Well, my parents separated about a year ago. My dad was really upset and almost suicidal afterwards for months.
Lately he's been in a better mood and he's been telling me about this girl that he met through okcupid. My dad lives in New York. The girl lives in Romania. I told my dad that it's probably a scam. He replied that everyone keeps telling him that but they talk everyday so he knows that it's not a robot. I told him that of course it isn't a robot, it's probably some guy in an internet cafe overseas trying to get some money out of him. He assured me that no money was involved so I said "alright, well as long as this is a genuine thing then great."
Over the weekend my dad said that he wanted to talk to me so I went to his house and he told me that the girl is coming there in 10 days. I was surprised. I asked him how that was possible. He went into this big schpeel about how it's really expensive to call from Romania to America and how she's been trying to get her Visa and all that she has to do now is take a medical exam and then she's good to come over here. He said that she's flying into an airport by my house and that he was going to bring her over to meet me after he picks her up at the airport. I asked him if they had spoken on the phone yet. He said no. He also told me that he just changed his phone plan to include international calling. I told him that it's really fishy that they haven't talked on the phone yet. He said he thought so too but he was happy. Then he went on Google Earth and was showing me the town that she's from in Romania. The town is actually a beautiful city right on the ocean. Then he showed me this house in Spain that is supposedly where she's at now with her mother for the Visa.
I thought it was weird that the girl would give out her mother's address. I also thought it was weird how into Google Earth my dad was. I asked if the girl looks at my dad's town on Google Earth too. My dad said she doesn't have a computer. So, she has an okcupid, she responds to emails, she lives in a beautiful city in the Mediterranean but doesn't own a computer. Oh and the pictures that she has on her okcupid were nice. She was dressed nice and in places that looked like she could afford a computer. Oh, she's also never sent my dad a picture aside from the ones she has on okcupid because she "doesn't" have a camera. Mind you, my dad's sent her tons of pics of himself, he's sent her tonsss of emails, and he's basically poured his heart out to this person.
Later on, he told me (probably by mistake) that he bought her breakfast a couple of times. My immediate reaction was "omg" *rolled eyes* and I asked him how he could have possibly bought her breakfast when she lives across the globe. He told me that he sent her money orders.
He tried justifying it by saying that he used to gamble and now he doesn't do that so it's okay. I asked him how he'll react if he goes to the airport to pick her up and she isn't there. He said that either way he would be happy because at least that means he can get over my mom. He also compared what he's doing with therapy because he could pay a shrink to get the same results. However, at the end of our convo he said "but she really likes me.." so I know that his heart is really in this.
My brother who is really pissed off by all of this says that my dad (for the first time in his life or at least the first time in my 21 year long life) is finally making money. He makes like $1000 a week now and has absolutely nothing to show for it. He doesn't even have anything in his fridge to drink. My bro said that my dad is paying for all of this girls Visa stuff. Supposedly the girl is going to pay for her own plane ticket over here but she'll probably say she has half and ask my dad for the other half and I need to stop that before it happens.
So, what can I do? Or should I butt out because my dad is happy? I mean, he's happy for the time being but I don't want him to drive his truck off a bridge when he's driving home from the airport alone. I've already tried telling him in plain English that this is a scam. My brother showed him the forums on okcupid that talk about scams and my dad read through the stories. And if he knows it's a scam and doesn't care then should I not care either?Any advice will be appreciated.
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Sent my father the link to that support forum last night. He said he appreciates my concern but is aware that it might be a scam and if she doesn't come in 12 days then she doesn't come and he'll be happy either way cause this experience showed him that he can like another woman other than my mom. He didn't go into details about how much money he gave her but he compared it to $400 he blew on roulette so I'm guessing it was around that amount. This scam can't financially ruin my father because he's already done that himself. He's already in debt. He doesn't have any credit cards or any savings to draw funds from so he's just sending this girl cash that he has on hand. Sure, he could do something responsible with his money but my dad has never been the type to do that and he's stubborn so telling him that is a waste of breath. Anywho, he was really optimistic (not too much about the girl, just about his life) and was talking about quitting smoking and my father has been a pack a day smoker for 36 years. Unless he's just saying all of that to appease me, then this scam artist has motivated my dad to want to do things that my family has never been able to persuade him to. If in 13 days he's still on this, then I'll continue worrying about it but for the time being I've done pretty much all that I can and I've spoken my peace with him. Thank you gals and guys for all the input.



Any advice will be appreciated.
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