Gangs cross all ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, gender, and geographic boundaries.
It was only after he disappeared with her money that Joan looked back at his emails and noticed hints that he wasn’t who he said he was – such as his broken English. If you think a message sounds phony, copy and paste part of the email into a search engine to see if it pops up on romance scam warning sites.
Other women in the videos described how the scammers claimed to be successful businessmen, but asked for money to cover costs for business or property deals gone wrong. Seek out a potential mate’s profiles on other sites like Facebook or Linked In to see if they are who they say they are.
Typically, the conmen communicated with their victims via email and text message, with one victim receiving more than 2000 communications in a period of three months – an average of over 20 a day.
York Regional Police said the investigation into the organized group began in July 2014 after one woman came forward to report a fraud.
"Find yourself someone who doesn't make you feel like loving you is a job. Someone who doesn't tell you that you're overreacting.
Someone that will rock you on the floor in the dead middle of an anxiety attack.
Without anyone to turn to for his Attention Deficit Disorder and dyslexia, Blair dropped out of school in the 9th grade and quickly turned to the close-knit "familia" gang life.
"I quickly saw how the system worked, how the street lords kept themselves in power through influence and manipulation.
Gang members have been known to kick, punch, hit, or even kill their victims.
People get hurt if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I observed how the older people used bribery and fear to get the younger kids to do their crimes, and I saw how the young people willingly went along with it because it seemed like the only power structure that had any kind of respect in the neighborhood." His story was meant for a tragic end, but Blair is no longer even a shadow of his former self — except for the tattoos you see when he wears short-sleeved shirts.