Athens man confronts a scammer about stealing $60,000. See these tips to avoid the cons.
An Athens man went to an online dating site in January 2022 and sure enough he found a date.
Then about 16 months later the 32-year-old man discovered that the date whom he had sent about $60,000 through a cash app was playing him just for the money.
An Athens-Clarke police report shows the man confronted the person he knew as Veronica about the fraud.
She told him “by text message today (Aug. 4) that she did not feel bad about taking his money and that she was not paying the money back to him,” according to police.
The man called police that same day.
The man was contacted by the Athens Banner-Herald, but he declined to comment saying "it's a long story."
The dating scam is just one of many frauds perpetrated on residents of Athens and the surrounding counties.
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“We are overwhelmed with financial cases dealing with different types of scam,” police Lt. Jody Thompson said Thursday. This includes dating scams to the scams where people believe they face possible arrest due to a warrant.
“We have one older guy who lost over $100,000 because he was told he needed virus software on his computer,” Thompson said.
Many of the scams are what the officer described as “short cons.”
“The short con is when they call you out of the blue,” he said. “They put immediate pressure on you to pay the money.”
“The ‘long cons’ are like the dating ones. It takes a while to build a relationship and it can take months. They don’t ask for money immediately and they won’t even for the first three to four months.”
These people take their time to earn the victim's trust, he said.
“It’s catfishing 101,” Thompson remarked about the term used to describe someone who creates a fake identity on a social network to scam someone.
The Better Business Bureau on its website warns people about romance scams.
“In 2021, BBB's across North America received 276 reports on romance scams, a 13% increase from 2020. In 2022, the number of reported romance scam cases more than doubled in the first two months of the year when compared to the same period last year,” according to the BBB in a 2023 report.
The BBB offered these tips about con artists who are baiting their victims:
Too hot to be true. Scammers offer up good-looking photos and tales of financial success. Be honest with yourself about who would be genuinely interested.
In a hurry to get off the site. Catfishers will try very quickly to get you to move to communicate through email, messenger, or phone.
Moving fast. A catfisher will begin speaking of a future together and tell you they love you quickly. They often say they’ve never felt this way before.
Talk about trust. Catfishers will start manipulating you with talk about trust and its importance. This will often be the first step to asking you for money.
Don’t want to meet. Be wary of someone who always has an excuse to postpone a meeting because they say they are traveling or live overseas or are in the military.
Hard luck stories. Before moving on to asking you for money, the scammer may hint at financial troubles like heat being cut off or a stolen car, or a sick relative, or they may share a sad story from their past.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens man falls victim to dating scam and loses $60,000
