These days, I think we all can say we know someone or have heard of people close to others in our lives who have fallen victim to scams and lost money.
But what would you do if your spouse lost your entire life savings to scammers, totaling more than half a million dollars? Would you think your marriage is salvageable, or would you dial up a divorce lawyer?
This 35-year-old man and his 37-year-old wife have been married for five years. On Monday, his wife is scheduled to be induced, and they’re having a baby.
Now, on Thanksgiving, he got some terrible news: his wife gave their entire life savings away to scammers, even though she was suspicious of what was happening.
“The total amount was about $550-$600k. She’s from China. She made three individual transfers to Hong Kong. Why? She said the FTC called her on the phone and said their partners in China caught her in a money laundering scheme,” she explained.
“They told her to call a number, and she did, and… oldest trick in the book, right? She said she suspected it was a scam, but did it anyway. She went to the bank to sign paperwork.”
“She said she lied to the bank to get the money to go through. At some point, I was on an account at this bank with her. I trusted her, so I wasn’t really keeping watch. This happened months ago. The most recent transfer was 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.”
His wife has filed reports with the police department, the FBI, and the FTC. He has copies of all of the paperwork. His wife has stated that she’s going to go to therapy to get to the bottom of why she fell victim to this scam.
The problem is that he’s not sure if he can ever forgive his wife for what she did, and he can’t even stand to look at her due to all of this.
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He runs his own company, a dental office, and he’s spent the last three years doggedly working seven days a week to make it a success. He doesn’t make as much money at his job as he could if he lived in a smaller city, since their area is oversaturated with dentists, whereas his wife earns a lot more than he does (she works as a motion designer for a big tech company).
“Her argument for living here was that she was making and growing this nest egg. I feel like I’ve sacrificed everything, and I’ve been stabbed in the back by the person I trusted the most,” he continued.
“I tried contacting a family law attorney, but they were kind of cruel, tbh. My world is upside down. Do I try to make it work?”
His wife gave away 80% of their total assets, and it was actually all of her money, not his. As for how she came into so much cash in the first place, she says she invested in bitcoin.
Also, their baby that’s about to be born has a genetic issue that will require expensive, lifelong care, and he doesn’t personally have much saved to help with all of that.
I can’t wrap my head around any of this. His wife lost more than half a million dollars, and she knew it sounded like a scam, but she went along with it anyway?! Why?!
I don’t understand this at all, and I don’t think he can ever manage to regain trust for his wife after she made such a colossal, insane decision.
Also, when you’re married, you should never spend a crazy amount of money on anything without clearing it with your spouse first.
This is so surreal and fishy to me, so either his wife really is not that intelligent, or she’s somehow in on this crazy scam.
What do you think?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
