April 1, 2024

A Glen Rock detective was in for a surprise when he traced an online scam that victimized a local man to a woman in Washington State. It turns out that person got scammed herself.

Before he was done, Glen Rock Police Detective Sgt. James Calaski found three other victims who got taken by a money launderer who lives in Africa, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said.

All of them were apparently looking for love.

The con man had developed a virtual relationship with the 65-year-old Washington State woman, convincing her that he was a contractor flipping houses in Texas, Ackermann said.

He then got her to “invest” $13,000 in his purported business, the chief said.

After that, the scammer had the woman collect $18,000 in “investments” from what turned out to be three other victims, then convert it to cryptocurrency and forward it to him, Ackermann said.

One elderly lost $12,000 and was being targeted for other scams. The other two, both women, “admitted to receiving and sending large amounts of money in addition to their own funds,” the chief said.

All “were most likely other romance scam victims who were unknowingly money laundering fraudulent funds for the African scammer,” he noted.

Although the scammer is out of the reach of American law enforcement, Calaski cost him four victims that he’d spent more than five months grooming, Ackermann said.

Those people weren’t losing any more money, either, the chief said.

“All three victims…

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