'Sweetheart scammers' look to cash in on love
PORTLAND, Ore. - Dawn Castro joined the estimated 90 million other Americans who use online dating services when she went looking for love through a popular online dating website.
She was searching for her soul mate and her companion for life and not too long after joining the site, Castro thought she had met the perfect man.
He called himself Oscar, a humanitarian living in New York. He charmed Castro by sending her flowers and what he said was his own poetry written just for her.
"I just thought he was so romantic and I love a romantic man," said Castro.
However, Oscar was not what he claimed to be.
By doing a simple Google search, KATU Problem Solver Shellie Bailey-Shah showed Castro that Oscar was plagiarizing his poetry from other sources.
Oscar also started making strange requests such as asking for her bank account number - which she refused to provide - and asking her to ship boxes of clothing, purses, and watches to orphans and the homeless in Nigeria.
In reality, the scammer had purchased the items with stolen credit cards. The final straw was when he asked Castro for $500 to buy an airplane ticket. Soon after, she contacted the Oregon Attorney General and found out the truth about her knight in shining armor.
"I was ashamed that I could have been fooled like that," she says. "I would have sent him some money if I would have been financially able to, because I did believe in him that much."
Castro is now more cautious about whom she meets online but is still open to love.
If you or someone you know gets involved in one of these scams, be sure to report it to the State Attorney General and the F.B.I.'s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Red flags to alert you to a "sweetheart" scam:
- Emails or instant messages with poor grammar
- Requests for personal information such as your social security number or bank account numbers
- Requests to ship or wire goods or cash overseas