Izergin Egevniy: Very Convincing
magnet@rosarypea.com
I received an unsolicited email on gay.com. Replied to fairly casually but over the next three or four days got to know a little bit more about Izergin Egevniy. Once in relationships with women, he now realised that he was gay, oppressed by the repressive laws of Russia. He was an architect in a state owned enterprise, a simple Christian who visited his parents frequently. My heart went out to him as I saw him sitting in a provincial city, using an internet cafe, although he was trying to save for a computer of his own. Moved by this, and my vanity flattered, I offered to help him to buy a computer. I sent off $800 via Western Union, a service I had been only dimly aware of. I was impressed by his research on the subject of Western Union and naively thought it showed initiative on his part! Oh well! I thought, whatever happens, at least I have improved one poor Russian's life. I even tracked the transfer and was disturbed to discover it had lain unclaimed for a day. Poor Izergin. So sincere. He had not had time to get to the bank. Glowing in my deed of altruism, I was now concerned that he did not have an internet connection. Through further research he discovered that in order to get online he'd need another $900. Starting, only now to begin to feel slightly suspicious, I began research of my own, and discovered this and other sites and realised that I had been scammed good time. Of course I feel angry and abused but also accept that I should have done my research earlier in the process. How we can be blinded by vanity and having our egoes massaged. Having discovered all this, and having waved goodbye to $800 (or £400 as it is in the UK) I am now stringing him a long for a bit. There is a televised European evening of ghastly kitsch known as the Eurovision Song Contest in which Russia came third, so I have been extracting his comments on this with the bait of further money. I have to see the funny side of this. But I also desperately hope that noone else is taken in by this alarmingly plausible guy. I have discovered from Western Union (a beastly organisation to my mind) that the money was picked up in Yoshkar Ola, the centre of the scammer sweatshops. I was impressed by the quality of the photographs and wonder who the fresh-faced guy in them really is.