Romance Scammer Promised Victim $1M and a Mansion

Vinnie was a widow who went on a dating site to try and find someone to spend the rest of her life with. She met a guy named Adam on a Christian dating site and hit it off with their conversations. He told her how devoted he was to his religion, and asked her to partake of a seven day fast with him to see if their relationship is meant to be. She agreed to it and participated in the seven-day fast, not aware that he could be a romance scammer.

How Did Their Relationship Start?

She did the best she could throughout the seven-day fast, and later he called her telling her that he had some great news! He told her that God had spoken to him and let him know that their relationship could work out as long as they kept God at the center of it. When he prayed to her every night about them, she would get chills since he prayed like a preacher.

The woman fell for him hard and felt like God had sent this man to her to be with her. She wondered where this guy had been for her since her husband had passed, and was happy with her decision to try this relationship out with him. She did notice that while he spoke very good English, that he was not from the United States, but didn’t think much about it.

When Did the Romance Scam Start?

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He had told her he got a job offer from the Ministry of Spain, and at first, she didn’t believe what he was saying. Then, he sent her a legit-looking certificate stating proof that he had gotten the job. He had also told her that he would be getting four checks, with each one being worth 1.5 million dollars. He sent her a picture of himself on a plane to show that he was flying to Spain to start his new job, and would send her pictures of himself periodically.

Then one day, he contacted her notifying her that he had tried depositing his checks into his account, but there was a mix-up and they were deposited into the wrong account. He claimed that he tried moving the funds to the right account, but the bank wouldn’t let him due to security reasons. He asked if he could add her onto the account so that she could transfer the money back to him, and she agreed after only three weeks of talking to him.

When Did He Start Asking Her For Money?

She was told that in order to get added onto this account, she needed to email her social security number and a copy of her drivers’ license to the supposed bank. Adam told her that if she just paid the tax code, that he would pay her back $2500 plus an extra $500 for helping him out. After this, she had to follow more steps in order to add herself to the account. She had to pay another tax code before being allowed onto the account.

Adam told her that after she transferred him the money, that he had a big surprise for her. He told her that he was going to transfer $1M into her account. He also said that he wanted her to go hire a realtor and start looking at some houses by the beach. He then said that once she found a house she liked, that she needed to put a really good deposit down on their future home. Adam sent the realtor a copy of his passport and proof of funds with $14M in his bank account.

How Did She Find Out He was a Romance Scammer?

After reviewing these materials, the realtor sent Vinnie a text message claiming that he needed to talk to her right away. That’s when the realtor proceeds to tell her that the passport they received was fake. He had a bad feeling that the passport wasn’t real, so he took it to his friend who was a detective who then confirmed that it was fake. Vinnie’s heart fell and she was in instant shock when she learned this information.

When she was coming home after learning this information, Adam kept asking her if she got the checks and kept bugging her to check the mail. Vinnie told him that she never got any mail, so he told her to go check her back porch. She found a box on her back porch filled with bubble wrap and 100 checks, all with her name on them. He said that his partners added her to that account to help them write checks.

Vinnie was so freaked out that she gave the checks to her brother so that he could shred them. She contacted the company that made the checks, and they gave her the gift card number that was used by Adam to pay for the checks. It turns out that the gift card number used to pay for the checks was the same gift card number that Vinnie used to pay for the tax codes.

How Did She Confront the Romance Scammer?

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After this situation, she went for two weeks without speaking to him. Then, he contacted her complaining that his internet wasn’t working. He wanted her to pay 100 dollars to him every two weeks so that he could get minutes to talk to her on the phone. She replied to him that she wouldn’t be sending him another dime.

After she told Adam that she wouldn’t be sending him another dime, he sent her a very bad email that claimed that she threw him under the bus, that she isn’t helping him, and that she’s going to put him in jail and he won’t be able to get back home. He also said that if she couldn’t be a virtuous woman, that they wouldn’t work as a married couple. At that point, she knew he wasn’t a good Christian man and asked for her money back, and he told her he wouldn’t be giving her back a dime.

All she wanted was someone to love her forever, someone to share her life with, and someone to be her best friend. However, what she got was a romance scammer that messed with her feelings and drained her bank account.

Social Catfish is Here to Help You with Your Romance Scam

If you think you’re dealing with a romance scammer, if you are a cargo scam victim, or have had your pictures stolen, Social Catfish is here to help you!

If you want to be a part of our next YouTube video or blog post and share your story, now is your chance. You can educate the audience about what you have gone through and make sure no one else goes through the same thing. All you need to do is email ShareMyStory@socialcatfish.com, and we will get back to you with more details.

You can also reverse search any information you have on the cargo scammer to see who it is you’ve really been talking to. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image you can search it up in our search bar to see if there is more information on the suspected romance scammer you are talking to.