A Fake Romeo, Patrick Giblin, Charmed More Than 100 Women with Promises of Romance, Then Scammed Them. Now He’s Going to Prison
Christians really set women up to make easy targets for the man in this news story, and Christians, with their “gender complementarian” teachings, pressure women to stay IN relationships with dishonest, manipulative trash like this, if the woman marries the guy.
Christians, by and large, are naive, and the way they teach believers, especially girls and women, to live life, makes them very susceptible to being taken in by scammers.
by Faith Karimi, CNN
Dec 10, 2022
Patrick Giblin was like the American version of the “Tinder Swindler” – but without the private jets.
He wooed women with stories about his respectable family – his father was a judge, he said – and beachfront property in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he said he worked in the casino industry, according to a federal criminal complaint. He told them he was ready to settle down and was more interested in a woman’s inner beauty than her outward appearance.
He vowed that distance was not an issue because he had access to discount flights and was even ready to move to a woman’s city to further their romance.
But federal officials say those were all lies, concocted to swindle women looking for love through dating sites. A review of plea agreements and federal complaints show that Giblin conned at least 100 women over two decades, coaxing them out of more than $250,000 with false promises followed by requests for short-term loans that were never repaid.
“He preyed on vulnerabilities, promising to end the loneliness of a woman who had recently ended a long-term relationship or soothing someone who recently suffered the death of a loved one,” said a report by federal prosecutors in New Jersey. “Giblin would convince these women that he was willing to relocate to their locales but needed money wired to do so.”
Despite convictions and serving prison time, he continued to defraud women, even after he was caught and twice escaped from federal custody.
Prosecutors say Giblin even scammed women from prison while he was serving time on similar charges, and after he became a fugitive for failing to show up at a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey.
But his schemes may finally be over. On Wednesday a federal judge sentenced Giblin to 66 months in prison for escaping from federal custody and one count of wire fraud for engaging in a scheme to defraud women over telephone dating services.
His cons predated Tinder and other dating apps
Giblin’s scams date as far back as the early 2000s, authorities said – back when he was in his thirties, and long before Tinder, Bumble and other dating apps. He’s now 58.
On Lavalife, QuestChat and other dating services, Giblin went by “Pat,” a seemingly charismatic man who assured women that their weight, height and other physical features were not an issue, according to the federal criminal complaint. The complaint said he created numerous accounts in his name on dating sites in the United States and Canada.
Prosecutors say he’d message women on the sites, tell them he was seeking a long-term relationship with a “real, true, genuine woman,” and exchange phone numbers.
Giblin would then build a rapport with the women over long phone conversations before he started asking them for money, court documents said. He gave them various excuses for financial emergencies, including that his car broke down or that he needed funds to free up winnings from a gambling tournament, court documents said.
His scams predated Venmo, Zelle and other payment apps, so he asked the women to wire him cash – usually several hundred dollars at a time – through MoneyGram or Western Union. Some of the women didn’t know how to use the wire services, but he’d talk them through the process, federal court documents said.
Prosecutors say Giblin targeted vulnerable women, including widows, women with physical disabilities and single mothers – including at least one who had recently lost a child.
“Giblin went after the lonely, and broken hearted. Figured out their soft spots and attacked those when he didn’t get his money,” Kathy Waters, executive director of Advocating Against Romance Scammers, told CNN. “The victims are not only abused financially, but emotionally and psychologically as well. He is a master manipulator who has scammed an unknown amount of people, since some never come forward.”
…To avoid getting the women mixed up, Giblin kept detailed notes of his activity on the dating services, including names of the victims, their physical descriptions, what they did for a living and the type of man they were looking for, according to the criminal complaint. The FBI interviewed numerous women who disclosed that they’d wired him money.
Related:
(Link): FTC Warns of Increase in Romance Scams, Especially Targeting Older Adults
(Link): For Richer Or Poorer? Romance Scams Are Leaving More Online Daters Broke by Sasha Ann Simmons
(Link): Lovesick Singles Are the Biggest Target for Scam Artists by K. Paul
(Link): DOJ: Online Dating Scam ‘One Of The Largest Of Its Kind’
(Link): More 40-Something Single Women Falling Prey to Dishonest or Violent Men in Dating (says report)
(Link): Attorney Once on People Magazine’s ‘Most Eligible’ Bachelor List Charged With Rape
(Link): Ingrid Lyne, 40 Year Old, Murdered and Decapitated by Man She Met on Dating Site
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