Hello to all,
My name is Josh, I’m 32 years old, and I have a crazy story to tell.
Unfortunately this story led me to lose almost everything I worked so hard for :( Starting in 2019 I fell victim to a full blown con that I didn’t see coming from a mile away. The person was a wanted felon long before they found me, and today they are sitting in jail, but before they were arrested they took nearly $15,000 in cash from me, and wracked up $66,780 in debt. Over the course of the last 4 years some of that debt has been dropped and erased, but what I am left with today is as low as it will get. All the cases have been closed, and the battle in the legal system is done. What’s left is being considered ‘mine’.
The story starts with a girl working for a temporary employment company. The company I had been with for 10 years hired her for a brief 3 month job that we had, and in the course of that 3 months, we had met and started dating. It was absolute love at first sight. I thought I had found ‘the one’. She made me fall in love with her so fast it made my head spin. I was completely elated and felt the same from her, nothing had ever been so perfect for me… come to find out it was all by design… Shortly after the end of her 3 month contract with my company, she came over to my apartment and told me she was getting rid of her apartment (which I had never been to in the 3 months we had been together; odd in hind sight) and wanted to know if I wanted to get a place with her and move in together. It seemed somewhat fast to me then, but also I was extremely serious about her and figured ‘why the hell not’; I wanted to put a ring on her finger someday. So that’s what we did. About 2 months there after getting a place with her is when things start to get extremely ugly.
It started with one of my credit cards being ran up out of nowhere. I caught it very quickly, got on the phone with the credit card company, and opened a lost/stolen card case. All of the charges were reverted and a new card was to come in the mail. Within a couple of weeks my new card (which I had not received in the mail yet) began incurring new charges. My mind was blown and I got on the phone again with the credit card company. It was them who clued me into what might be going on: someone was getting into my mailbox and stealing my mail. There was only 1 individual possible, my ‘beloved girlfriend’. I confronted her about it and she lied and lied and covered till the bitter end, but I knew better and I stood my ground. Eventually I worked it out of her and she broke down saying she was extremely sorry and would never do it again, “I’ll do better, I’m so sorry” etc. etc. etc. I believed her, and while I was very upset, I stayed living with her, but told myself I would be extremely cautious. The credit card companies were unwilling and even unable to reverse the charges because on a technical note, it was someone using my card who I knew. Even though I did NOT give permission or consent to ever use it, the credit companies said that was on me. I was upset but carried on.
Within a month of confronting her about stealing my mail and credit cards, I come home, and she is entirely gone. Absolutely nothing left in the apartment of hers, and very little of mine. Anything of value was completely cleaned out. I called the police, and what I found out with them that day was horrifying. She was not at all who she said she was. Come to find out I didn’t even know this girl’s real name. I had been living with a stranger, and that stranger had access to everything important in my life. Over the course of the next few weeks letters began coming in the mail. She had somehow gotten a hold of my social security number and every other personal bit of information needed to do pretty much anything she wanted to with my identity. She bought 2 cars acting as me with the help of another male, opened several accounts (both credit card and bank) adn ran them up, and even got a second apartment with my name and the help of whomever she had working with her. I gave the police every bit of information I had, and they were able to find her in working with the websites and businesses she used for all of the items she purchased or accounts she opened. She was wanted long before me with felony charges of identity theft, fraud, and grand larceny. She was put in jail for a little over a month before she bailed herself out. Shortly there after I get a horrifying call at work from my apartment complex saying my apartment was on fire and to please get there ASAP. I show up and sure enough my apartment was in flames. The fire department came to me and said they had reason to suspect foul play and that detectives were on the way to speak with me. Fast forward several months and it was found that gasoline was poured and lit on fire, and they had named the main suspect as my now ex-girlfriend; out of jail on bail and doing everything she could to get back at me. Low and behold they found her and added on felony counts of arson and endangering lives (as the apartment complex she caught on fire had others living in it), and put her in jail without bond. As I mentioned earlier she is sitting in jail still to this day, but all of my cases have been closed, and while a large portion of the debt and accounts were dropped, I am still left with $66,780 that I have absolutely no way of paying for. I had to relocate because for a while, I was fully in fear of my life. In this process I lost my job and pretty much everything I had. For a brief minute I had nothing but my car.
I moved to a new state and I am currently working 2 jobs trying to catch up, and may even need to get a 3rd, but even despite my effort, I’m falling further and further behind. I fear that I may lose my apartment I am in now if I can’t get this figured out. Bills are starting to come for all of the debt and there is no way I will be able to make it on my own. I am extraordinary upset with everything that happened, but I learned some extremely valuable lessons. And at the end of the day I’m still alive, and there is no greater gift than that. Life isn’t fair, and there are some very evil people out there. But at the end of the day whats gotten me through all of this is knowing that even though there is a lot of bad in the world, there is still a whole lot of good too.
I am here to ask for any and all help possible. There is no amount too small. I am grateful and happy for absolutely anything. And I plan to pay it all forward someday when I am out of this mess. Thank you all, and here is my PayPal.me account if you do so chose to help; I am humbly grateful and I wish the very best for you and yours.
paypal.me/axiom220
Thanks,
Josh