MICHAEL FREEMAN
***************************
I will let it be told in her own words.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was on Instagram and was asked to be followed by a Michael Freeman.
He was persistent in asking after a couple of months and when I checked his pictures and profile out some, I thought well I would consider it and just see how things went.
Because I am very careful with anyone or dating etc. And as a matter of fact, on Facebook anyone has to msg me first. But anyways I accepted Michael's friendship. We just gradually spoke, I saw that he seemed to be spiritual and also had a very adorable young daughter, he said that he was widowed, just as I am.
And so time went by and things went very well as a friendship, and then after 5 months he asked for my phone number, I hesitated at first, but then I did. I was very captured by his voice and calming attributes.
We talked endlessly. Day after day, and so forth. It progressed to rapidly, this had never ever happened to me in my whole life! But he talked alot about his daughter Emily to me as if he knew that I have a very tenderness towards children.
He told me that he had never been in love after losing his wife to cancer just 5 yrs before this, and that he was certain that he was falling in love with me.
We texted. Emailed,( yes he asked to send me pictures through my email). I did. I noticed every once in a while that it seemed as if he had a different accent than just a southerner, he said that he and Emily lived in Atlanta, Georgia, but when I jokingly would say something, he said his job often took him to parts such as Turkey, Ukraine, Caribbean's, all over the place.
He sent me pictures of him and Emily, them by their big beautiful home in Atlanta, their swimming pool, numerous of very expensive cars, antique cars, the list goes on and on. He told how this all would be if I would just come and live with him.
He also sent me cruises to choose to go on, pictures of homes in the Bahamas, houses on the Islands, where we could get married, it goes on and on. Now this was all in just a month after giving him my phone number.
He texted me all through out every day, even into the night. He even sent me beautiful love poems all the time, he broke down and cried a few times when telling me how much he loved me and he and Emily needed me.
One night he called and was almost out of breath, he said there had been a horrible accident, I freaked out and said what??? What??? He said that Emily had fallen down the stairs and was in the hospital, she suffered from a head concussion. I just started crying. He asked me to please make arrangements to fly there, and that he needed me!
He said that he had just found out that he got this huge bid on a pipeline job in Turkey, and he had to fly out soon. So he said what date and so forth. He said that he would be sending me the plane ticket. And so I said well what about the nanny? Because he said that he had a very good nanny for the last 5 yrs, and how she was Spanish and how she had taught Emily to speak such good Spanish.
He said please come, it would be in 2 weeks, so I said yes. He even supposedly had Emily speak to me a couple of times. As time went by he was getting ready to go to Turkey, he sent me a copy of a contract with his name on it and looked very legitimate as a pipeline company, how much he was going to be making etc. I told him that as much as I wanted to be there for Emily, that I would rather be there when he was there, that I was scared to be in a huge city without knowing it and driving around etc. He didn't like that answer, but he always comforted me and no matter what I was feeling, he always gave me his love, he always told me that I wouldn't ever be without anything, that this home, these cars, all of it, the vacation homes, the trips we were going to take as a family etc would always be ours forever.
He was soooooooo convincing. I felt like I had fallen into a dream world and many times I would cry in our conversations because I had never been spoke to like this, never been promised these things, and I was very attracted to him.When he supposedly got to Turkey, he called, sent me pictures, showed me what he was eating the whole thing. Then he kept saying that he didn't like the way things were going with this job. He convinced me that he had to pay 40 something workers a one months salary plus getting equipment etc, and that this had never happened before. I couldn't hardly believe it myself, so over and over again I would what??? And that was when I felt in my gutt that something wasant adding up, but he convinced once again, and then that's when he told me that the
Turkish government was knocking on his door, came in by 6 men in armor and demanded him to pay more to them by 24 hrs!
He said he was 5,ooo.oo dollars short. He said babe what am I going to do?? He said honey I am so scared, they're going to arrest me, possibly kill me if I don't pay the remainder of the owed amount. So I was so upset that I couldn't sleep for the next two days. He kept calling, emails, texts, you name it!. His name on there was gifford freeman. And his Gmail account was gifford freeman@gmail.com. And even saw him in a darkened room many of times, a silhouette setting, and when I would ask why? He would always say that that's where he did his computer stuff without bothering Emily. Which I kept thinking to myself, this is not quite right.
But then after I kept telling him that I didn't have 5,000.00 dollars, and I then asked him why couldn't help have a friend or someone in Atlanta to sell one of the cars or why couldn't a man of his trade get a loan no matter where he was?? He said again that it was the Turkish government, the way they did things.
And what did I know?? He was frequently asking me as if he would forget, he would ask me, you have never traveled anywhere? Now I know why? But anyways the day that he supposedly to get arrested, it was the first day that I hadn't heard from him all through out the day, night etc. And he finally got a hold of me hrs later, I had pull off the road to answer his call.
He had me so under his command or spell at this time, that I was having panic attacks without hearing from him. He asked again why was I turning him down on his desperate need in such a hard time, and I sat on the side of the road crying, and saying over and over again, I can't, I don't have the means to do it. He was begging me! He got upset with me, that the phone went down. I thought did I just hang up or did he?? What happened?? I was so shook up that I couldn't hardly drive home.
And I have forgotten to say that I had just lost my sister to cancer just right when we began talking, so I was just so low and needed a voice like his to cradle me.
**************************
So after this the next day, he frantically trying to get me all through the night, I answered, he was very quiet, he said that he had got the money from a friend.
He said that I had hurt him terribly, how could I do such a thing, I repeated myself again, over and over again, I couldn't do it. He asked for more information at that point, like why couldn't I find a way?? It was horrible.
He had never in the 6 and a half months ever sounded like this, I was so shocked. But I told him that this whole thing had me so shaken that I needed to hang up. I then turned my phone off, that night I kept checking my hangouts , my texts, my emails, everything, I was still flipping out to think that maybe I was losing his love? Could it be possible? I was a mess!
He contacted me or I got him, I don't remember now, and we cried both together on the phone, and we said we didn't want to do this to one another again. I was relieved that I still had him. The next day or so was kinda different.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The evening after we had spoken, late that night, I got a very alarming text from my bank!!
It was a suspected fraud on my bank account!! It said that to call them in the morning asap. I was sick!! A total gut feeling that he had done something to my account, but then I said to myself, oh no he wouldn't be like this?
Was I ever wrong, and I know to always trust your gut, I have a very spiritual side of me and I know to do this, but he had me so under a spell, I mean totally like I have never known in my whole life of 40 yrs or more of relationships, 2 marriages etc.
I called my bank that morning and we talked about the whole thing, they soon figured out by my answers that someone had got my bank account information and attempted to get money out in two different states!
I realized that he had my email address and in my emails were my quess what? My monthly bank statements!!
And he had it! My gut felt so sick, just sick. I knew then and there that he wasn't who he said , right??
I still had to talk to him, and I became a little aggressive with him, I asked him, told him all of it, he over and over said no, no, no never would I do that to me. I didn't quite believe him, I began to just cry, cry.
He said please, please believe him. Guess what?? I began to break down and he had me convinced that he wasn't involved in this incident at all.
We talked for hrs. He began to ask me to come and be with him. I said I didn't think so. He said that he was going to call me the next day, and of course he still like always said that he loved me more than I would ever, ever know.
And that he loved me more than I loved him. I thought about every word after that, everything the bank told me , everything in the last 6 almost 7 months.
I knew that the next day I had to try to look up this pipeline company, and I did. I called them, spoke with a very nice woman, told him his name, Michael G Freeman. She looked, and no such person was employed by them. I said are you sure? I said even in Turkey? She said no.
I began to cry, and I said can I tell you the story, she listened very well, even called me back.
Now just a note, this is one of the largest pipeline companies in the world. And they know who's working for them right? When I hung up, I got even sicker, just felt like my world was crashing, on top of me losing my dog of 11 yes, my sister, my mother, all in the last 6 months. And now this?
Michael called me that afternoon, and I spilled it out, everything, I said I know that you aren't who you say you are. He got dead quiet! He said who did you turn me into? Who have you talked to ? He was frantic with me, and so I gave him all the answers.
But......
Even though I knew, he said that he wanted to come clean with me, he said he wanted to show me who he was! I demanded it too! He was crying. I thought, a grown man acting like this? He wasn't a grown man. Not at all. He said but if I show you, you won't want me anymore, that he still didn't want to lose me, no matter what. I said ok, I swallowed so deeply, I didn't know if I could even be able to see who he really was?
But I still couldn't think of letting him go, no matter who he was. Totally insane at this point. He said ok, he said are you ready, I was crying, I said yes. He said ok, all of a sudden I saw a black nigerian young guy instead of a white man from somewhere??
I almost died then and there. But ...
Even though I saw and yes his voice was his picture on the screen, and we talked for at least 2 hrs, he told me please not to let him go.
That he needed me, all of it. I still couldn't let him go, he said his real name was a Michael Zino, in Nigeria. That he was 31 yrs old. I knew that even though I loved him, I loved everything that he had ever said to me, all the promises weren't ever going to to be now, that at that point I couldn't still let him go. We still said how much we loved one another. I went to bed that night just so upset, so low, and I mean low.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning I opened my phone up, always always looking to see what I would find, always wanting to see that he had been there saying baby wake up, baby are you still asleep, even a love poem.
I did see that he was waiting for me to answer. Soooooooo I did.
And I knew that he wasant who I could be with. I knew it! I told him that I was awake, he called immediately. We talked for another 3,4 hrs. He then had talked me into flying to nigeria!! Of course asap.
He knew the cost, I said I couldn't do it, he talked me into it! I said well show me where you live, show me the inside of your place.
When he took the phone and went around outside, and showed me the inside of the apt. God, my heart couldn't believe even more, I had never seen anything like this ever! Rolled barb wire twisted all around this thick stone wall around these Apt bldg, and he then told me that the reason why he was doing this, these scamming, is that his mother and sister couldn't work, and his father had died.
He had to try to make money for all of them to survive. My heart really broke for him. I still cared for him! I was still falling for him. He still showed me photos of him on the beach, him laying on his bed, and quess what? I was then back to believing that I couldn't let him go. That even if I went there and he killed me that at least I would be loved by him. He was a young looking, good looking nigerian guy. I then that night hung up, and again thought of everything, I thought of my granddaughter, who I had lived for always and I couldn't let this happen to me.
I had to think of my life being back to what it was, I had to believe that true, I mean true love would eventually come my way. That I could and would have to tell him goodbye. I was so devastated. I called him and told him that it had to be over. And of course he tried to say no, he cried and told me that I was his life , his everything, that he didn't think he could ever love anyone else, ever.
And guess what? I believed him. But I still continued to say, Michael it's over. I said that I had to block him, and I did. His number is blocked in my phone, my emails, the hangouts us no longer on my phone. I had to change my bank account information, my passwords, my everything had to be changed. I hung up still caring for him, I felt for him, and I investigated his name on so many websites, scam sites and I found that he was in a gang-ring in Lagos, Nigeria!!
He was in a video clip of a bust in lagos a couple of yrs ago, or 3 yrs. It showed his name as being a Michael (nigerian middle name) and Zino as his last name. That he was in a huge ring scammers gang rung thing and I saw his face on the video! He was arrested and released, and I take it, he's still not found.
When we last spoke , I hung up feeling for this guy, but I even said that he would always be in my heart.
And I will still say that because I am a caring soul, but.... I now have had 2 months of coming to more of a realistic realization of all if it and now get as much information on this sort of thing and I just want to take it all as the very biggest lessons as I will ever encounter in my life. I don't hardly think of him now, but something told me to hang onto alot of his pictures, and I have. My heart goes out to every single woman or man on this universe that is in this or has had it happened to them!
I believe that nothing can break us, it only makes us.
My heart is a better heart now, but even more than this, a very cautious person, and wherever I can tell my story, or help someone by all of this, that's what I am determined to do.
Michael Freeman (Whiteman in the pictures with little girl) supposedly in Atlanta Georgia
Scammer Michael Zino, ( nigerian man)
https://www.facebook.com/zino.michael
The one picture
Phone number used was 626-538-8323
One thing I forgot to say is the real Michael said that he had went to college there, but couldn't find work. But I don't know for sure.
Thank you so much for doing this for all of us. For allowing me to share my story.
*********************
THE MAN IN THESE PICTURES IS COMPLETELY INNOCENT.
SCAMMERS WILL TELL YOU THEY ARE SORRY. IT'S THE ECONOMY... IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR BANK FRAUD... for breaking someone's heart and being so cruel with their feelings.
SCAMMING IS EVIL.. SCAMMERS ARE EVIL. There is no excuse.. it's easy money for them. They do not think of the destruction they leave behind... they don't care about you. Whatever they say.. IT'S ALL SCAM.
The phone number had been used in crime before..
