The Fraud Victim's Song: The Sounds of Silence

The isolated life

of the scam victim

Scammers specialize in isolating their victims. It is a vital component of most scams. Scammers use secrecy, threats, elitism, lies, half-truths, and special relationship to establish their dominance over their victim's thoughts and emotions. Their objective is to create a silent puppet who will follow their every suggestion and command, and they are very good at what they do. For more information, take The Backstage Tour.

Once a scam victim begins to understand that he or she has been used by a scammer, the isolation becomes self-imposed out of fear of discovery and ridicule by friends, relatives, and in many cases, law enforcement.

For this reason, scam victims are among the loneliest people on earth, subject to severe depression, life-threatening stress, and the aggravation of existing health issues. Stroke, heart attack, and suicide are not an unusual result of the realization that one has been the victim of a scam that leads to dire financial and legal consequences.

If you have been a scam victim, you will likely feel an immediate rapport with the words of Simon & Garfunkel's The Sounds of Silence.

I know I did.

- Annie McGuire, Founder, Fraud Aid, Inc.

The Sounds of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence

From the Simon and Garfunkel album of the same title, released Oct. 19, 1964

The Sounds of Silence is available on MP3 download from various sources.

______________________

Silence is fraud's greatest ally.

Word-of-mouth is fraud's worst enemy.