Day 1: For Victims and Survivors
This day is for you, because your story matters. Your voice leads the way.
Romance Abuse Awareness Week begins by centring the people who’ve lived it: the survivors. This isn’t just a platform to raise awareness. It’s a day for validation, visibility, and community. Whether you’re ready to share, reflect, support, or simply be seen, we welcome you.
Before the fraud there was a life.
Before they became a victim, they were a person living a life.
Working. Caring. Grieving. Raising children. Recovering. Starting again. Feeling lonely. Feeling hopeful. Simply wanting someone to talk to.
Romance abuse doesn’t begin with money. It begins with a human connection and trust.
What’s Happening on Victim & Survivor Day:
This Starts with a Person — Not the Crime
We often begin conversations about romance fraud with the scammer, the fake profile, the money or the warning signs.
This week, we are starting somewhere else.
We are starting with the person.
Because before somebody was targeted, they were living an ordinary human life. Something may have been happening in that life that left them more in need of connection, comfort, companionship, hope, escape or simply someone who cared.
This does not mean they caused what happened. It does not mean they were naïve, gullible or responsible for the crime.
It means they were human.
We call this situational vulnerability: circumstances that can temporarily change how we feel, think, behave and respond to the world around us.
Sometimes that creates what psychologists describe as a hot state, a period in which emotion, stress, need or desire can influence decision-making and risk perception.
The vulnerability isn’t the crime. Vulnerability is not blame.
The vulnerability created an opening. The criminal chose to exploit it.
Day 1 Question: What was happening in their life when they arrived?
WHO SAW IT?
Who saw what was happening before the scam?
Before the scam, there was a life.
A person.
A family.
A job.
A loss.
A period of change.
A need for connection.What was happening in their life when the door opened?
What could we have seen?
What did they need?
What did the person who arrived appear to offer them?
#WhoSawIt #RomanceFraudAwarenessWeek
The Questions We Need To Ask:
What was happening in your life when they appeared?
We’re asking survivors to tell their stories, not to explain why they were responsible, but to help everyone else understand the circumstances criminals exploit.
Give Aways!
At the end of the week, we will read through the entries for the ‘Future Campaigns’ ideas section to make a decision on the idea that’s most innovative. There will be a first place and runner up prize.
First place will recieve a copy of Becky Holmes’ book and the runner up, a LoveSaid mug!