Dorota’s four-year romance was unimaginably strange and ended just as incredibly as it had begun. The beloved man, with whom Dorota communicated only by telephone, had several car accidents during those four years, was beaten by the mafia and lost his memory twice. He never allowed Dorota to visit him in hospital. He only asked her to call and send money needed for medicines, operations or unpaid bills and debts from his failing businesses. He had several shops, restaurants and bakeries, and employed workers whom he had to pay. He also had a troublesome bank to deal with, with a director who kept blocking his account. On the day Dorota learned that she had been deceived by a woman pretending to be a man, her own debt to the banks amounted to hundreds of thousands of złotys.
As the image of her beloved blurred, as his debts, his danger and the hospital rooms where he had brushed against death faded away, and as the bank directors who thought she was his fiancée and kept calling with demands and urging her to make payments disappeared, Dorota thought: “God, what have I done?!” She also felt that something very bad was being torn away from her. She felt relieved. She cried for a long time on a park bench before going to the police. She spoke incoherently about how she had been deceived. The police officers could not understand her. They suggested that she write a letter to the female fraudster demanding the return of the money. She told them again that the sum was almost PLN 400,000. They did not want to believe her; they were certain that Dorota, being in shock, had confused the amounts. They asked about four, then forty thousand. She left the police station without receiving help. After several months, she filed a civil case in court.
The defendant fraudster failed to appear at any of the three hearings. She is in a psychiatric hospital. She faces up to 10 years in prison, but she must participate in the proceedings. Dorota has little hope of recovering even part of the money.
No one can comprehend this story, because it is a case that can fit only within a good heart.
Matters of the heart
It was August 2005. Dorota was mourning her deceased mother. She had died several months earlier. She had been Dorota’s friend, the person to whom she had told the most about herself. Dorota had also cared for her when she was ill. Her father had died fifteen years earlier. The two women had been very close. She did have brothers, but Dorota could not talk to them in the same way. They had their own lives. After her mother’s death, Dorota could not find her place. She still lived in the empty family home. Her mourning continued. She suffered from sleep and appetite disturbances and was depressed. She was looking for someone with whom she could talk and confide her longing. Someone to fall in love with, build a home with and live a normal life.
She became interested in the “SMS Date” offer from one of the radio stations. For less than three złotys, people sent an SMS with brief information about themselves. The SMS also appeared on the station’s website. The messages were terse: “Hurt blond man seeks a very nice young woman aged 20–25. Bolesławiec, Lubań, surrounding area,” and “I’m looking to meet a nice girl aged 17 to 24 from Gromadka commune, Bolesławiec area. Nice, handsome, write without hesitation.”
Dorota also wrote simply: “I am thirty years old, I come from Bolesławiec and I am looking for a friend”. Several people replied. She began talking to them, telling them about herself, and felt better. However, none of these acquaintances impressed her. Until the day of her name day, September 5. That was when a message came from an exceptional person. The SMS was signed by Grzegorz. He was a romantic with a broken heart. His girlfriend had left him. Katarzyna had taken everything from him and broken his heart. He had been so disappointed in women that he was afraid to open up to his new acquaintance. He explained the sudden change of name this way. He changed his name from Grzegorz to Szymon and used that name until the end. He preferred to create a protective barrier first. As Szymon, he wrote little poems and rhymes. Of some of them he said they were his own poems. In one SMS he wrote: “It is no coincidence that I fell in love with you. It is no coincidence that I became involved. It is no coincidence that my heart stirred. It was destiny that brought me together with you.” [03.10.2005 at 10:50]
A woman is most beautiful when she loves
Szymon quickly declared his feelings. He fell in love with Dorota and wanted her to return his feelings. “Once in my life I fell in love so deeply that I am lost for words. I gave my heart only to you, because you are the woman of my dreams.” [17.01.2006 at 22:49]
The messages were full of feeling. Sensual, but without erotic undertones. There was not even a word about caresses. Szymon wrote only about lips touching, taking his breath away, the touch of hands, looking into one another’s eyes and seeking the warmth of an absent body. All the SMS messages spoke of a great, overwhelming, perfect love. “You and I. Among thousands, we hold tightly to one another’s hands. An extraordinary day, a momentous hour and a shy whisper: Darling… From now on, together always and everywhere; it was meant to be this way and it will be!!!” [28.01.2006 at 19:54]. “My eyes are yours, my heart is yours, my lips are yours. Look, I am entirely yours forever. No one will take me away from you, because I will give myself to no one else” [28.01.2006 at 23:41]
The need for closeness and love, for finding a kindred soul and a loving person—all of this was contained in the short text messages. Together they formed an ideal, pure, almost sacred feeling, as powerful as ultimate truths. “Dorota, I love you like no one else; I would walk through fire for you, because God created you for me. He knew that you would be like a guardian angel to me.” [14.03.2006 at 19:40]
Dorota began to become involved. At first she still asked for time. She explained that she could not declare her feelings to someone she had never seen. She was surprised that Szymon had fallen in love with her so quickly. But the SMS messages were like a siren’s song, calling her toward the life she lacked—the life every person longs for. For the first time, she felt a bond as strong as if her mother were beside her again. He reached her. He sent her poems and songs. Some moved her so deeply that she cried. She copied the SMS messages onto small scraps of paper as keepsakes, so she could enjoy them. She felt safe. She was certain that someone had appeared who would not deceive or betray her, someone before whom she could open up.
To him, she was the star in the sky he sought in every melody. Her beloved asked angels to convey to her words of love flowing directly from his heart. She was constantly present in his dreams and fantasies. He longed for her warmth, kindness, smile and happiness. When he was absent, he begged the entire world to remind his beloved of the love he felt for her. The sky, Earth, Sun and Moon were supposed to tell her about it. No one but his beloved mattered. They were to be a chosen, perfect married couple; God himself had sealed their love. Beside her, his wounds healed. She forgave him all his sins. Only bad luck separated them. And an unfortunate accident.
Listen, sir, traveler, to what happened…
Szymon’s life was difficult. He said that he had grown up in an orphanage. His family had supposedly drugged him in childhood, which had ended with a kidney transplant. His only sister lived abroad. He was alone, just like Dorota. He had managed to make money and owned some shops, restaurants and a confectionery, but that too was soon to collapse. They were supposed to meet after a week of exchanging SMS messages. But Szymon had a car accident near Poznań. He had been on his way to her. He was in a hurry. Bad luck. A friend wrote the SMS. Szymon was in serious condition. He was facing surgery. She wanted to go. He talked her out of it. He did not want her to see him in such poor condition. She did not go. When she asked again to visit him, it turned out that he was already being treated in another hospital. First he was in Poznań, then Warsaw, and finally he was hospitalized in London.
The first requests for money came at the end of 2005. He asked whether she would help him in a difficult situation. She could not bring herself not to help. He did not provide a bank account number, but the address of a female friend living near Krotoszyn. She sent cash to the indicated address, and he thanked her for it. At first, the amounts were small. Two hundred or five hundred złotys from her own savings. When Dorota’s brother saw the transfer, he asked, intrigued, whom she was sending the money to. She lied that it was a loan that would soon be repaid. She was independent. She did not have to explain herself to anyone. But later she hid the fact that she was sending money from her family.
Szymon’s treatment dragged on and its costs grew. There were also problems paying the employees he hired. Dorota could not keep up with sending further amounts. The transfers grew larger: one thousand, two thousand, five thousand, nine thousand złotys at a time. Eventually Szymon borrowed money from the mafia to pay wages. He had to repay it with heavy interest. He did not make it in time. He was attacked. His arms and legs were broken. He ended up in hospital again. He lost his memory. Once again, he needed money.
Szymon sent letters and his photograph. He also addressed one of them to Dorota’s brothers. He declared that they would marry as soon as his financial and health problems ended.
“Hello, Darling, I will not write anything to you because I do not know how to write letters. As for my address, I will not give it to you for now, because I do not have a permanent registered address in Poznań. All correspondence comes in the names of friends. If you want their address, tell me. I will send it to you by SMS. I am giving you two photographs. One is Hanka, my sister, and in the other one I am the man. I am looking forward impatiently to our meeting. I cannot go on without you. I love you. I really love you, Darling.”
In the photograph sent among a group of friends sits a handsome, slim, brown-haired man with a strongly defined jaw, striking features and a nice smile. In the other photograph is a woman with similar features.
Dorota was above all afraid for him. She lived through every accident and every misfortune that befell him. And above all, she was terrified that she would lose him, just as she had lost her mother. She supported him and called him. She phoned when he was preparing for surgery. It was as if she were holding his hand. She told him that everything would be all right. She could hold death back. By sending money.
The loans began in 2006. First she borrowed from banks, then from financial institutions. She consolidated the loans. She took out more. She also had her own expenses. Each month she sent more than 2,000 SMS messages, and her landline phone bill amounted to 5,000 złotys. When the banks stopped lending to her, she asked friends. Her beloved promised that she would recover her money if she only helped him unblock his own account. He needed just five thousand or two and a half. Month after month passed this way. One installment after another measured out Dorota’s time, although she counted it in SMS messages and minutes on the phone.
It is hard not to believe in anything
It was June 2009. The messages from her beloved changed in tone. There were no longer little rhymes about love stronger than death. There were more questions: “So, are you able to arrange at least 500 złotys?”. She had nowhere to borrow from. She herself was drowning in debt. And her beloved’s voice kept pressuring her. The threats began. Once, during a telephone conversation, someone snatched the receiver from Szymon and shouted at Dorota in a woman’s voice: “We’ll deal with you”.
The woman from Bolesławiec was convinced that she was Szymon’s fiancée. Some bank director began contacting her, insisting that she deposit money to unblock her future husband’s account. He wrote to her: “Please tell Mr. Szymon that he has lost everything”. A moment later he wrote again: “Mr. Szymon must deposit PLN 5,000 into the Bank by 12:00. Then the bank will take over everything. Please pass this on”. When she did not respond, he accused her: “That is what I thought, as Mr. Szymon said. You are a liar and you only cared about Szymon’s money, nothing else”.
Her beloved had turned into a greedy beast that demanded, begged and extorted more and more. Then Karol called. He was a man who claimed to be Szymon’s sister’s boyfriend. He also asked for money. But his tactic was different. He said he had obtained Dorota’s number because Szymon needed money and had asked him for a loan. Unfortunately, he did not have that kind of money, and perhaps she would be able to help. She refused. He repeated his requests and eventually mocked her. When he realized he would not receive a penny, he told her that she had been defrauded. Szymon was actually a woman. Her name was Małgorzata, and it was to her address that Dorota had been sending money all those years. Małgorzata also had siblings and parents, and she used the money sent to shop on Allegro and renovate her parents’ house, where she lived. She told everyone that she had a boyfriend who sent her the money out of love.
Dorota first burst out laughing. Then she began to cry hysterically. She did not know how long she had sat on the park bench. Until the end, she believed it was a man. She had suspected nothing. Karol had to tell her stories he knew from Szymon-Gośka before she finally believed him. When she told acquaintances what had happened to her, people did not believe her.
After this incident, Dorota left for a while to care for an elderly, sick person. She was recovering. She is still taking medication today.
She told the media the entire story so that people would begin to believe that something like this could happen. She reads the comments on the Internet. She knows they write that she is naïve. She is not angry about it. She pays attention to the kind comments. She could never hurt anyone so severely, so she could not imagine that someone could hurt her so badly. She recorded the last conversations to obtain evidence. On June 27, 2009, Szymon sent the final SMS messages.
Dorota, I have met someone and I do not want to be disappointed as I was with Kasia and you. I do not want to be with you; there is no point.
And again you are not writing anything.
Jesus, have that friend lend you the money and send it.
Are you sending it or not?
Then find an open post office.
Find an open post office.
Again you are not writing anything. That is what you always do.
Find a post office and send it.
Have someone bring it to you; this is a matter of whether we live or die.
Do you have the money?
Dorota, I will not write now; I am going to a party with Agnieszka and friends. I will contact you later, and you sort it out with the director, okay.
The civil case is being heard by the District Court in Jelenia Góra.
If anyone would like to support Ms Dorota in any way—for example, if they have been in a similar situation and won a case against a fraudster—please contact us at the editorial office. We will forward your correspondence.
(information by Grażyna Hanaf)