Victim Location 49329
Total money lost $134,000
Type of a scam Romance
We initially met on Match.com. He told me in lives in Holland, Michigan. Several photo’s were used. Then we went off line at his suggested as he had landed his first big overseas job building a tire store in Turin, Italy. He said his dad was a well known international business man and he wanted to follow in his footsteps. He had lost his wife in a car crash abut the same time I lost my husband. He had also experienced the loss of both of his parents and had a significant inheritance in a swiss bank account (which also locked up as he said he had never used it before..I had access and it showed over 3.4 million). He wrote long beautiful e-mails and sent long texts using WhatsApp and Chat as well as email. A friend, John Stevenson and daughter Evelin Ali Ruiz also confirmed his story. I finally felt comfortable and the relationship progressed. He got to Italy and told me his bank accounts had gotten locked up and he could not leave the site to travel back to Holland, MI as he was the job engineer. He started asking for money and, by this time, I felt I could trust him, he told me it would all be repaid with interest and also a 30% profit in the company which was a start up they would name after the job was done. I quickly feel in love and was thinking with my heart and not my head. Several weeks ago the job was finally complete and he was to pay me all the funds back which now mounted to $134,000 (and growing since $50,000 was a Home Equity Line of Credit). I waited up all night for his call/text as I was to pick him up at the Grand Rapids International Airport on Saturday July 28, 2018. The call/text email never came. Sunday morning I was so upset I nearly killed myself…the grief was horrific and I am still reeling. No funds have been paid. I have contacted the police and am working with my bank…although the police feel he is part of a ring of romance scammers probably in Uganda or Nigeria.