Need confidential support - a friendship with a scammer.

[flowerpot13]

I have been talking to someone online for years who has turned out to be a not very nice person and has more likely than not been grooming me for a scam. I am not 100% sure but sure enough to stop speaking to them. It all feels like I have wasted so much time for a fake friendship. I have told them so much about myself. I am trying not to blame myself but am feeling guilty for ignoring the red flags just because I didn't want to accuse someone falsely. Is there any free confidential support out there for this kind of thing like someone I can phone to talk to about it.

I'm sorry this has happened to you. Well done for being brave enough to have cut contact with them..I can't advise on where to seek support but hopefully someone will be along soon to help.

I’m sorry this has happened to you. I don’t know of any support groups or services but happy to chat on this thread. This happened to me a couple of times. Once on a forum site (not MN) where this person turned out to be a massive troll with dozens of usernames. She, another friend (who I knew in person and was real) and I even had plans to meet up before she was revealed by mods to be a troll. And the other time it was someone who I really thought was an amazing person going through a bad time; it turned out everything she told me was a lie. It’s hard to get over something like that.

Sorry you've been through this. Have a look at the victim support website. There's support for grooming victims and you don't need to have reported a crime to get help from them.

www.victimsupport.org.uk/

I might have been on that site too, and being equally shocked when the mods revealed the truth.