2023-04-18 04:00:00
Muriel is the victim of a romance scam: a scammer pretends to be her favorite singer, Patrick Bruel, and has been extracting money from him for weeks. In total, around 9,000 euros have disappeared from Muriel’s accounts…
“My wife has been under the influence of a romance scam for several months.” This is a real cry for help. Jean-Luc, a resident of the province of Liège, contacted us via the orange Alert us button to let us know of his dismay at the situation his wife is going through. She is under the influence of a scammer who has been extracting money from her for months by pretending to be her favorite singer. “She is convinced that she speaks with the singer Patrick Bruel”.
It all started when Muriel, Jean-Luc’s wife, was hospitalized. “I came across this quite by chance. During a stupid fall, my wife had to be transported to the hospital to be operated on for a fracture. Her condition was such that she had her phone blocked. We had to unlock it, and it was by displaying its contents that we discovered the pot of roses.”
Listen ma’am, it’s a scam, don’t believe what you’re told!
Sweet words and declarations of love mingle with requests for money. The alleged Patrick Bruel regularly sends links on which Muriel must click in order to then pay money. In total, nearly 9,000 euros are taken from him.
When Jean-Luc discovers the content of the exchanges, he is flabbergasted. He tries to reason with Muriel, but he faces a wall. He asks for outside help: “I went to the police, a legal aid office, I discussed it at the court office, etc. I took a lot of information from different sites. Everyone tells me: It’s a scam, there is no possible discussion”. All these people gave me advice. And since she was hospitalized, lots of people, doctors, nurses, social services went to talk to her… They went to tell her one following the other: Listen ma’am, it’s a scam, don’t believe what you’re told! Nothing works”laments Jean-Luc.
Psychological distress
If Muriel does not manage to open her eyes to the scam of which she is the victim, it is above all due to her psychological state, according to Jean-Luc: “ For me, the scammer is trying to get money by taking advantage of her naivety and emotional distress as she is sick. Illness restricts her in all her occupations. She has no mental issues. She is depressed, in need of love, affection, history.” Antonini Damiano is a doctor in the psychiatry department of CHU Brugmann. Cases similar to Muriel, he has already dealt with. “ Very often, at the psychological level, these are people who tend to put the needs of others before their own. This is what we might often define as the good citizen who is law-abiding, who does not want to harm.” Antonini Damiano explains that there are common factors among the victims: “The perception of being alone, low self-esteem.”
“Triple deuil”
The scammer also exploits a moment “big positive or negative changes like retirement, a new job, a change of city, an important medical diagnosis, a divorce also very often. In the end, the person is vulnerable and needs comfort.” And for the specialist, the return to reality is likely to be complicated. He even speaks of a triple “mourning”: “There will not only be mourning for the loved one who is no longer there because she is fake. But she will also have all the mourning for the money given. There is also the self-esteem that takes a considerable hit.
They pretend to be me
The romance scam of which Muriel is the victim is not unknown to the police. Olivier Bogaert, security expert at the Computer Crime Unit, calls for caution: “You always have to do a check”, inviting to type on the internet the name of the person, in this case Patrick Bruel, associated with the word “Scam”. The results obtained should have aroused suspicion. Patrick Bruel’s team also confirms that the singer never asks his fans for money. A few months ago, in a video posted on social networks, the singer wanted to warn his audience: “Watch out for fake accounts, it keeps on going. They’re pretending to be me and asking you for money following having a conversation or something”explained the singer.
Olivier Bogaert invites those injured in this type of situation to file a complaint: “In this case, bring as many documents as possible to the police area of your home. In this way, searches can be made once morest the author.” As for relatives, often helpless in the face of such a situation, it is advisable to always keep a link with the victim. Doctor Antonini Damiano, develops: “The first thing to do, of course, is to open the conversation in a non-judgmental way. That’s what the victim is most afraid of, it’s being judged by those close to them, being infantilized and being called stupid, naive. It’s really important to make them understand that it can happen. It was a moment of weakness.”
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