Sofija Stefanovic, (Penguin Specials) 2015, 94pp, $9.99
Investigative journalist Stefanovic’s brisk but fascinating study of online scams romantic and financial follows her attempts to meet those who have been conned and, perhaps, those who have done the conning, and it’s a sad, dark and even dangerous mission.
Although we meet others, the key figure here is Bill, an 80 year old widower who came out after the death of his wife and has been deceived and threatened into giving up huge sums of money via postal order. Bill refuses to believe that he has been lied to and basically robbed, no matter what detectives, support groups and Stefanovic herself says, and as she witnesses how passionately convinced and proud he is, she’s moved to try and make contact with a scammer by way of a fake dating profile. And there are immediate responses, and while she is advised to be careful Sofija nevertheless continues her push to get one of these obvious fraudsters to tell her about who they are and why they do it. She even problematically suggests that she might pay them.
Painting a depressing picture of cyberspace’s cruelty, this also gets to the heart of why people – especially older people – fall for online scams: 1) they’re lonely and vulnerable, 2) they don’t properly understand how murky and deceptive the online world can be, and 3) they foolishly believe in the goodness of others.
I Wake Up Screening 