Woman loses $300G to scam artist on dating site

[Hum]

A San Jose woman has been duped of $300,000 after falling for a Nigerian scam artist on the dating website ChristianMingle.com.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Cherie Bourlard said Wednesday that the man, posing as ?David Holmes,? an Irish citizen working on a Scottish oil rig, wooed the 66-year-old woman with flowers, phone calls and text messages.

?You get the love drug in you and you end up getting duped,? Bourlard told CBS SF. ?But they never met in person.?

The man ? who, according to Bourlard, used a picture of a male model on his profile ? convinced the woman to invest $500,000 into the fake oil rig.

She had to dip into her retirement account and refinance her house to afford the payments, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The scammer was busted when his Skype and email addresses were traced back to Nigeria, Bourlard said.

The woman was able to recover $200,000 she wired to a Turkish bank after receiving help from the Santa Clara County district attorney's office.

A man named Wisdom Onokpite ? an associate of the scammer who entered Turkey using a false passport ? was arrested and jailed when he tried to withdraw the funds, Bourlard told the San Jose Mercury News.

The scammer is still at large.

source

[Steven P. Administrators]

[Torolol]

66?

[Dick Montage]

Stupid woman... I don't like to use the word "deserves" but...

[Praetor]

66?

 

And? People get lonely, you know.

[Lingwo]

It's amazing that people with a lot of money can pi** it away so easily like that.

If i had 300k. I certainly wouldn't send it to a guy i've never met on a dating site.

 

She deserved it but just a shame it was a huge amount of money.

[XerXis]

It's amazing that people with a lot of money can pi** it away so easily like that.

If i had 300k. I certainly wouldn't send it to a guy i've never met on a dating site.

 

She deserved it but just a shame it was a huge amount of money.

 

she didn't have the money.

 

Some people are a bit naive :s

[Som]

And? People get lonely, you know.

 

still stupid though

[mps69]

In this day and age, with all these scams getting aired on the internet I find it mind boggling that people still get caught out.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.......guess what.......it's a duck.

[Hum]

All the escorts I could hire for $100K ...

[techbeck]

She must of been really lonely or just plain dumb.

[TMYW]

All the escorts I could hire for $100K ...

 

And still have another $200K...

[He's Dead Jim]

The net is full of honey traps, take care.

[The Evil Overlord]

Boy am I ever in the wrong line of work... :shifty:

[TAZMINATOR]

A friend of mine lost his $450 due to the dating scam.. That was a few years ago.

[astropheed Veteran]

I don't think she deserves it at all. She is 66. We all take the ability to use the computer and internet for granted. She is obviously a lonely old Women and that's incredibly sad. She probably saved for a really long time. I couldn't even imagine that happening to my Nan....

[+Warwagon MVC]

ChristianMingle.com.

 

Name says it all.

 

That is to say, she's probably a bible thumper. She probably thought this was gods plan.

[macrosslover]

It's amazing the differences in gender.  An older male is more likely to be "used" by a younger female directly and get something physical out of it possibly.  Whereas it seems more and more older women are sending money to people they've never met in person because they are so desperate for attention usually due to a death or some other loss in their life.