Woman Scammed by Fake Marine Major
Hopefully, everyone remembers Dan Noyes, a journalist who takes Stolen Valor seriously and reports on it often.
Dan is working on a new story where a woman was scammed out of her life’s savings of $273 thousand dollars.
The story is currently being carried by ABC 7 and Yahoo Finance.
A single woman was scammed out of $273K by a man posing as a U.S. Marine Corps Major on Match.com.
Yin, a 56-year-old hairstylist from Oakland, Calif., told ABC 7 that she purchased a $107 six-month membership to Match.com and started talking to “David Perez” of San Fransisco, a divorced Marine Corps Major with a 10-year-old daughter.
They hadn’t met in person but Yin told ABC 7, “I fell in love with him quickly, you know. Like really deeply fall in love with him, trust in everything he said.”
Five weeks into the online relationship, Perez told Yin he was being deployed on a clandestine mission to Afghanistan and he needed money deposited into a Chinese bank account. “I know you’re doing everything to help me, but I just want you to try your best,” Perez wrote to Yin, according to ABC 7.
Since most scammers are overseas, primarily in places such as Nigeria or Ghana, they can be hard to catch and prosecute, says Baker, due to challenging extradition processes.
From the dating scams reported to us they have many similar themes:
- Usually, they grab photos of active duty military, use a common name like “Smith,” “Brown,” or “Rodriguez.”
- Always claim they are in a “hotspot” that US troops are usually not to some degree: Yemen, Iran, etc.
- Always claim they are widowed and have a 9-12 year old child
- After some time, they manufacture an “emergency” where they need money wired: i.e. come home on leave to visit child, or meet up, etc.
Category: Exploitation, Internet, Politics
Fer the gazillionth time, NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANYONE YOU’VE ONLY MET ONLINE!!!!…(as C.H. pounds his head on the keyboard in abject frustration at how gullible folks can be…)
Dan is a hard charger.
Dan always does good work with his Stolen Valor stories… a rare breed of journalist in this day and age.
I’m impressed that Yin, a hairstylist from Oakland, CA, was able to save a nest egg of $273K! Sounds like a smart and capable woman who let her reasoning be short-circuited by a matter of the heart. Sometimes “love” bites.
gotta love the fact that she was completely, totally blindsided after *only* 273k. nothing EVER set off the alarm bells before that, huh? ah, California….land of fruits and nuts.
You left out flakes.
“California, the breakfast cereal state: full of fruits, flakes, and nuts.”
I am shocked, shocked I say that a low life would take advantage of an unsuspecting woman who was dumb enough to give him lots of money. Wonder if she has any left and is interested in meeting a deserving Chief Warrant Officer with a coveted NSDM and photos available. Anyone have her account contact info?
How about an E4 with a Good Conduct, That proves I would never take advantage of her.
With a Good Cookie you’d probably earn a $350K stipend on Match.com.
Her number is
1-866-Dumb-ass
1-866-Iam-dumb
I’m sure if we tell the Chinese about this, they’ll get right on top of the fraud. They’re a communist country after all, which means they don’t allow fraud or other nefarious actions to occur….
Actually in the unlikely chance the offender gets caught they are likely to do 25 years of hard labor mining rare earth metals or some other equally rewarding task.
But that assumes they would go to the trouble to find the offender and prosecute him. I agree it is “unlikely,” but would add the adjective “highly” to your comment.
China is not a communist country. It is ruled by a technocratic intraparty disctatorship and it uses a market economy for the overwhelming majority of goods and services.
Fraud is treated with broad discretion form no action whatsoever to execution depending on who you defrauded.
You should go to China and tell them that. See what they say. Let us know when you get released from custody. At the very least update Wikipedia. Let us know how that goes.
“China’s constitution states that The People’s Republic of China “is a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants,” and that the state organs “apply the principle of democratic centralism.” The PRC is one of the world’s only socialist states openly endorsing communism.”
It is quite the curiosity that so many Chinese immigrants to the US renounce Socialism and then become Republicans. Something about experience being the great educator.
Did you eat the whole pot of Stupid Soup?
Ate it, shat it out, and ate that.
How many times does this happen before these wimmin wake up?
Damn that is one thirsty broad.
“There’s a sucker born every minute.” – P. T. Barnum
Thank goodness she got her $107 back from Match.com.
Some sympathy, but not much. Buyer beware. Especially an innerweb buyer.
Maybe we should put Dan on WW’s POS Brother?
We gonna see an update when the Ching Chong Chinese bust this one and she gets her money back? /s/
How I wish somebody would be interested in a scammer that has screwed us all out of 750K of my very hard earned money! I hope I live long enough to piss on his grave! I have almost given up hope of him ever being arrested and put back in prison where he belongs!!!
Note to thebesig:
Bring back Wet Willie’s Brother for “Blast From The Past”.
😉
I’m Sorry, WW…
“Wilted Willy”…
Prolly been awhile since his wilted willy got wet.
I know, I know, I’m a bad doggie. I’ll get Ms Thang to punish me.
Hey, c’mon – Wet Willie deserves some love too, AP!
Oh, and y’all get yer minds outa the gutter.
(smile)
What I’m hearing is we need to catfish your brother out of his ill-gotten gains…
I hope he chokes on his ill gotten gains! And yes, I live in Florida, so my willy gets wet all the time, everytime I jump in the pool! I just hope that someone puts his ass in prison before I die? Any ideas will be gratefully accepted!!!
My wife was watching Dr. Phil the other day and he told the story of some lonely woman who was scammed out of $1.2 million in some catfishing scam last year. It was her entire life savings.
There was a guy who was featured on Dr. Phil who was conned out of a lot of money.
Despite his friends and Dr. Phil proving to him that someone from Nigeria was scamming him, he continued to send money.
So sad.