Dr. Phil follows up on Manitowoc woman victim in online dating scheme | #datingscams | #lovescams


MANITOWOC – What a difference two years makes.

Karen Stebane appeared on the Dr. Phil show in 2021 to talk about how she’d met her soulmate on an online dating site but instead was scammed out of $10,000.

She cried. She felt duped.

And then she found true love — in person, the old-fashioned way.

Stebane was introduced by her daughter to her fiancé and can now chuckle (a little) at her painful learning experience.

Two years ago, Mindy Fickett wanted to believe her mom had found true romance and happiness at long last. Stebane divorced Fickett’s dad in 1999 and did what many folks do these days when looking for love — she joined the dating site Match.com.

She soon began texting and talking on the phone with “Thomas,” who said he lived in Portage.

Mindy Fickett and Karen Stebane outside Dr. Phil studio in L.A.

“They were supposed to meet in early November, and she was very excited,” Fickett said. “But then he said he had to go check on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Fickett grew suspicious when her mom relayed the oil rig story and the reasons the man gave for delaying plans to meet several times. She watches “Catfish: The TV Show” on MTV, a reality program about the ups and downs of online dating, and worried her mom might be the victim of a scam.



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