A long time ago I had a friend, or should I say, a person I thought was a "friend", until I discovered the very ugly truth about her.
Gery Drahn has taken advantage of many people around the world for the last several years. I first became acquainted with her in a group called Random Acts of Kindness or RAOK for short.
Over time, Gery and I became extremely close - or so I thought. Now you must understand, of ALL the people who were members of RAOK, I first and foremost was Gery's biggest advocate, bar none. So you can imagine the personal crisis I endured, when the truth finally came to light. I was literally ill, upset, angry and outraged. And very, very hurt. So I did what needed to be done, both for myself and more importantly, for other potential victims so that they hopefully, would not go through what I did. I outed her. Publicly. And in a very big way.
So what are some of the things that she did?
Gery "said" she had many advanced forms of cancer, was in the hospital quite frequently, could no longer walk, in some cases speak, and who now had to write left-handed after a stroke on her right side. However, the cards and letters I continued to receive from her, had a very flowing hand-written script, not the handwriting of someone learning to write all over again. And they were right-handed.
I spoke with her many times over the phone. One time a man answered the phone. I inquired who he was, and he told me in English, that he was her husband. This was less than a year after Herman, her husband, supposedly "committed" suicide.
Now, I DO believe in life after death, but this subsequent resurrection, was a bit much.
Other examples?
One day on her way to a doctors appointment, she was in a horrible car accident and the nurse who was driving her, was killed. Gery of course, survived, although with "extensive injuries".
She told me one time that she really wanted to get into graphics. So at my own personal expense, and sacrifice on my part, I bought and mailed her the latest edition of Paint Shop Pro. Unbeknowst to me, a fellow RAOK member, had done exactly the same thing a few months before. But did Gery bother to share that little piece of info before I mailed her my copy? Of course not, even though I told her I was going to send it to her.
An RAOK friend who lived in the UK, had offered to meet Gery's son in the Netherlands, so she could give her a computer for Gery, Gery's computer supposedly, was near death. Her son refused to meet her, even though he hardly had to travel at all.
Whenever I did an IM session with her "daughter" who was supposedly a famous musician, I offered to phone to actually talk to her, but was always rebuffed. Same with her pyschologist "friend", Bernard.
How worried about her was I? Well at one point, a friend from Utah and I were making plans to meet in New York and then fly over together for, what we were convinced, was her impending funeral. Had done a Mapquest from Amsterdam airport to her house, etc. In August of 2003, I even went out and got a U. S. passport because of this.
Then, she wanted to visit America one last time. So my friend and I began looking into flights, trying to obtain grants, etc. If worse came to worse, I was prepared, again at great expense and sacrifice, to pay for all her plane tickets.
This was the time that things began to unravel for Gery and how we came to find out about her.
My friend in Utah, who actually had lost a sister to cancer, was researching grants from foundations like Make A Wish. These folks require documentation of medical conditions, prognosis, etc. All of a sudden, information from the Netherlands, became very, very scarce.
"Bernard" thought that perhaps we should stop communicating for awhile. So did her daughter, "Anka". We now think it was actually Gery all along, playing these roles.
Another tip-off, a real big one, was when she was kicked out of Chemo Angels. They had become concerned about possible fraud and actually hired an investigator to fly over and observe her. He reported back that all he saw her doing, was walking to the post office, and returning home, with packages from all over the world. All the time.
A miraculous recovery for a woman riddled with cancer wouldn't you say?
Before I had actually posted my note about her, two other friends had anonymously confronted her in emails. Gery for some reason, assumed that I was the one that had actually sent her the emails. I was not. But nonetheless, she sent me an email saying that she was sorry and that she really loved me as a friend.
That for me, was the final straw. And confirmation.
I posted the note and as you might expect, all hell broke loose.
Gery did admit publicly for the first time in a reply to my post, that she had received 2 copies of Paint Shop Pro, but was too "embarrased" to tell me. Her defense about the questions and accusations I presented to her, were lame and tepid at best. And she answered none of the very pointed questions I asked her.
Shortly thereafter, Gery was also kicked out of RAOK. And since that time, she has also been kicked out of Heavens Angels, Garden of Friends and Friend2Friend as well, all for the same reasons - fraud.
Gery's handle when she with RAOK, was 'Papillion' which means 'Butterfly' in French. And she's had 'Papillion' websites built and maintained for her, by others. One example is one built by a friend from RAOK. The link is:
After RAOK and Chemo Angels, she was reborn as 'Moonchild'. And kind people all over the Net, have built even more web sites for her since then, although you may ask, why does she need so many sites? The reason? Greater opportunity to scam people.
I realize that none of you know me. But unlike Gery, I have nothing at all to hide. In addition to giving this woman hundreds of dollars worth of gifts, literally, I also gave this woman my heart - much to my regret. And I don't want to see anyone, go through what I went through, again.
This woman is NOT who she says is. Her primary motivation we have discovered, is to acquire gifts from all over the world, and then re-sell them on various auction sites. I recently saw the copy of Paint Shop Pro I bought for her, up for auction on a Dutch site. And I know it was mine because I was the only one who sent her the more expensive Anniversary Edition of PSP.
A number of her victims are currently in the process of building web pages on their own personal sites, in order to warn people about her and for these warnings to appear in search engines like Google when someone types in the name "Gery Drahn".
This woman is a pathetic excuse for a human being. She is a predator in the very worst sense of the word, because she not only steals money and gifts from people, she also steals, their hearts.
At present, the following people have added pages about her to their sites. Here are some of the links:
Gery E Drahn
Oude Dijk 5
Buitenpost FRL
9285 XA Netherlands
So if you've been mailing money or gifts to her at this address, be forewarned - you're being taking advantage of.
This woman is a terrible menance, and I can't even imagine the number of other people she's abusing as well.
If you know anyone that is in contact with her, please, email them the link to this page, and the other linked sites on this page, to your friend. Because REAL friends, not only try to help one another, they also cover each other's backs.
Please take care. And thank you for reading my very long missive.
