he doesnât send her any pictures of himself in other poses or moments of his daily life. Mary only has two pictures of Michael, one close-up and another full-length view. Both pictures show him in uniform and are of an attractive man, with a high forehead, a proud gaze and just a hint of a smile. Not much to fall in love with. However, Mary is so enraptured by his words, promises, allusions to perfect sentimental and sexual happiness, that she doesnât ask for more. To share the dream of a soul mate is what she wants too. She believes in it. She wants nothing else. Michaelâs words are a daily dose of pleasure, a spoken and virtual intuition that is the premise to their real-life meeting, which will happen very soon. Michael wants that, Mary wants it, especially after messages like this:
«Darling I miss you so much, youâve become necessary for my soul, my heart. Youâre my day and night.
Youâre the sun and the moon to me. Youâre my queen. I miss you so much and the days separating me from you are much too long and cruel. Oh, how I would like to cut the ribbon of time which separates us from our first meeting! Love me Mary! Make me happy and never betray our dream!».
Finally, our meeting, but first Iâm going to Abidjan!
Strange the coincidences in life, because Maryâs story also has links with Ivory Coast. And quite by chance, Michael needs to go precisely to Abidjan to clinch a deal. He intends to leave the marines and plans to set up a diamond import-export business with his severance pay.
A million carats worth of diamonds a year are extracted in Ivory Coast. So, Michael, who is planning his future business and success, has an appointment with a manager from the mines who will suggest the right quantities of precious stones to export, the purchase prices and the sales prices on the European markets.
The forecast is for huge profits, so the Marine has ploughed all his savings into getting together the sum to be paid in advance to start his export business to Europe. He has a lot of money set aside because he earns more than eight thousand dollars a month. Then heâll pay the manager of the mines the contractual balance with his military service severance pay.
Mind you! The most exciting part of the plan, as told by Michael, is that heâll start his journey towards Europe with Italy, Rome, where heâll stop off to embrace Mary, and plan their future together; to crown their dream of a happy union and looking ahead - why not - even get married.
After another week of online chat, with Michaelâs usual loving attentions, the anticipated time of departure for the Ivory Coast comes around.
He calls her as soon as he gets to Abidjan and tells her heâs had a good journey. Theyâll talk again online the following day.
Instead three long days go by with no sign of Michael. Mary starts to worry, she doesnât know what to put this silence down to. Sheâs anxious. Then she finally receives a call from Ivory Coast. The person contacting her is a doctor in a clinic who tells her that Michael is seriously ill. He was taken to hospital after being attacked by three criminals. Heâs having an operation on his spleen. It was Michael himself who begged the doctor to contact her, because before going under the knife (heâs very seriously injured the poor man) he thought about Mary knowing sheâd be worried and asked them (we imagine in a faint whisper) to contact his woman.
The doctor talks at length to Mary (almost as though he hasnât got much else to do) and ends the telephone call by informing her that the following day Michael himself will probably be able to call her.
Worried out of her mind Mary sends him messages, without any result. Then the following day she sees a photo of him, sent to her smartphone. His face is swollen, it looks painful. The operation has gone well he explains, speaking softly and painfully. Theyâve removed his spleen. He must rest until he recovers.
He tells her that his attackers stole 90 thousand dollars off him. He has nothing now until heâs paid his severance money. He hasnât even got the money to pay the clinic. Whatâs more heâs signed the contract with the manager of the mines and he must cover the cheque he paid as a guarantee. He wouldnât want to ask her for help for anything in the world, but heâs desperate!
Mary canât really understand why he went around with so much cash on him and she asks him. Michael explains that he was going to deposit it at the bank in Abidjan, to cover the cheque for 50 thousand dollars he paid as an advance on the diamond shipment agreement. Upset, he explains his position to her, tormenting himself because he knows it isnât normal to turn to her to ask for help. Heâd rather die, but heâs deeply distressed! Heâs got to find a solution because if he doesnât cover the cheque the deal will fall through, and heâll also have to pay a fine.
The rest of the story unfortunately, as you can imagine, is an impoverishment of poor Mary in favour of the crook, who is not called Michael, but is a young African and part of a gang specialised in romance scams.
The story told by Lucien
«My mother had sent several remittances to Michael, in Ivory Coast, for various reasons. It began with 50 thousand dollars through Western Unionâ and Money Gram, because she was upset by the attack on the man she had fallen in love with and his serious condition. She used up all her savings to help him, because anyway he told her he would pay the loan back as soon as he was better again.
Once the shipments for the sale of the diamonds began he would personally come to Rome to bring her a cheque and start their future together. But the man had a great deal of financial obligations at that sad moment in time. We all know the cost of a clinic, rehabilitation, the expense of hotel accommodation, and the second tranche for the import-export business.
My mother even sold her apartment - says Lucien - to keep up with the constant demands of that man, who convinced her with false, urgent and unavoidable reasons. When she realised sheâd been scammed, she became depressed. Sad and without any financial resources left, she tormented herself every day for having been so stupid when she should have realised it was a scam and sought advice. But she didnât.
I sent my mother to be treated, to help her overcome her moral disorientation. But wounds like that are difficult to heal at her ageâ¦Â».
The providential money transfer receipts
Luckily Mary had kept all the Western Unionâ and Money Gram receipts. She also maintained contact with her scammer, while her son Lucien sought information amongst his journalist friends and went so far as to consult an Interpol branch, where an agent got to work investigating and had the members of the gang arrested.
Subsequently, after it had received proof of the sums sent, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ivory Coast took steps to return the money to her.
But Maryâs pain at having been hit like that in her feelings will last a long time yet. Every so often she suddenly awakes in the night because she dreams that someone is taking a bag full of diamonds away from her. She cries out for help and sees a man in the uniform of a Marine laughing mockingly.
Mary grieves every time she awakes and thinks about Michael again. She imagines him as he was in the photos which she gazed at so many times. She can hardly believe that Michael doesnât exist; that his words of love were phrases copied here and there, from romantic texts or invented on the spur of the moment to lure her into a romance
