Jolene York - and awareness for online predators

My name is Brock, and I want to share this go fund me to help bring awareness to the dangers of online predators, especially when it comes to single elderly parents and grandparents. My mom, Jolene, was a beautiful person. As she aged, and watched her husband pass from cancer, she began to yearn for companionship. We helped her, as she joined a couple dating sites. These didn't pan out, and before too long, my mom was approached by someone on facebook. A handsome gentleman serving oversees in the military.

She was excited to share this news with us. We asked to see him and followed up on the account on facebook. What we found was an obvious fake to us. We talked to her about it, shared our concerns and asked her to block this person. She was hesitant, as she was really enjoying communicating with this guy, but told us she would. As we followed up, she assured us that she had cut communication, and hadn't heard from him anymore.

This was more than three years ago. My mom passed away this past weekend from a major stroke, after enduring stage 4 pancreatic cancer for the last several months. After digging into her email, pictures, and finances, we now see that my mom never stopped communicating with this ... insert any number of angry words here... In fact, she had been sending gifts, gift card numbers, money via bitcoin, and all kinds of personal information to this person/persons.

Their messaging was non-stop, sometimes hundreds of messages a day. Professing love, prayers, and the carrot that he would be coming back to the states and they would be married. She only had to support him and help him pay his oversees debts so that he could get out of the country. They sent pictures of gold bars, diamond rings, and other treasures that he had supposedly accumulated during his service there. They would be millionaires when he got back to her. This list goes on and on.

My mom lived on a fixed social security income, lived in low income housing, and often couldn't afford to go do things with family and friends. She had taken out personal loans to try and pay for this monster to get back to the states... all in the name of love.

Part of me is embarrassed to share my mom's story. I don't want to degrade her memory at all. She was an amazing woman. I also feel guilty for not being more aware of what was happening with my mom. I did try to ask the right questions, and she denied it vehemently, as recently as two months before she passed. Her friends were worried as well, and tried to help her, but she denied what was happening, and swore this man was real.

We are still trying to sort through all that she gave away, but over the past 3 plus years, it is reaching the $40-$50,000 threshold. Literally every penny she had was being given to thieves. She paid her rent and her car loan, and ate from the food bank. She was robbed financially, but also put under an immense amount of stress, the pressure of this man getting to come home was put squarely on my mom's elderly and sick shoulders. She was robbed of her sanity, time and happiness with her real family, and I have no doubt robbed of her health.

Reading the messages, and the pressure put on her to come up with more and more money is unbearable, disgusting! I have a hard time believing there is this level of evil out there, preying on our loved ones, who are lonely and only want companionship.

Please talk to your parents & grandparents. Warn them of the predators and how they can be taken advantage of. Check up on them & help them navigate what is real and what is fake and so dangerous.

Any donations made will be used to pay for medical & funeral costs for my mother, Jolene York, and to help bring awareness to this evil. We are also doing everything we can to take legal action against those responsible.

Thank you,

Brock & Family