I Got Scammed. Badly.

As Always, I Blame Myself, the Victim. And, Yes, I DO Go On.

The truth is, I should have known better. I think I did know better. A few times, I absolutely did know better, but the need to believe overrode my best instincts, and the guy somehow managed to calm my best instincts. In essence, the guy was good, as I am the sort of person who gets suspicious if someone wants to see my license to, say, rent a car. Why do they need it? Are they trying to get my address so they can later break into my house and… I don’t know? Steal my Sami Zayn action figures? Bask in the glory of the overwhelming melange of my books, papers, rocks, and magpie prizes? Not eat or not food? Maybe be kindly and kill some of the ants that, inexplicably, are a perpetual nuisance in a second-floor apartment where someone (ahem, that’d be me) obsessively cleans to relieve stress?

But I have been trying so hard to find a job, and I have applied for so many with no response. The same thing is happening with apartments - and most of them list without phone numbers, just “send an inquiry through the website” links, which nobody responds to as well. I feel so cornered and kicked, because I am on a tight deadline for the apartment (we have to be out 07/31 – though if they think neither of us have changed a deadbolt before and I won’t batten down the hatches when I have all but begged them to raise the rent and give us a month to month lease so we can have more time to find somewhere to live… and I won’t stay here and guard it like a rabid lion, they have something else coming….)

I’m concurrently the manager of two of life’s greatest stressors where it seems only scammers are interested in participating in the actual process. The thing is, I have no idea what this “Issac Pierre” - who invaded the usually safe NextDoor.com space - and claimed to be a multi-state real estate broker who did not want to deal with the internet and screening candidates – and truly sounded legit. He said he spent some time in CT, with his aging parents, but was based in WI, which is where his company was based - and he even sent me a legitimate-looking contract - enough so that I, with contract and employment law experience, did not question its authenticity.

Plenty of older people don’t want to deal with learning how to upload photos, how to orient them, which to remove (or notice some are doubles), proofing their text, nor deal with each site’s individual slight differences - and I have done this for many people over the years. Aside from some people who, and I most certainly hope I will be one of them,maintain intellectual curiosity about technology and the arts - and still use updated devices, listen to new music, watch new TV and movies, and everything else there is to experience (except AI. I don’t want AI in my life, thank you very much.) I know people who gave up on that in their 40s, and I find that to be incredibly sad. Assuming you only live once, why wouldn’t you want to create and experience life to its fullest? Why would you rather stagnate and long for what increasingly becomes a fictionalized past of your own machination and the repeats of TV shows from your childhood?

But I digress.

In nothing more than an act of pure desperation, a highly advanced and manipulative scammer who, I honestly still am not sure what he gained, managed to trick me. I am not accustomed to calling companies to find out if their representative works for them when they call me and make me an offer and send me a contract. When I did, and sent the company, which is real, they told me they never heard of him, and while it looked like it was theirs, he had faked the contract.

Unbelievable.

Now, Zillow has their own application system, but perhaps he was bypassing it, even though I was just fielding questions about smoking, pets, occupancy date, and passing on phone numbers to schedule tours. For all I know, he was bypassing it with some sort of sketchy “application” system, as his two listings led to my Zillow account, which I need to apply for apartments myself, being suspended. GREAT! And since he was my job reference, and I was anticipating about $2300 additional household income, we are now in a far worse position for obtaining and affording an apartment - though I have an elder care agency interview tomorrow, as well as two other potential (actual) interviews this week - including going back to an elder care agency I did not particularly like, but at this point, beggars cannot be choosers.

I am still recovering from the abuse I went through for years, and nobody wants to hear about it - nor should I have to explain it - especially the financial abuse component of it - but that is why purely looking at, and disqualifying people based on credit score is actually discriminatory in so many ways on a socioeconomic scale, obviously - but also where that intersects with complex issues involving race, gender, sexuality, mental health, and for an even larger picture, criminal history, or merely being accused of, and arrested for – but not convicted of – a crime.

This is part of why I am studying law as much as I can for free and collecting certificates this way, not that I will ever be able to practice, but also writing a book about the law, socioeconomics, intersectionality, and trying with all I can to make it relatable to everyone, as otherwise, it is too academic and all too many people end up in situations like these (my largest obstacle being I was forced by an inattentive public defender who I met when I was in chains (literally for knocking over Star Wars figures in stop a former roommate from hitting me - after for reasons I cannot explain - tolerating 2+ years of abuse - and using her as an outcry witness and she took photos of bruises on me – which my subsequent even more inattentive public defender refused to subpoena, and somehow decided I had to attend these asinine “group classes” that were below my grade level when I was seven years old… for 18 weeks, Mondays and Wednesdays 2pm-4pm, thus, entirely derailing my career, and not in any way helping me to recover my decimated credit score…

…while also enabling the person who abused me to maintain control of my emotional support cat, my belongings (which were stolen and given to a stranger and/or used by him and whoever the hell she is), and continue to torture me in absentia and abuse the courts - down to attempting to harm my husband.

And I don’t want to share this story with potential landlords, because it sounds like I am some sort of drama magnet, as opposed to a survivor of abuse – but the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, as much as I hate to say bad things about them – they told me they had records of all the times I called, looking for help for myself and my cat, but I must have “slipped through the cracks”. Further, they told me they could not provide me with legal assistance in obtaining my cat (even as an emotional support animal) - nor my belongings - that I needed to sue in small claims court. Very easy to say, much more difficult to do when the mere money to file and have someone served (and having to worry about defending against a likely fabricated, hurtful story from a criminally-minded sociopath.) No. Out, out, damned spot! Out of my life.

Yet, all of this haunts my every move. Part of emotional and mental abuse is gaslighting, so I question a lot of my own instincts and even my own knowledge. I am of sound mind, despite my mental illnesses and PTSD, but I also am acutely aware if I am “off” (and I’m not the one saying this - this is from the mouth of my psychiatrist and therapists) and if my medications are not working properly, or if I really need a mental health day, and also what I need to reset, so to speak. But gaslighting, which is a key component of PTSD - which is not unlike a pimp “breaking a bitch”, as much as I hate to make such a crass comparison, but honestly - why do we need to draw such strict lines between people who will beat the crap out of a woman they want to control, by breaking her down – breaking her spirit and soul – to get her to act the way they want and do the things they want her to do? I most certainly acknowledge the degrees of brutality and the specific actions, but when you take a thriving woman’s heart, soul, spirit, freedom, safety - and then the world treats her like trash because she doesn’t match up to other women?

Let’s just say: Abuse is abuse is abuse is abuse, and nobody should suffer some sort of eternal damnation from society for being abused, nor should they be denied simple dignities like safe housing.

To elaborate just a tiny bit here, the opposite does apply, and I refuse to believe you can be a proper feminist if you cannot acknowledge that men (even straight cis men) can be abused - by men and by women - as predators come in all shapes and sizes - and who is anyone to judge a particular person’s trauma when they were also systemically broken down by someone who assumed authority for whatever reason over their autonomy and act as if it did not happen because they are male?

Feminism, first wave, absolutely had to be 100% female-focused.

I am not sure what wave we are on now, but I believe in 2026, to be a feminist, to be a good human, to be for feminism, to be for women’s rights, Black rights, trans rights - and especially for the rights of the abused, or as, for my fellow emo friends who are still holding to our gloriest of glory days, “the broken, the beaten, and the damned” – we need to include everyone.

Because that’s how I git scammed.

I’m desperate. I’m healing, but still broken. I know people, male and female, who are healing, but still broken. We are imperfect people in a profoundly predatory world. Many of us do not have strong support systems and misplace our trust because we still believe in the concept, even though we’re not exactly sure why, other than, I suppose, despite our reservations, fears, instincts, and lessons we probably should have learned… like to think most of the world will act the way we do when dealing with others.

If you’re bored and the number is still in service, feel free to call Issac Pierre at 480.740.0644. But be creative! Leave my name out of it – buuuuuut - ask him questions about life in Wisconsin. How close is his property to local cheese factories, as you are a cheese monger, but cannot read maps? Does he know the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers and can he set you up on a date? Are season tickets included with the rental? Does he accept a casserole every Sunday for partial rent? Can he meet you at 9:18:16 EXACTLY, as you have OCD and it is a fair housing requirement?

I’m counting on you, dear readers.