Robin, a 56-year-old former teacher living in Louisville, Kentucky, fell for a romance scam … with someone pretending to be a well-known entrepreneur.
She first received Instagram messages from his supposed assistant — who set the mood and seemed to be screening Robin. Then the impersonator himself started contacting her through other social media sites including X and Facebook. The messages eventually became romantic in nature, with the fraudster claiming he loved Robin and wanted to marry her. He was very convincing and used his celebrity status as an excuse for his secrecy and erratic behavior.
“Looking back, if I had any knowledge about romance scams, maybe this wouldn’t have happened to me,” Robin says.
Along with love notes, the scammer began offering Robin investment advice. He told her that he had insider secrets about how to make money fast through cryptocurrency and convinced her to send him $500 through Zelle, which she thought would be used to purchase Bitcoin. Then he asked her to send him a gift card for $150 to cover the “transaction fees.”
“I sent him the gift card, and he immediately blocked me,” Robin says.
But the fraud doesn’t end there. Shortly after, another person contacted her from a different account claiming to be the real celebrity. He revealed that the other person was a scammer and he would help Robin get her money back — all she had to do was share her account information. This was also a trick.
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