Seduced by the Dark Side

Seduced by the Dark Side as a book title required little brainstorming as it occurred to me shortly after my decision to write a book detailing my disastrous cyberspace adventure. This title describes my inner experience dramatically and accurately. From the time of its beginning on Saturday morning, October 16, at approximately 11:00 a.m. until Tuesday afternoon, February 8, my life was immersed in a seemingly blissful online relationship that had taken complete control of my thought process. The individual in whom I had confided with reassurances of faithfulness and loyalty turned out to be an unprincipled criminal eager to seize my financial assets greedily and mercilessly, and with no regard for me as a fellow human being.

The two principal players were my soul mate, Jane Daley, referred to by her chat handle, Jane Love, and her alleged family attorney, Philip Smith, who supplied me with an array of pseudo-legal documents which provided a means of siphoning my personal funds for transfer into his personal account. Jane Love and Phil Smith gained my confidence and exploited my naivete to perfection. By the time I realized what had happened, it was too late to turn back. The die had been irretrievably cast.

Emotion had trumped intelligence and common sense; however, now I acquired a renewed respect for doubting third parties. This life lesson was one that I learned the hard way. In the aftermath, I concluded that the best and most feasible way to confront this undeniable catastrophe and recover from it would be to retell said catastrophe to a wide audience. My aim would be twofold: recover lost assets and alert other prospective victims of cybercrime.