money later. Dion Rudd €15,000: “I thought I could make money fast, but it turned out that I was the prey myself” | September financial month

Why did scams seem like a way out to you?
“A trapped cat jumps weird. When I was 15, I ended up in crisis youth care because I could no longer live at home. Then I lacked a basis for learning to handle money responsibly. My mom pushed me to her death, and she died when I was my age.” 16. After that I got a guardian and with a side job I was able to finish my school. I had independence training but it wasn’t much they left us too free If you used your money all week in two days I was lucky.

I went to live on my own, everything went well. I worked in a warehouse as a forklift driver. But of course you get a minimum wage, I was only 18, and so I had financial problems and I was late on payment.”

How did you connect with this world?
“I used to talk a lot on websites where someone would talk to me. We talked a lot and formed a bond. He said he sometimes had financial problems. But he offered a solution: We would cancel the phone subscriptions. He had a call at a phone company that would cancel those contracts for checking. We’ll have free phones that we can resell and we’ll share the profits. But it turned out differently.”

How?
That day he went with me to the phone companies, and I got a total of six subscriptions. We made it a beautiful day. Of course he’s already seen the salary and thought: make some good money. But it turns out that I am the prey. He had no contact with a phone company at all. He took the phones at the end of the day and earned a few thousand euros with them and I had those contracts in my name. This resulted in a debt of 15,000 euros.”

When did you know you were cheated?
“The next day. We were supposed to get back together to sell those phones, but he didn’t show up at the exact spot. And suddenly I couldn’t get to him anymore. I realized almost immediately: Now I’m the loser. Then you start thinking. You don’t see a mountain of gold anymore.” Suddenly you start seeing the signs you missed before. It’s a bit like falling in love, only now it was about getting out of my troubles. As soon as he didn’t show up, I pierced that pink cloud and knew something was wrong.”

What have you done?
“I didn’t know what to do. So I hid it. Only a year later I was so deeply in debt that I asked for help. Thanks to debt relief, I was able to pay it off in three years. Keep working hard, that’s all I can do.”

You are now 34 years old and making a career in a large company. How do you look back on your mistake?
“He was so stupid. At that time I had a good conversation with her: She’s a big company that scammed her, they don’t even miss her. And I’ve worked hard and I still struggle to survive. This is how you convince yourself you’re entitled to it. But Of course it doesn’t work that way. Being young and having a hard time taking responsibility made me more vulnerable to these kinds of stories. Years later, I met a boy I was in a shelter with who had gone through the exact same thing.”

What did you learn from that?
“No matter how big your problems are, keep thinking. If you fool someone else, you will fool yourself. And work hard. I’m not saying that wealthy skunks honestly do everything, but it’s better to stay within the lines. It causes the least problems.”

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