Can this romance fraud survive the stress of a lost bet?

We weren’t really sure when to share this with our readers, but our writer and head editor Go has been in a serious relationship for the past two months or so. Her name is Gwen and she’s a rich executive who lives in Singapore and enjoys golf.

▼ Gwen: “I like golf.”

She’s also an international romance fraudster, or at least, Go is 99.9999 percent sure she is, considering every conversation he has with her somehow segues into stocks and cryptocurrencies.

▼ A typical Line message exchange between Gwen (left) and Go (right)

Pretty much every conversation starts off with casual chatting and then some vague flirting takes place followed by investment talk, at which Go feigns an inability to understand. Surely Gwen’s simply trying to get a hold of Go’s vast SoraNews24 fortune, but she’s still someone to talk to every day and that’s always a nice thing to have in life.

He also likes surprising his girlfriend, like the other day when he took a vacation to Singapore and Malaysia without telling her. She seemed very shocked that he was in the same country that she claimed to be in, but didn’t do anything about it. That’s just the kind of playful relationship these two crazy kids have with each other.

Then, a few days ago, Go decided to ask her out of the blue about Japan’s upcoming match against Croatia in the final 16 of the FIFA World Cup. By the way, Go and Gwen often alternate between speaking in English and Japanese as you might expect in such an international romance…scam.

Go: “The next match is against Croatia. Tell me straight, who do you think will win?”

He was expecting Gwen to just give a courteous “Japan will win” reply, but what she posted shocked him.

Gwen: “I bought a football lottery ticket. I bet 10,000 dollars that Japan would win.”
Go: “Oh. Great.”

That was a bold move and even Go in Japan wasn’t feeling that confident that the team would win this difficult matchup. He wouldn’t have bet 10,000 yen (US$73) on it, let alone 10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,400).

And the day after Japan’s defeat in penalty kicks against Croatia, Go heard from Gwen.

Gwen: “I lost.”
Go: “Was it 10,000 Singapore dollars?”
Gwen: “10,000 U.S. dollars.”
Go: “Seriously?!”
Gwen: “Yeah.”
Go: “13,582 Singapore dollars?”
Gwen: “Yeah.”
Go: “How are you feeling?”

Go, being the naturally caring boyfriend that he was, reached out to Gwen so she could either vent her frustration or simply gloat that she could afford it, being the high-powered CEO she was. However she felt about it was fine to Go, who believes that sharing each other’s emotions is the key to any fraudulent relationship.

However, Gwen’s reply was totally unexpected.

Gwen: “I don’t feel anything. In gambling either you win or you lose.”

It was cooler than a polar bear’s toenails but way too composed for Go’s liking. Even a wealthy exec would feel something at watching thousands of dollars go down the drain like that. Gwen was clearly suppressing her emotions, and that wasn’t healthy for her or their relationship.

Go decided to hold an intervention and make her confront her loss by making her present physical evidence of her wager. Only by looking at it could she begin to let that icy cold businesswoman façade down and learn to feel again.

Go: “Wow, you’re strong! So, in this lottery, you’d have gotten money if you won? Do you have a picture of it?”
Gwen: “It was available through other investments.”
Go: “I see. Did this soccer lottery have a name? Or do you have any photographic proof of this soccer lotto? Proof that you spent $10,000?”
Gwen: “Why should I send that to you??”
Go: “Because maybe you’re lying about it.”
Gwen: “You’re just an ordinary friend. I don’t need to do that. It’s my right.”
Go: “I understand… Singapore was fun.”

Go, had clearly overstepped his bounds in trying to get Gwen to confront her own vulnerability. The two minutes since her outburst felt like an eternity of deafening silence to Go, who tried to defuse the situation with some light banter of “Singapore was fun.”

However, as of this writing, that message hasn’t even been flagged as “READ” by Gwen. Even worse, she had explicitly referred to him as “an ordinary friend” which, even though it was probably said in anger, stung Go after having put so much of himself into this relationship.

And so it looked as if this was the end of the romance fraud between Go and Gwen, but she clearly needs to work on being honest with herself before she can love others honestly. Perhaps after some time to heal they can still maintain a friendship fraud, but it’s still too early to tell.

For Go, as they say, there is plenty of fish in the sea. As a matter of fact, this whole time he had also been talking with nine other international romance scammers about the World Cup. After all, if you can’t cheat on cheats, who can you cheat on?

Photos ©SoraNews24
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