Multiple Faces Detected
January 22nd, 2026
At Social Catfish, we interviewed a woman named Shannon who met a romance scammer named Daniel on Plenty of Fish. He claimed that he was looking for a future with Shannon, and she believed it for two years of talking to him. She helped send him money for an investment plan, a job, and even a wedding for the two of them. She sent him a whopping total of $120,000 over the course of two years and even took out a home equity loan of $100,000 to pay this money to him. She ended up selling her home for a condo to pay this money back and is now with a real man named Dale. Interested in learning more about Shannon’s story? Watch the video and read the article below.
Shannon’s Experience Talking to a Romance Scammer
Shannon lost her husband of 30 years who passed away, leaving her without a companion. After this tragic event, Shannon didn’t want to be alone so she started to look for a companion. Her friends told her all about Plenty of Fish, so she decided to give it a try. That’s when she met a man named Daniel who claimed to be from Montana while Shannon lived in Colorado, which is only an eight-hour drive away from each other.
Shannon noticed that Daniel had an accent, so he claimed that he was from France which made her fall for him even more. He would call her every morning which made him the first voice that Shannon heard when she woke up. He would always text her about how much he loved her throughout the day, which made Shannon fall in love with him quickly.
Two weeks after the relationship developed, Daniel took off suddenly to a European country claiming that he was going to go make some money. He claimed that a brand new hotel wanted him to design a room with furniture and needed his help. After four days of staying there, he claimed that this job could really help their future out but that he needed $8,000 to start out. She sent this money to him via gift cards from different superstores so that it was easier to send it over to him.
She Broke Up With Her Romance Scammer For a Real Man
After two and a half years of talking, he would always come up with excuses as to why he needed money and always had a story about why he couldn’t see Shannon. He claimed that he missed his plane, didn’t have money for a plane ticket, can’t get the money into his bank account, etc. She has also helped pay for the furniture for the hotel, his bills to stay in the hotel, gold from his son, and his hospital bills after someone beat him up.
In an attempt to fulfill the scammer’s demands, she obtained a $100,000 home equity loan, of which $63,000 was intended to purchase the alleged antiques, and subsequently transferred the funds to a person named Rodger. Shannon’s friend became concerned and reported the matter to the fraud department in Colorado, who intervened, froze Rodger’s account, and assisted Shannon in reclaiming her money. Despite receiving a refund, Shannon continued to send money to additional individuals, still convinced that Daniel was not a scammer. Her sole focus was getting Daniel to visit her, leading her to spend all of her money, to no avail.
She then thought if he wouldn’t go to her, that she would go to him. Daniel claimed he was in France and set up a wedding for them, all Shannon had to do was pay $20,000, so she paid it. She flew to France expecting to pick up a gown and to see a decorated venue for a wedding. However, when she got there he never showed up.
Then, Daniel wanted her to get a Bitcoin account so that she could send him money easier. She also set up another account at a bank and lied about it being a clothing store account, thinking that Daniel would send her some money back. However, when she looked she realized someone else put someone’s unemployment money into her account. She realized after this that she couldn’t keep sending Daniel money. She went back on Plenty of Fish and met Dale who ended up being a real person. She cut Daniel off cold turkey and is now in a relationship with Dale.
The Real Man Behind the Romance Scammer’s Photos
The romance scammer that was talking to Shannon stole photos from a man and claimed that his name was Daniel. However, after doing a reverse image search, we realized that this man in the photos is actually named Albert Duarte.
He is a life insurance agent and a life coach who wants to help people live the best lives possible. He is not looking to date anyone online and was not the man who was talking to Shannon. Instead, the scammer stole his images and pretended to be him with a different name.
You can run a reverse image search on any suspected scammer’s images here:
How to Avoid Romance Scams
- Don’t give money to someone on the Internet that you’ve never met in person.
- Don’t give out your personal information to someone that you are talking to online.
- If someone is moving the relationship super fast, be cautious by slowing the relationship down.
- Don’t get too serious with someone without at least video chatting with them or meeting them in person first.
- If they have a job overseas, this is a huge red flag that they might be a romance scammer since they usually use this as an excuse to not see you or video chat with you.
- If someone is randomly contacting you out-of-the-blue on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter this usually means they are a romance scammer.
- Report any scam that you’ve been a part of to the FTC, IC3, and FBI.
Social Catfish is Here to Help You!
If you think you’re dealing with busting a romance scam 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 our 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 [email protected], and we will get back to you with more details.
You can also reverse search any information you have on the Nigerian romance 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 scammer you are talking to.
