I first discovered Becky Holmes on Twitter/X where she has the brilliant and hilarious account, @deathtospinach – a platform she uses to take down some of the sleazier characters who send her messages. She’s funny and sassy and so entertaining, so I was delighted to hear she had written a book. Sign me up for a review copy!
Thanks to NetGalley for granting me a copy to review – opinions, as always, are my own.
In this book, Becky Holmes tackles the topic of online romance fraud – all those ‘Keanu Reeves’ and similar accounts that try to woo unsuspecting women on the internet with the aim of taking money from them. Some of this involved engaging with the scammers themselves, but Holmes also talks to women who have been the victims of such fraudulent activity – and warns against the way that the scammers are getting smarter and harder to resist.
As expected, some of the book is very funny – many of Holmes’ exchanges with the scammers made me laugh out loud as she proves that they often don’t really engage with the women in their mission to make money. This means that she gets away with some outrageous and ridiculous conversations – the dachshund one was my favourite (which I won’t recreate here because I don’t want to spoil it for future readers!), and the hand-drawn gift cards, and the stalking of the ‘oil rig’ scammer. Loads of it made me laugh and I commend Holmes’ imagination and drive to come up with these things!
There is a much more serious side to the book as well – this lies in Holmes’ interviews with victims of this type of fraud and her stories about her own past. There are some really tragic tales from women who – for a whole host of reasons – have lost a lot to these online fraudsters, and the loss is beyond monetary. Family relationships, self-esteem, what they believed to be a chance at love – all lost and it’s really sad. I kind of expected to feel that this only happened to quite gullible people, but some of the techniques used to ensnare the women were actually really clever and increasingly more sophisticated (obvious Keanus aside!) Holmes balances the tragedies with her trademark humour, but the book is hugely impactful on the fallout from online romance fraud.
There’s quite an educational slant to some of the book too, as Holmes explains the background to the scams, the techniques used and the sources of help for those affected.
I’d whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who uses social media (and – if you do – check out @deathtospinach on Twitter/X). It’s a highly engaging and entertaining way of looking at a very serious issue – and it might just make you a bit savvier next time you are online too.
Header photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
If you’d like to buy a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases: https://amzn.to/49sjOUq
I’ve seen this book around but never really looked into what it was about and now I could slap myself for it because it sounds honestly really good. I think I would love it. And I’m gonna go follow Becky right away now. 😀
It is definitely worth a read – sad in places but hilarious in others x