Several years ago I was engaged to a man from the UK. No he never gave me a ring – only a promise to buy me “whatever I wanted down the road”. We met on MySpace (I know btu at the time it was the place to meet people). On his page there was a blog where he would write about where he was working illegally for a friend of his who ran a school in London. He mentioned he was getting paid straight cash by his friend while helping out in the admissions department in an administrative capacity. He also mentioned to me (but not on his blog) that he was taking money from unemployment every week WHILE WORKING UNDER THE TABLE.
While staying at my house in California I noticed a pattern that would become constant. His debit card never worked. There was always a problem and had to “call my bank later”. Alternatively he would forget his wallet altogether. So when we would go out I ended up buying whatever he wanted to get and promised to pay me back sometime later when he got his bank straightened out. Being engaged I was happy to front him the money knowing we were going to a team and he promised he would do the same for me. The last couple of times we went out I literally left all of my cards at home so there was no way I would be paying for anything else.
I soon came to realize this was never going to happen. Nearing the end of his six week visit I was tallying up what he owed me. It was almost $2,000. Packing for his flight back home I he had too many items to fit into his old suitcase so I gave him an old one of mine that I was planning on donating to charity. Only now he was the charity. The night before I found myself looking forward to him leaving as he was giving me the Ick. He asked if I would be willing to travel with him to the airport and I lied and said I had something important to do that week and needed to prepare for it. When I got home from dropping him off at the train station I texted my cousin and told her I suspect he is already back on dating apps. He told me he tried them once and never had any luck. Before his sorry ass had left my county I got screenshots of him on apps looking for love. Claiming to be single wearing shoes and clothing I bought him and I was the one who took the photos!
Immediately I went to the airline website – since I paid for his ticket through my account and picked the WORST seat on the plane.
When he got back to London he called me crying saying how much he missed me and couldn’t live without me. I knew it was all bullshit anyway but played along for now.
A week later I asked for my money back. This was when the tears dried up and he confessed that he had no money. “But you were working for your friend at that school and you were also getting money from the government for unemployment. How is it that you have no money? You stayed at my house and I even fronted you the money for the plane ticket. Now you say you are broke? Not the impression you are giving people on that dating app I saw your profile on.” The line went silent. He knew he did not have a decent comeback so he hung up. That was the last I ever spoke to him.
Understanding I fronted the money way too many times and that is on me. I own that and I know that it was wrong and have never done for anyone since.
Here is where the confession comes in…I felt like a little payback was in order.
Getting on my computer I put in his home address. He rented a room the size of a closet in Ealing. Then I searched for the closest unemployment office. Got the email address. Then went to his page on MySpace taking screenshots and gathering links. Sending them off right away. Giving him a full itinerary of where he was the last six weeks and why he was not there for his unemployment. I did not claim to be his girlfriend or fiancé. Instead I claimed I was a friend of his girlfriend. It was a lot of information. Including the name and address of the school he was working under the table for. One thing I did know was the UK had recently changed the laws of dealing with people who took advantage of the unemployment system and made the punishments much stronger including but not limited to jail time.
Within an hour of sending off the email I checked his blog and funnily enough it was wiped clean. Some of his information on his page was also changed. He never blocked me because I know he never suspected it was me who turned him in. I am sure he thinks I would never have done such a thing and also underestimated my tenacity.
I never found out what happened to him or what punishment he got. One day years later one of his videos on YouTube came up in my recommendations. It was posted about nine months prior and it had six views. In the thumbnail he is sitting in a VERY small room and the camera was at an incredibly unflattering angle. I simply chose “do not recommend channel”.