borrowing money

i have a school friend whom i knew since the early 80s. we lost contact more than 2 decades ago. last year, this friend called me from out of the blue and asked me to lent her a huge sum of money. she claimed it was to help her sibling who got into some money problems. i did not lent her as i was jobless. a couple of months later, she called again, and asked if i could lent her money. she admitted that it was not really her brother's issue but rather, it was her own issues. again i did not lent her as i was not in a position to do so. she stopped contacting me after that.

2 weeks ago, she called again asking me to lent her cash. she said she was in indonesia and she needed cash urgently to extricate herself from some problems. i relented and transferred some cash to her. she promised to call me back 2 days later once she return to singapore. she didn't. instead i got an sms saying she needed time to sort out her mess. i did not respond. i did not want to sound like i wanted to pressure her. then again, i felt it was a little discourteous for not responding her sms. but i left it as such.

last week at about 5am one weekend morning (about 4 days after the last sms), she smsed me telling me she need to get out of singapore for the time being cos it was not convenient for her to be in singapore. but she promised me she'd returned the cash to me. again, i did not reply the sms as i was uneasy with how this was developing. that very evening, she smsed me again asking me to help her with another lump sum of cash. and her sms started with "my 25-year friend..." i sensed an attempt in emotional blackmailing (anyway, she got her number wrong, it was 28-year). i felt even more uneasy. on one hand, the compassionate heart in me says i should help, but on the other hand, the (also) compassionate heart in me says i should not. in the end, i did not respond. i switched off my phone. i was clearly uneasy and somewhat unhappy with how the sms sounded.

this evening, i switched on my phone and i saw her sms. it was sent tonight. it was a from a number with a country code +853. she said her singapore number had been terminated and asked me to help her with just a `small' amount to help her with lodging and food. the message sounded way too dodgy. a 4-figure amount was not small as far as i was concern. i did a check online. it revealed the number to be from macau... i switched off my phone. i had mixed feelings. on one hand, i felt sad. sad that she had fallen into such a state. on the other hand, i felt angry. angry as i felt she had taken advantage of our friendship.

i thought hard and deep. initially, i had told myself i should not make any assumptions and help in whatever small way i could. and despite all the things she said, i have told myself not to try linking any dots. but really, after this last sms and the knowledge that it came from macau, i couldn't help but link all the dots together. there seemed to be a lot of lies, a lot of monies lost due to "investments". if she was in such financial problems, why was she travelling so often? and of all places, why macau? if you were me, how would you join the dots? what kind of conclusions would you make about this person?