us!
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