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Original poster

Oh Bananabeau you will be missed.

476 replies

Rainbows41 · 03/07/2025 20:06

I'm so sorry to see your post has been removed. You will be missed.
I refreshed my app daily in the hopes of seeing positive updates from you, and I'm sad you felt you needed to remove your post altogether.
I wish you well in your future and I sincerely hope you can fulfill your dreams.

You deserve to be happy.
💗

OP posts:
OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 04/11/2025 14:59

@ReadingTime

Ah, so at least 3 of us were approached for money ?

Shame, as I like to believe the majority of posters are genuine.

Americano75 · 04/11/2025 15:09

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 04/11/2025 14:59

@ReadingTime

Ah, so at least 3 of us were approached for money ?

Shame, as I like to believe the majority of posters are genuine.

That's because you're a genuine, honest person.

nomas · 04/11/2025 15:13

ReadingTime · 04/11/2025 14:07

My belief now is that all her posts in the first two threads were all written by AI and were a complete work of fiction, and then she got those threads deleted so people couldn't compare them with later ones, and the later threads and PMs were her own writing and all of it was very carefully building up to get money from people. I was so struck when her writing style suddenly changed that I messaged mumsnet to ask if the PMs I was getting were really being sent by the same person, and they confirmed it was coming from the same IP address.

She PM'd me back and forth for a while and after the first two threads I was so invested and so wanting to help her escape, but her replies to my questions were vague, didn't ring true or make sense, and I gradually realised I was being set up for a scam. She contacted another person I know and did the same thing, and when it became obvious each of us weren't going to give her any money she stopped messaging.

I was gutted and also embarrassed because like any others I was very moved by her first two threads and really wanted to help her, and I'm now a lot warier as a result and have hardly posted here since. It's easy to imagine the AI prompt that could have written the whole series of posts.

Show quote history

Sorry to hear this. I think the chances of it being her husband or a stranger were unlikely. Hopefully it's a salutary lesson to us all.

ReadingTime · 04/11/2025 15:22

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 04/11/2025 14:59

@ReadingTime

Ah, so at least 3 of us were approached for money ?

Shame, as I like to believe the majority of posters are genuine.

Yes, but it was quite subtle and well done, she didn't directly ask me for money but told me she was at work and her husband had cleared out their bank account and she had no access to money for lunch or the train home. I persuaded her to ask a colleague to lend her some money, and she said at the time that she had but after that she stopped messaging me. She told my friend a different but similar story about being locked out without her stuff and needing to pay for a hotel room, and was quite pushy and insistent that she needed help, and stopped messaging after my friend said she couldn't help. It was only when we compared notes that it confirmed it was very likely all lies.

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 04/11/2025 15:27

I was directly asked for money for a hotel for a couple of nights, on Bank Holiday Monday in August.
(I am in England and she claimed somewhere that she was in Scotland and I realised it wasn't a bank Holiday there.)

MyOtherProfile · 04/11/2025 16:18

That's so sad. I mean it's good there isn't a person in such a bad position but it's horrible that someone could have just made it all up.

Original poster
Rainbows41 · 04/11/2025 18:41

This is horrible to read. We really cared for her wellbeing and it was just a scam all along. That's really sad.

OP posts:
CuppaTea23 · 04/11/2025 19:14

Still doesn't quite make sense with the style change though? Or are we saying her DMS has different style even during the main posts? Awful😢

MyDadWasAnArse · 04/11/2025 19:17

Oh this makes me so angry. Taking us all for mugs and laughing up their sleeves at us trying to help.

LittleGlowingOblong · 04/11/2025 20:30

I think the original bananabeau was legit. But another person came along and pretended to be her. That’s my reading of it, anyway.

BuckChuckets · 04/11/2025 20:42

LittleGlowingOblong · 04/11/2025 20:30

I think the original bananabeau was legit. But another person came along and pretended to be her. That’s my reading of it, anyway.

No, because MN confirmed to a PP it was the same IP address. Same person posting.

LittleGlowingOblong · 04/11/2025 20:45

Ohhh… I didn’t know that.

Could have been her partner, at the same workstation? The style & tone changed completely.

carmak · 04/11/2025 20:50

MyDadWasAnArse · 04/11/2025 19:17

Oh this makes me so angry. Taking us all for mugs and laughing up their sleeves at us trying to help.

Scammers don't care enough to laugh at you. You are just a source of income, no more, no less.

They exist because so many people are kind and want to help.

Please people, never send money, it just perpetuates the problem.

ReadingTime · 04/11/2025 21:01

Mumsnet confirmed the original posts and the PMs were coming from the same IP address, and the only thing that makes sense was that the earlier posts were not real because the PMs were so different. A controlling husband discovering a mumsnet account would never have pretended to be the poster and started trying to get money from people. It’s so hard to believe though because the first threads seemed so real. But I guess that’s how people get caught by romance scams and similar, because the person seems so real.

But to balance this out, I know for a fact that other threads about escaping horrible relationships on here are absolutely real and the mumsnet support changed everything for those people, so I won’t become too suspicious. Just a bit more careful.

BustyLaRoux · 04/11/2025 22:57

So from memory then was this the OP who was banned from an event because the DC’s mum would kick off? I don’t want to name too many details in case there’s a chance the person was genuine and someone using the same IP address has exploited them. Married with older SDC and had been taken for a mug all this time. Finally woke up and saw how she’d been used over the years. Then it all went downhill pretty quickly and suddenly she became ill, then she was cut off financially and locked out the bank accounts. Wow. I mean if it is the same person I’m thinking of, I remember those earlier posts and crikey they seemed real!!!!!

WearyAuldWumman · 05/11/2025 00:23

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 04/11/2025 15:27

I was directly asked for money for a hotel for a couple of nights, on Bank Holiday Monday in August.
(I am in England and she claimed somewhere that she was in Scotland and I realised it wasn't a bank Holiday there.)

Yes, that was her.

I was all set to offer to pay a hotel directly for her, given that she'd claimed to be in Scotland. I felt guilty because I wasn't sure that the 'second' Bananabeau was genuine and was hoping that someone could verify it for me.

I recall messaging someone (something I just don't do on here) to try to check.

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 05/11/2025 00:38

@WearyAuldWumman

I received a message from someone on this thread that evening warning me that it might not all be as it seemed. I replied confirming I had not sent any money.

A couple or so days later I messaged a different person on this thread asking if they had any background info / further info but I didn't get a reply.

I too felt ' guilty ' ish, hence my subsequent posts giving the details for the ' out of hours ' help from every major local authority I could find in Scotland. as bb had claimed in her message to me that her local authority could not help for 72 hours - which actually I don't and didn't quite believe.

ThePoshUns · 05/11/2025 07:33

I was a bit suspicious when every post urging her to go to the police/ women’s aid/ talk to her boss was ignored. Seemed she only wanted ‘help’ in the form of money from kind hearted people on here. Lesson learnt.

WaitWhatWhatWait · 05/11/2025 08:00

Yep, agree Posh
I made a comment a one of the deleted threads to be careful, and was promptly told I was not "being kind".

MyDadWasAnArse · 05/11/2025 08:04

carmak · 04/11/2025 20:50

Scammers don't care enough to laugh at you. You are just a source of income, no more, no less.

They exist because so many people are kind and want to help.

Please people, never send money, it just perpetuates the problem.

Show quote history

I doubt this is some bloke from Africa though. It's probably a British person behind it. It didn't seem like AI to me and it wasn't a romantic scam. Makes it worse.

goodThingGonewrong · 05/11/2025 22:47

I really thought she was genuine. Her first two threads… she was so likeable. A few observations from me that come across as stange is that MN usually remove posts about people who have deleted their threads. But this one was titled so openly about Bananabeu but it remained up and still remains. Secondly is, if Bananabeau was actively scamming, why didn’t she continue to post on her threads where she had such a following? However I do not doubt what you are all saying about being approached for money ect and things not adding up. It all came to an abrupt crescendo … I was actually on holiday time of the crisis and was thinking of sending her money as it all sounded so desperate.

Subwaystop · 06/11/2025 02:00

Wow. What a ride. I read this thread thinking: can I read this in November and figure out what it's about? Will little clues give it away, in case I read the first OP months ago? I ead the start of lots of threads and drop them so they all merge into my mind as one.

Then at like page 3, it all came back to me. The outrageous situation she was in, having essentially given her best years to a cast of awful people. And now on the new thread, I was so heartened to see how she'd been built up by a group of such kind, sweet mumsnetters. I often find it so depressing how cynical mumsnetters can be, how quick they are to tell a suffering person "yeah, sure, you fake". I was so glad for the dose of real, trusting, human goodness. My god, what a depressing twist in the end. Seems the whole thing was just a bit of an original twist on the old fraud.

I hope no one sent money. And I hope you all don't lose faith in what you can do for others as keyboard warriors.

It's all so sad.

Kindness is such a gift. Cynicism really robs us of our ability to be kind. Scammers sow a world of cynicism. Horrible, just horrible.

Sending love to all of you who gave their hearts, time, and trust. 💐

Subwaystop · 06/11/2025 02:03

goodThingGonewrong · 05/11/2025 22:47

I really thought she was genuine. Her first two threads… she was so likeable. A few observations from me that come across as stange is that MN usually remove posts about people who have deleted their threads. But this one was titled so openly about Bananabeu but it remained up and still remains. Secondly is, if Bananabeau was actively scamming, why didn’t she continue to post on her threads where she had such a following? However I do not doubt what you are all saying about being approached for money ect and things not adding up. It all came to an abrupt crescendo … I was actually on holiday time of the crisis and was thinking of sending her money as it all sounded so desperate.

Secondly is, if Bananabeau was actively scamming, why didn’t she continue to post on her threads where she had such a following?

It could be that Mumsnet blocked this user and their IP so they are no totally gone.

I was actually on holiday time of the crisis and was thinking of sending her money as it all sounded so desperate.

It was strange though that she had a job and not even a few pence to get to the next town. It's one thing if she's unable to come up with a bit of money for days, but being so totally destitute and needing to turn to mumsnetters was not adding up.

carmak · 06/11/2025 08:15

It was a modern day version of Cinderella.

MeMeMeMeOw · 06/11/2025 10:21

Subwaystop · 06/11/2025 02:03

Secondly is, if Bananabeau was actively scamming, why didn’t she continue to post on her threads where she had such a following?

It could be that Mumsnet blocked this user and their IP so they are no totally gone.

I was actually on holiday time of the crisis and was thinking of sending her money as it all sounded so desperate.

It was strange though that she had a job and not even a few pence to get to the next town. It's one thing if she's unable to come up with a bit of money for days, but being so totally destitute and needing to turn to mumsnetters was not adding up.

Show quote history

That didn't make sense, and I don't remember her actually replying to people who suggested that while at work she seek some help and support. It's common sense.

Makes me absolutely sick. And cynical.