My mom discovered TikTok when she came on retirement. For a widow who needed companionship and something to keep her entertained, I felt she had found a place to get all that. You’ll see her giggling while watching. Sometimes she would show me what she was watching and we’d laugh together. She got every TikTok beef even before I did.

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Until not long ago, I realized she was quiet and withdrawing. I asked if she was sick and she forced a laugh, but when she was alone and she thought I wasn’t watching, she slumped back, being moody again. This went on for several days, but she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong until I picked up her phone and went through it.

She had been talking to some old man who said he was a Ghanaian living in the United States. The man had told her stories of how his wife died and he had been alone for so long. My mom also shared her journey in widowhood. The man proposed to her and she accepted. All this had happened a year before I came to see it.

The man told my mom he had come to Ghana but had lost his luggage at the airport, and that luggage contained his money, so my mom should send him something while he waited to resolve the situation. My mom sent him GHC1,000. Later in the evening, she asked him if he had been able to secure his luggage and if he would come around to visit her during the day while I was at work.

The man said he was still at the airport and even hungry because the officers helping him had taken all his money. Again, my mom sent him GHC500. Two days later, the man said he was on his way to visit my mom, but the police had stopped him and discovered a substance in his car they suspected was illegal, so the police had arrested him. Eventually, my mom sent him GHC2,000.

Hours later, he texted asking for more, and my mom said she had sent everything she had and couldn’t send another. My mom asked, “Don’t you have any relative to help you?”

My mom had sent over fifty messages without a response from the man. In some of the messages, she was begging the man to say something and was even saying sorry for not being able to send him more money. She said, “I would give you everything to see you if I had the money. Please don’t be angry with me.”

My mom was moody because she thought the love she found online had disappeared. She didn’t know it was a scam.

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I’ve sat her down to explain everything to her, that that’s what those people have been doing to collect money from people. She still doesn’t believe me. She believes the man has gone cold because she didn’t send him more money.

Eiii, see what love is doing to a sixty-two-year-old woman ooo. She’s still moody. She talks less. She no longer watches TikTok. Her heart is broken, and I’m here wondering what I can do to help her.

—Maame Lizzy

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