Xenia woman who lied about romance scam sentenced to prison
A Xenia woman was sentenced to two years in prison after lying to U.S. Postal Inspectors about a missing teenager to conceal her involvement with romance scammers.
Linda Matson, 62, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. She pleaded guilty in August 2022 to making false statements to a federal agent.
On April 29, 2020, U.S. Postal Inspectors found $50,000 that had fallen from a package sent by Matson to a post office box being used in a romance fraud scheme, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. They later found a second package containing the same amount.
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The inspectors reached out to Matson, who acknowledged that she had been scammed by someone claiming to be in the U.S. Army.
“On May 10, 2020, three days after admitting she had been duped in that romance scam, Matson began inducing her relatives to send her money on behalf of her fictitious military officer,” the release said. “In an effort to conceal her continued involvement in the romance fraud scam and to expedite the return of the seized funds, on May 18, 2020 she sent multiple text messages to a postal inspector falsely claiming that she needed the money to buy posters and T-shirts to help find her missing 18-year-old niece. Matson also sent links to news articles and Facebook stories about a missing Ohio teenager to deceive the inspector into acting quickly.”
Between June 1, 2020 and August 3, 2020, relatives gave Matson $590,000 that was to be used to help the fictitious military officer obtain an imaginary portfolio containing cash and diamonds valued at $20 million.
Instead of providing the funds to the United States Customs Service as she promised, Matson mailed the money to post office boxes controlled by the romance scammers, the release said.
Matson pleaded guilty to a charge of making false statements to a federal agent and admitted she intended to use the money for reasons she was concealing from the postal inspector. She also admitted lying to the inspector and the FBI.
