Listed a huge bag of DD’s baby clothes on Facebook marketplace for £20. Got a message from a very keen mum. She said she couldn’t pay me back until she had some money, she’s a self employed beautician apparently. I was fine with this. Maybe naive of me but she was saying how black mold had been found in her 4 month old’s wardrobe and she’d had to throw everything out so needed the clothes ASAP. I gave her a time to pick up the clothes. She showed up with baby in tow and was very overly thankful. I offered her a hot drink because she looked absolutely knackered and she’d travelled across the city on the bus. She accepted.
I didn’t ask about her DC but she saw a photo of mine, asked their ages and then got onto the topic of her 2 older children. She said her ex had taken them back to their home country in Eastern Europe without her permission and that she was devastated because the international police weren’t doing enough to track them down and she couldn’t go because of the baby and having no money. She started showing me pictures of them as well, though she wasn’t in any of the pictures. I didn’t really know what to say so I just offered a listening ear and nodded along. She then said she was terrifed of having this baby taken away as well. She was on the verge of tears. Eventually she left.
It’s a few days now since the day she said she’d get paid from a client and apparently pay me back. I wanted to just let her off, clearly she is struggling. But DH thinks she’s full of shit and thinks the sob story was false so we’d let her off, and he doubled down on getting her to pay. Tbf we aren’t made of money and could actually do with the £20.
I decided to have one attempt and sent her a polite message asking if she had been paid yet and saying if not we could plan another day for her to pay me. She replied with another long spiel about how she’s desperately sorry but she’s decided to save every penny she has towards hiring a private investigator to find her kids. After reading that message I knew where the situation was going. I should’ve just blocked her then but instead I sent a nice message telling her not to worry about it and that I’d let the money go. I think this made me look like a soft touch and she sent me another message then again thanking me and offering to bake me a cake instead and bring it round. This creeped me out a little so I blocked her. I’ve been on edge worried that she’s going to turn up.
For what it’s worth I think the story about her kids is true and she is probably a just desperate distraught mum but I’m sure she was trying to get me to give her money. DH thinks it’s false and he’s now worried she’s part of some organised crime gang and came round to scout the house out for a future robbery, which I think is ridiculous. He also thinks we should report her to social services and says we don’t even know if that baby was even hers. I see his point but she seemed genuine to me and I’d feel terrible. Even if we did report her we don’t have an address to go on, just her picture and name on Facebook and if she is dodgy it’s no doubt a false name.