They send you emails, they call your phone, they try to lure you on social media. But their promises are empty and they’re really just after your money.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, scams cost Canadians at least 554 million dollars last year. But when you talk to the victims of these schemes, it becomes clear that more than money was lost.

This week on Now or Never we’re with people as they put their lives back together and are trying to fight back after they’ve been scammed. 

When 9-year old Beydan, and her 8-year old sister Fatima, were ripped-off while playing Roblox, their mom Rahma Shafi took the game away. Today they’re getting it back plus a lesson on how to be safe online

In London, Ontario, Kim Stevens saved all her life for retirement, but is now declaring bankruptcy after being scammed out of her life savings just a few months ago. Now she is  actively sharing her experience in the hope of helping others.

Over the years, Bonnie Bednarik has received multiple phone calls  from someone claiming to be her grandson, saying he’s in trouble and needs cash. Normally, Bonnie hangs up on these phone scammers. But one day, Bonnie decided to try something a little different. This 75-year-old Windsor grandmother shares how she set up her own sting operation to take the scammers down and the surprising turn her life took after that.

On the west coast Kwagiulth artist Jason Henry Hunt has been carving for more than 30 years, like generations of his family before him. But it’s his unofficial job that takes up much of his time — battling the market of fraudulent Indigenous artwork that has flooded gift shops and even some galleries, and is threatening the future of the craft. 

Toronto’s Cindy Browne still looks at the picture of the man she was in love with years after she discovered he wasn’t real and stole $26,000 from her. Because he may have been fake, but her love was true. What does she have to overcome to try and love again?

And just in case you’re losing your faith in humanity, a story of when trusting strangers goes right:  International students Sele Akere and Dipo Oksesola saw an ad for a room to rent in Kelowna, they thought it was a scam by a tough biker. But they reached out anyway and discovered Kelowna’s Bill Pittman is really a big softie..and that probably saved Bill’s life.