He Said "I Love You" - Then Took $85,000

I fell for him almost instantly. I’ve spent years building my career - working late, chasing deadlines, being “the reliable one.”
And one day I woke up and realized… I had everything, except someone who cared if I made it home safe. I met him online. Smart. Handsome. Charming. I just wanted love.

Acceptance

With him, it felt like I finally found that. We texted all the time. Talked for hours about life, dreams, music, food. He said I made him feel peaceful. And I believed him. But we never did video calls… But I didn’t care. I’m shy, I hate cameras, and it all felt so gentle — like falling in love in slow motion. My friends said, “That’s a red flag.”

I said, “You don’t understand. He’s different.” He lived in Europe.
I couldn’t leave work, and he said he didn’t like America anyway - “too loud, too fake, too fast.” It hurt, but I didn’t argue. Love meant compromise, right?

Then he told me about his “passive income.”
Crypto trading. Smart investments. “Freedom money,” he called it.
He said I could have it too. Work online. Be free. Move to him. Finally start living instead of surviving. After twenty years as a lawyer, it sounded like a dream. He said, “Trust me with $10,000. I’ll show you how it works.”

I hesitated

But he was calm. Confident. And I wanted to believe in something good again. So I did it.
A week later, he said the $10,000 became $15,000. He sent screenshots, graphs — the numbers climbing up and up. It felt like hope. It felt real.

He said, “If you add $20,000 more, we can make it grow much faster.” I was scared, but also… excited. Maybe this was my chance. My new life. So I sent it.

Then my account “grew” to $80,000.
Eighty thousand… I stared at the screen and cried. He said, “See? This is our future.” And I believed him again.

I told him I wanted to withdraw it — maybe buy a ticket, finally see him. He said, “Not yet. We can make even more.”

Then he told me he was flying to Vietnam for business. ”No video calls there,” he said. “Bad connection.” So I waited.

He kept sending updates. The “profits” kept rising. He said I now had $120,000.

I couldn’t process it. I’d never earned money that fast in my life.

Then came the next message:
“Add $50,000. This is the perfect time. Don’t miss it.”

I said no. He got angry. Told me I didn’t understand how the world worked, that I was ruining everything. We didn’t talk for four days.

I didn’t sleep. Didn’t eat. I stared at my phone, waiting.

Then he texted: “I’m sorry. I love you. Let’s start over.”
And I melted.

He said, “This is the last time. Just one more deposit, and I’ll buy the tickets so you can move here.”
So I sent him $50,000. After that… still nothing. He said the money was “locked in a project.” That I had to wait. I begged him to withdraw at least part of it.
He said no - it would “break the process.”

It had been four months.
Four months of believing, trusting, waiting for a man I’d never even seen on camera.

Finally, I said,
“Then at least send back what I gave you. Keep the profits. I just want my money back.” He said okay.

But then he added, “There’s a withdrawal fee. Five thousand dollars. It’s just how the platform works - I can’t bypass it.”

I told him to pay it himself.
He said all his money was still “in the system,” and pulling it out would ruin the trade. He sounded frustrated, disappointed - like I was the one ruining everything.
He said, “Do you trust me or not?” And I did.
Even then - after all the red flags, after all the excuses - I still wanted to believe him.
So I sent another $5,000. That was the last time I ever heard from him.

He disappeared. His number stopped working.

The website he used to “trade” my money went offline a few days later.
Everything - gone.

I sat on the floor in my kitchen, shaking.
I remember staring at the wall for hours, trying to understand what just happened.
Everything I had saved.
Gone.

But what hurts the most isn’t even the money. It’s the thought that I gave my heart to someone who didn’t exist.

That every “good morning,” every “I miss you,” every “I can’t wait to hold you” - was written by a man laughing behind a screen.
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I lost my sense of safety. I lost the part of me that believed people are mostly good. And I keep thinking - how do you even heal from something like that? When the person who made you feel loved was the same person who destroyed you.