I'm really (REALLY) sorry to hear this happened to you.
I genuinely know the sinking feeling and it's freaking awful. It's a terrible and disgusting feeling to be scammed and knowing nothing can be done about it while the other scumbag laughs it off and moves on with their honor-less and miserable lives.
I'll share a quick(ish) story.
I used to be in the E-Sport scene before I started to run my own small business after gaining some momentum and popularity with it (so nerdy, I know!). I did this for over six years; closer to seven.
I wont bore you with the details but basically I made money by running a "subscription" service where people would pay $5 a month to team up with myself or other high-ranked players to help them boost their ranking in a player verses player environment. We also boosted (played on customer accounts) if they were willing to pay very big dollars and wanted much higher ratings. I had a handful of people close to me (former E-Sport partners) that I would give a cut to for monitoring how people were and also of course helping us rank people and their accounts up. I digress.
Two people I had known for almost ten years and had been working with for almost six years stole nearly $8,000 dollars (which is worth over double that today in 2021) worth of virtual goods from me (accounts we were flipping, items in-game that had a monetary value in the real world, actual game currency, codes, etc.). I never saw it coming. These were people I had known for nearly a decade and had even flown and stayed with at their homes in other states. These were people who bought me nice birthday presents or would take on extra jobs and not take the full cut because they just wanted to be nice. These were people that would fly to my home and stay with me and met my other friends. Whatever.
Well when a family member of mine got sick and was told they had cancer I dropped everything in my life to drive nearly 24 hours (through the night) to get to them as soon as possible and be there for them. Thank God to this day they are currently alive and beat cancer twice now! Well these two snakes, short-signed greedy selfish cowards, saw their chance and took it. They had access to an authenticator and of course could spoof their IP address using a VPN. They knew that I would not be near the computer for at least a week if not more. They of course also knew I trusted them and therefore other people would not question them signing into certain accounts and performing certain actions.
They stole nearly $8,000 dollars (that's USD) from me, which would be worth more than double that today, and ran off. I could do nothing about it. As cliché as it sounds I convinced myself that in a way, perhaps a supernatural force traded me $8,000 to save the life of a loved one. That is how I look at it and it was 100% completely worth it. But back to the point. I hate and despise thieves, especially those who are virtual cowards.
I'm sorry again this happened to you. There is nothing to be ashamed of. There is evil out there. I hope this never happens again and perhaps by a small miracle your bank can figure this out and help you. Good luck friend!
