Police Warn That Elderly People Are Getting Scammed On Dating Sites – 2023 – Perennial Problem Gets Reported Like It’s New Every Other Year, Weird!

Police Warn That Elderly People Are Getting Scammed On Dating Sites – 2023 – Perennial Problem Gets Reported Like It’s New Every Other Year, Weird!

I’ve been running this blog for 13 years now. And I can say that this is a thing and has been a thing for a long time – that is to say, at least once a year, or every other year, I see headlines in the news heralding that senior citizens are being scammed on dating sites, and they’re being scammed more than ever.

This is not new information.

I don’t know why almost every year (to two years) police start announcing to the world that elderly people are getting ripped off on dating apps and sites. This is like telling the public every year that water is wet or the sky is blue.

Elderly people getting scammed on dating sites and apps goes together like peanut butter and jelly or salt and pepper.

We’re now in 2023. Who are these elderly people being scammed these days, older Baby Boomers – I doubt it’s Silent Gen? At this time of writing, most of Gen X is not old enough to have dementia yet, so it’s definitely not Gen X, and most of Gen X is still considered middle-aged, not “elderly.”

I’m sorry if I sound victim blame-y here, but I don’t understand how in this day and age there are still some people who do not understand that you never, ever give or send money to anyone you meet online, especially not via a dating site.

I would maybe understand Silent Gen doing this, but most of them are octogenarians and are probably not dating, or even know what a dating app is.

I would assume that Baby Boomers would not be naive or foolish enough to fall for dating scams, so who are these elderly people these days being duped?

Public Service Announcement to anyone currently over age of 64:
You should already know this: if anyone asks you for money on any site, especially a dating site, even if they claim to be a Prince from Nigeria or a famous movie actor, do NOT send them any money! It’s a SCAM!

This type of news story is so common any more, that for however long I continue to run this blog, if I see any more of these “Elderly Folks Getting Scammed on Dating Sites” news headlines, I may not blog on them further.

Yes, elderly people get scammed on dating sites and apps, see also: the sun rises in the east, grass is green, and cats cough up fur balls. We know.

(Link): Police Warn That Elderly People Are Getting Scammed On Dating Sites

by J. Clinton
Feb 2, 2023

Oklahoma City Police reported that elderly people are more likely to be scammed than ever before.

Scams always start out with the scammer asking for money, (Link): Oklahoma News 4 reported.

“There’s so many scammers out there that will get online and many of them tell very believable stories and they will meet people on these dating sites in hopes that they’re lonely and they will do just about anything to keep a connection with someone, including send them cash and you really fall right into their hands,” Gary Knight, an employee of the Oklahoma City Police Department, explained.

One victim in particular, an elderly woman, reportedly paid $56,000 through cashier checks, cash, and gift cards to an anonymous scammer she never met, the outlet noted.

Many are reportedly approached by scammers on online services like Facebook Dating.

Man Caught Up in Online Romance Scam is Robbed of $6,000 and His Cellphone

Man Caught Up in Online Romance Scam is Robbed of $6,000 and His Cellphone

(Link): Man caught up in online romance scam is robbed of $6,000 and his cellphone

Dec 27, 2022

A Los Angeles man fell victim to an online romance scam after Colombian woman he met online and traveled to meet robbed him of $6,000 and his cellphone.

Eduardo Villareal flew to the northern Caribbean coast city of Santa Marta before Christmas to meet the woman, who has not been identified, after chatting to her online for three months.

But his search for love unraveled when she and another female mugged him for his cash and cellphone at their first meeting.

A Fake Romeo, Patrick Giblin, Charmed More Than 100 Women with Promises of Romance, Then Scammed Them. Now He’s Going to Prison

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.

(Link): STOLE HER HEART Inside heartless crimes of ‘fake Romeo’ Patrick Giblin likened to Tinder Swindler who scammed hundreds out of thousands 

(Link): Police say this dude presented himself as a rich, suave Romeo to con dozens of women out of more than $250,000

(Link): A fake Romeo, Patrick Giblin, charmed more than 100 women with promises of romance, then scammed them. Now he’s going to prison

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.”

Police Hunt for ‘Dating App Predator’ After Woman’s Death – He Used Match.com

Police Hunt for ‘Dating App Predator’ After Woman’s Death – He Used Match.com

(Update below: He was arrested)

(Link): Wisconsin police issue warning about man using dating apps to victimize women

by Pilar Arias

Police in Wisconsin issued another warning about a man they say is using dating apps to victimize women.

A news release by Racine Police Department Monday links Timothy Olson, 52, to another woman in a bar who fell unconscious while in his presence.

The incident happened last Thursday, and officials say this is now the third woman that they know of who ended up in a similar situation.

“The Racine Police Department would like to caution the women in Racine County and get the public’s help in locating a male subject who has met women on dating apps and victimizes them, resulting in financial loss,” the release reads.

Con Artists Scammed Widow Woman Out of $800,000 by Pretending to Be Leonardo DiCaprio and Claiming He Was Enslaved by the Church of Scientology

Con Artists Scammed Widow Woman Out of $800,000 by Pretending to Be Leonardo DiCaprio and Claiming He Was Enslaved by the Church of Scientology

A few months ago, con artists were using Keanu Reeves to con women, now it’s Leonardo DiCaprio.

(Link): Con artists pretending to be Leonardo DiCaprio enslaved by Scientology scam widow out of $800K

May 12, 2022

A Texas woman says she’s lost over $800,000 to scammers attempting to extract money from her to ‘save’ actor Leonardo DiCaprio from the Church of Scientology.

The woman, 54, told The Daily Beast she was first contacted by what she thought was the Oscar-winning actor and activist via Twitter, which she was new to in around 2018.

People Using Fake Sickness or Hardship To Con People Out Of Their Money, Attention, or Empathy

People Using Fake Sickness or Hardship To Con People Out Of Their Money, Attention, or Empathy

I came across this headline the other day in my Twitter feed:

(Link): Woman claimed she was bedridden to con more than £620,000 out of council

Excerpts from that article:

June 25, 2022
by S. Johnson

A woman claimed she was bedridden to con more than £620,000 from a council which she then used to pay for luxury holidays to America.

Frances Noble, 66, fooled social workers to commit what is suspected to be one of the largest fraud cases of its type to ever come before the English courts.

Between 2005 and 2018, Noble convinced Hertfordshire County Council she needed intensive round-the-clock home care.
— end —

I’ve seen similar news stories in the past several years – someone will claim to have cancer, or some other kind of hardship, but they are lying about it, and the reason they’re lying is to obtain monetary donations from the public.

Here’s another example (I may edit this post in the future to include more examples):

(Link): Married Mother and Father Fake the Wife’s Kidnapping, Used Donated Funds Meant to Help Find Kidnapped Wife to Pay off Couple’s Personal Credit Card Debt

I’ve written other posts about how I (Link): spent over three decades as a codependent. 

What I learned when I began getting over codependency, what I had my eyes opened to, is that there are people out there, whether legitimate victims or legitimately wounded in life,
or people who “play” at being a victim (some of these individuals may be (Link): Covert Narcissists) who will manipulate you, who will intentionally play on your pity and your heart strings or your guilt or sense of duty,
to get you to donate money to them, or to do things like listen to them complain weekly or monthly with compassion (ie, provide them with (Link): emotional labor), as they reiterate the same complaints repeatedly.

If you believe you may be a codependent, an empath with poor boundaries (which is essentially what a codependent is, but some people do not like the label “codependent”), or if you’re a people pleaser, I’d like for you to really get serious about not allowing your sense of compassion or empathy to sway you or to control every decision in your life.

Please stop automatically caving in and sending people money – because they ask you to, or you find out they’re going through a tough time, or because they look or sound sad.

Please stop feeling as though it’s your obligation or duty to rescue other people or do favors for them.

If you have a hard time saying “no” to people – out of fear of angering them, disappointing them, coming across as “selfish,” and/or from a fear of abandonment (i.e., “this person won’t stay in a relationship with me unless I keep doing favors for her”), please start researching the topic of people pleasing, boundaries, and codependency online if you cannot afford to see a therapist who specializes in the issue.

‘Sextortionists’ Are Increasingly Targeting Young Men For Money. The Outcome Can Be Deadly.

‘Sextortionists’ Are Increasingly Targeting Young Men For Money. The Outcome Can Be Deadly. by Corky Siemaszko

Update Below, December 2022

(Link): ‘Sextortionists’ are increasingly targeting young men for money. The outcome can be deadly.

May 8, 2022

“They wouldn’t give up, and he felt he had no choice but to do it to protect his family,” one mother said after internet blackmailers targeted her son and he took his own life.

by Corky Siemaszko

Internet blackmailers are increasingly duping young men and boys into sending them sexually explicit content online by posing as young girls on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and then extorting them in a scheme known as “sextortion” — and dozens of these cases have ended with the victims taking their own lives, police and child advocates told NBC News.

In a sign of how serious the problem is becoming, the FBI’s field office in Los Angeles released a warning last month aimed directly at the parents of young men caught in the crosshairs of these cyber-criminals who often operate in foreign countries.

“The FBI is receiving an increasing number of reports of adults posing as young girls coercing young boys through social media to produce sexual images and videos and then extorting money from them,” the FBI warning said.

Dozens of boys have reported being “victims of sextortion; mostly for money, although others were reportedly sextorted for additional images,” the agency said in a subsequent news release.

BLM (Black Lives Matter) Apparently Using Donated Funds to Buy BLM Members $ Six Million Dollar Mansion

BLM (Black Lives Matter) Apparently Using Donated Funds to Buy BLM Members $ Six Million Dollar Mansion

Not only do Muslims the world over not care about leftist “Intersectionalism” or about George Floyd, but neither does Black Lives Matter!

It has been reported in media outlets that Black Lives Matter group took money donated and used it to buy a six million dollar mansion for themselves.

LOL, what a bunch of con artists!

(Link): ‘I never touched any money’: Developer in $6 million BLM mansion scandal says he did not buy it, but put it in LLC

April 8, 2022

Controversy continues to swirl over the purchase of a $6 million California mansion by Black Lives Matter with a Republican congressman calling for a Justice Department investigation of the 2020 deal amid questions about the group’s financial dealings.

Rep. Darrell Issa spoke with Fox News Digital following a report about the secretive purchase of the property which was paid for in cash using funds that were donated to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation during the months when the organization enjoyed an elevated national profile in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd that was a windfall for BLM.

No More Tinder Swindler? Dating App Adds Background Checks

No More Tinder Swindler? Dating App Adds Background Checks

(Link): No More Tinder Swindler? Dating App Adds Background Checks

Mar 9, 2022
By Ariel Zilber

Tinder is partnering up with an app that offers online background checks so that users can research whether their dates have been convicted of violent crimes.

Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, announced the partnership with Garbo, the online platform that allows users to access public information including people’s arrests, convictions, and sex offender registry records.

Indian ConMan is Arrested After Marrying FOURTEEN ‘Well-Paid’ Women Over 43 Years By Convincing Them He Was a Travelling Health Official in ‘Dead Easy’ Ruse

Indian ConMan is Arrested After Marrying FOURTEEN ‘Well-Paid’ Women Over 43 Years By Convincing Them He Was a Travelling Health Official in ‘Dead Easy’ Ruse

(Link): Indian ConMan is Arrested After Marrying FOURTEEN ‘Well-Paid’ Women Over 43 Years By Convincing Them He Was a Travelling Health Official in ‘Dead Easy’ Ruse

Feb 16, 2022
by By STEPHEN WYNN-DAVIES

An Indian conman who married 14 ‘well-paid’ women by convincing them he was a travelling health official has been arrested.

Ramesh Chandra Swain, 65, from Odisha, eastern India, targeted mostly middle-aged divorcees, including teachers, doctors and lawyers, who were looking for companionship or marriage.

Charming Tinder Swindler is Jailed for Conning Dubai-Based Millionairess Out of £150,000

 Charming Tinder Swindler is Jailed for Conning Dubai-Based Millionairess Out of £150,000

(Link):  Charming Tinder Swindler is Jailed for Conning Dubai-Based Millionairess Out of £150,000

by Chay Quinn
Feb 10, 2022

A charming fraudster has been jailed for over four years after conning a millionaire he met on Tinder out of £150,000.

Richard Dexter, 38, has been jailed for four years and six months after fraudulently claiming he was a ‘successful businessman’ on the verge of the a ‘big windfall’ to swindle his lover.

Dexter duped Middle East-based executive Amrita Sebastian into sending him £141,500 in a series of payments saying they were for investments in biopharmaceutical technology

He was even spinning his ‘fanciful’ lies while she was seriously ill in hospital.

‘Well-educated and well-dressed’ Dexter claimed he had more than £4.2 million tied up in an investment account – but it was a ‘complete fiction’ and it was his friend’s account and had just 37p in.

The father of two spent Miss Sebastian’s money on ‘relatively high living’ – including paying £15,000 to a classic car company – and has never apologised.

FTC Warns of Increase in Romance Scams, Especially Targeting Older Adults

FTC Warns of Increase in Romance Scams, Especially Targeting Older Adults 

(Link): FTC Warns of Increase in Romance Scams, Especially Targeting Older Adults 

Seniors made 23,053 online fraud reports in 2020 – 2,150 of those reports were said to be romance scams: FTC
By Cortney Moore | Fox News

An increasing number of American seniors have been targeted for romance scams during the pandemic.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published an updated report on the top scams that have cost seniors aged 60 and up millions of dollars.