This blog is Part 2 in the Untold Truth Series on "Catch Me As I Fall: Rising from the Wreckage", my newly published book about the aftermath and hidden cost of cyber fraud. Part 1 shared what it means to fall—the collapse that follows criminalization, silence that meets reporting, and the systems unprepared to catch us.
Part 2 turns toward the climb. Rising from the wreckage is about what happens after the crime—the unsteady, unseen process of standing back up when the ground itself has shifted. It’s about resilience in the ruins, finding courage to speak through shame, and the small, defiant steps that slowly rebuild a life.
Beyond the fall and the rising I’ll continue this series with how healing takes form—through the FLOW Journal, FLOW Circle, and ongoing advocacy to strengthen protections for victims at both the state and federal levels.
"Falling" is only half the story. What comes after . . . rising . . . is rarely seen, understood, and often misrepresented.
Most people assume rising after cyber fraud means moving on. And yet the reality for survivors is more complex. Rising is not about returning to who we were before the crime. We must first claw our way forward, all while the ground beneath us remains unstable, and support needed to hold us up is largely absent. We're unaware of how many shoes are yet to fall in the aftermath. Silence would be far easier than facing truths. I fully understand why ~85% of cyber fraud victims do not report crime committed against them.
THE WRECKAGE FEW SEE
Cyber fraud is not a one-time event. It's a long tail of wreckage.
I M A G I N E :
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Financial devastation without restitution. Once money is stolen, it’s almost never recovered. Federal tax law adds insult to injury, taxing some victims on money stolen from retirement accounts.
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Mental-health care that misses the mark. Too many (well-intended) therapists minimize or do not understand the depth of trauma that invades us, treating it as a “bad breakup” rather than financial and psychological warfare. Survivors are sometimes left retraumatized inside the very spaces meant to heal.
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Family and friends who don’t understand. Some of the people closest to us withdraw, judge, or worse .... remain silent themselves. Each absence becomes another layer of loss deepening our pain.
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Institutions that fail. From law enforcement to financial institutions, victims are told, “There’s nothing we can do.” The low percentage of justice and restitution proves the accuracy of this statement.
WHAT RISING LOOKS LIKE
Rising is far from glamorous. And rising doesn’t happen in one triumphant leap. It’s choosing—again and again—not to stay buried in silence and shame.
For me, rising began with:
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Voice over silence. I stopped apologizing for being a victim and started speaking, even when my voice shook. Eventually, speaking became an endless flow of lava when I wasn't sure anyone truly cared.
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Connection over isolation. I found strength by standing shoulder to shoulder with other survivors—rising warriors who understood the fight beneath the surface. In their company, I was never alone, judged or misunderstood. And when the fraud fighter voices stood beside me—collaborating, guiding, believing—fueling courage to quiet the voice in my head questioning, why are we taking more risks for others to judge?
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Purpose over despair. Out of the stratosphere (plus wisdom from prior life traumas) came the FLOW Journal, FLOW Circle, and my advocacy work—tools I created because they didn’t exist when needed most, and I could visualize them because they helped me in prior traumas.
WHY RISING MATTERS
Here’s the untold truth that holds the greatest weight: victims are not weak. We are resilient, resourceful, relentless. We are your neighbors, friends, your family. We were targeted and manipulated—often by sophisticated transnational crime rings whose full reach we may never know. Criminal enterprises built to betray, deceive, and weaponize human emotion for one purpose alone: to steal every cent we’ve earned, everything we’ve trusted, everything we’ve built.
Criminals don’t care if we face homelessness, are burdened with debt, end up owing taxes on money stolen, incur debt, credit scores trashed, or are emotionally gutted to the point of despair.These vicious criminals exploit the very openness of our digital world and the siloed systems meant to protect us—swooping into our interconnected yet disconnected society as a weapon.If there's any magic in this gut-wrenching reality, this is it ... we really are stronger and better together. Join us in the fight to Rise from the Wreckage!
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Debbie's Publications Available Worldwide Online📘 Encrypted Hearts: Love and Cyber Suspense
📔 FLOW Journal: A Companion for Healing and Renewal
📗 Catch Me As I Fall: Rising from the Wreckage
📙 100 Truth Bombs for Outsmarting Modern Fraud To explore blogs, TV interviews, published articles, past speaking engagements—or to book me for an event—visit my advocacy page:
👉 Advocacy webpageTo every survivor who speaks up... whether in a podcast, on a page, through art, or in quiet conversations... you are helping to rewrite the narrative.
You are not alone.
Debbie Fox
THANK YOU for reading to the end!May the stories of these courageous survivors remind us that healing is possible, voices matter, and collective courage creates change.If this moved you, please . . . Share it. Speak about it. Support a survivor.
Because awareness starts with each of us, and empathy carries it forward.
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