Last week Lovefraud posted a new True Lovefraud Story about a con artist named Dennis SanSeverino. The creep pretended to be loving and rich long enough to convince his victim to trust him. Then he took her home and inheritance.
This story is a classic case of a sociopath targeting the vulnerable.
When the victim, Trish Rynn, met SanSeverino, she had just endured a difficult breakup with her boyfriend. In the months that they got to know each other—Rynn initially refused his many dinner invitations—he must have been listening intently as she chatted about her life. Rynn’s ex-husband was physically abusive. After the marriage ended, Rynn spent 10 years in court fighting child custody and child support battles. The strain sent her into clinical depression, from which she was just beginning to recover.
Rynn was vulnerable, and SanSeverino was attracted like a shark to blood in the water.
SanSeverino started taking Rynn’s money—under the guise of helping her, of course. When Rynn found herself in serious debt due to him, she slipped back into depression. That’s when SanSeverino took her house and the rest of her inheritance.
Sad stories made worse
Lovefraud has heard these truly sad stories over and over again: Grief-stricken people who have lost a spouse or a child, and then lose their insurance settlement to a sociopath. Disabled people who are targeted because they get a minimal subsidy from the government. People struggling to care for someone else—like children or elderly parents—who learn that the assistance promised by a sociopath makes their burdens worse.
And then there are the lonely. Anyone who is lonely for any reason is walking target for a sociopath.
Vigilance when vulnerable
It’s sad, really. When we have problems and need help, we want to be able to trust that offers of assistance are real. When we’re looking for companionship, we want to be able to believe that the person pursuing us is sincere.
But the truth is that when we’re vulnerable, we need to be especially vigilant. Sociopaths are predators, and wounded prey make for an easy kill.
Happy Birthday to YOU…..Happy Birthday to YOOOUUUUU……Happy Birthday dear One Steppers……….HAAAPPPPPPPPYYYYY BBBBIIIIRRRRTTTTTHHHHDDDDAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY TOOOOOOOOO YYYYOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!
Now, have a shot of drambui and go to bed! 🙂
hello lovefraud! thank you for the great bday wishes! and shabby thanks for the tunes!
my work mates bought me many tequilla, and I swanned about downtown and didn’t work. i also walked out along a creek i used to live on. it was rather wonderful. the only thing – some tears missing my old friends, and my mom.
gem – i have special wax earplugs from europe – but this guy is really loud, and right over my head. up at all hours – the other night he was awake until 1:30 am and then up a 4 am….who does that? hmmm, coke heads?
star – are the shooting range ear plugs like a headset?
i talked to bylaw today and they say they can’t do anything about the noise as it is normal day to day noise – …but unfortunately it’s from 2 am to 5 am. They can do something about the dog. and the cops say to call them about the weekly violent outbursts (that literally last no more than 15 minutes) at the gf.
but all in all i will have to deal with the db landlord and the db neighbour – the fear i felt in my belly today freaked me right out. i feel very vulnerable, and alone. with the lack of sleep all kinds of spath ick is rearing its head.
back to no place, no certain job in 2 weeks, no money to move, and needing to find a new place – but i am more sane and less sick. I don’t want to fight. that’s the diff between us and spaths – fighting costs us something…for spaths, it’s just business as usual.
Dear One/Joy,
Yes, you are in a much better situation now than you were before, so keep a “stiff upper lip” and don’t let it get you down! You can always come here and SCREAMMMMMM!!!! (((hugs))))
if One screams in a blog, does anybody hear it?
just kidding. 🙂
left the house. waiting for said db to come home and invade my space was too much for me. it’s nice out tonight – cool cool air, like a glass of cool water. need to work a bit tonight. have a few brain cells left today as i got a few hours last night. may not sleep at all tonight, so better work now. there is everything wrong with this reality i feel terrorized by the db. he yelled at his gf yesterday, ‘You treat me like shit!’….hmmm, methinks that’s a projection.
I feel angry, scared, self pitying – the whole enchalada. but wanting revenge is not the way (oh, the things i obsess about doing to him!)…revenge thinking only hurts me. takes ME places i don’t want to go, leads me to being crazy like i don’t want to be.
someone else wanna come whack him? 🙂
oxy – waaaay upthread you mentioned SAD. not an issue for me, but Feb/march was when something really shitty happened when i was a kid – literally abandoned. I think there is a connection to my other disaterous feb/marches. I think i was emotionally re-enacting that experience when I hooked up with the n ex and the spath….being drawn to people who would not be there for me.
one/joy –
“I don’t want to fight. that’s the diff between us and spaths ”“ fighting costs us something”for spaths, it’s just business as usual. ”
That is sooooo true! Right now (and for many weeks to come) I am drowning in paperwork for court with Superspath.
As I have typed out our relationship history, I keep getting anxiety symptoms that I thought had gone away – sweaty palms, butterflies in my throat and stomach, dizzy spells, hyperventilation, etc.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is only business for me too – the business of eventually off-loading the spath. As far as I can work out, this court case is his last available avenue for attempting to get any sort of “supply” from me. I just have to last the distance, let it work its way out and then there will be nothing left for him to play games with anymore. It will be over.
It’s hard to talk myself into thinking that way, knowing that HE is getting off on this process, while it is costing me time, costing me money I don’t have and impacting on my health (which is already bad). I haven’t been sleeping properly for weeks. Sleep was something that had settled down to a reasonable pattern recently but now, I’m all over the shop again. And sooooooooooo very tired of typing endlessly about the spath – but I have to do this for my evidence for court. GRRRRRRRR!!!
And one/joy – I too, get miserable and mopey at the same times every year. I start to wonder why I’m like it in March and then again in May – then I remember that it’s because that’s when I lost my babies by miscarriage. Weird how our bodies “know” stuff….
One, yea, there is research that people with SAD are also depressed and there are even some people who think that “SAD” really isn’t all that big a deal unless you live in Alaska or somewhere like that…so I’m not sure what the latest thoughts and research on it is. I can check with Blogger and see what he can turn up, if anyone knows, He does. LOL I hate that he uses all this SCIENCE BASED research and logic…hard to argue with the guy! LOL Doesn’t mean I don’t argue with him, just that it’s hard to WIN when you do so.
I think to some extent we ALL tend to reenact some of the earlier traumas of our lives…I know I sure learned to FUNCTION IN MY DYSFUNCTION for a long time…most of my life.
Onejoy, I missed your Birthday. 🙁 But I am here to wish you a Happy belated one, anyway! What the heck, go get ya another couple shots of Tequila!
Thanks Kim! more tequilla? Okay!
The moral of that story is…don’t be weak! I am learning! 🙂