Lovelorn getting taken by online scammers

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Lovelorn Getting Taken By Online Scammers
States Working To Enact Safeguards Against Online Cons

BOSTON -- Many states are now working to enact safeguards to protect people who use social networking and dating websites to connect with others and then get taken in by scams.

State officials are worried about lonely people who have been taken in by online scams, leaving them victim to crimes ranging from fraud to rape.

One woman said she lost her heart and thousands of dollars to a cyberspace con.

The life of the woman, who did not want her identity revealed, spiraled out of control in less than two months.

"He works fast. I should have caught onto it, but I didn't. When you're lonely you don't see anything, you don't see signs," she said.

She said she found a new friend on Facebook: a handsome lieutenant general in the military who seemed to check out and said all the right things.

"He called himself Jeffrey Remington. He said he was interested in me, said he was serious minded. So, he started sending e-mails and writing notes."

"He would tell me he loved me and he had feelings for me. He called me his 'babe,'" she said.

The woman was hooked, and her handsome new friend said he wanted to see her in person. He said he was in Iraq, deployed for 19 months, but ready to go on leave. There was just one problem. He needed cash.

"Then he told me they don't get paid and that their benefits are locked in," she said.

He said he needed her help to pay for a visit. Just days later, she got what looked to her like a formal transit request. It had an Army seal and a money back guarantee from a "General Rolando Melendez."

The fee to see her friend: nearly $2,000 by MoneyGram.

"After I sent the first one, then came another one," she said.

Then, after a gushing love letter, another request for $4,000 more, this time through Western Union.

"The weak part of me just sent the money," she said.

"A lot of these scammers are in love by the third e-mail," said a spokeswoman for Scamwarners.com.




Scamwarners.com warns people by posting fake pictures, scams and painful stories online from people turned into targets.

Some scammers go as far as to steal models' pictures to fool their victims.

As for the woman, in just three weeks she had sent nearly $11,000 to her soldier. But there never was any rendezvous.

"The victim at this point has invested so much into this relationship ... that it makes it very difficult to see and face what's in front of them," said Scamwarners.com.

This particular victim finally did some research and found a posting for military scams online. The scammer used the name Jeffrey Remington, who is a real person in the military, but his name and picture were stolen and used to fool women online.

"I kinda realized I was sending money to someone who wasn't there, that wasn't real. I should have been more careful. I wasn't," she said.

Scamwarners.com said before you get invested in someone online, do as much research as possible. Some people are going so far as to hire private investigators to do background checks. Copyright 2010 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved.