Romancing The E-Scam

from the lots-of-suckers-in-this-world dept

It's fairly impressive what scammers can trick people out of. A man in Minnesota has been arrested for tricking two women out of over $300,000. He met them both in "romantic" online chat rooms, and convinced them to give him money to invest in various real estate deals that apparently didn't exist. One woman was scammed out of $36,000, but the other forked over $280,000 before she realized that the real estate deals didn't exist. So, here's the question: you meet someone in an online "romance" chat room and they start asking you for money. At what point do you stop and do a little due diligence before just sending them checks? I would think that most people wouldn't even bother to speak to the guy again, but if you can get past that, you'd at least try to find out a little more about what you were investing in. Some people apparently have too much money on their hands and don't seem to care what happens to it.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    suzi, 1 Dec 2003 @ 8:03pm

    stupid!

    If they are stupid enough to send money to someone in a chat room, they deserve what they got. I mean, really - how dumb is that!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    alternatives, 2 Dec 2003 @ 4:01am

    As soon as the blush is gone.

    So, here's the question: you meet someone in an online "romance" chat room and they start asking you for money. At what point do you stop and do a little due diligence before just sending them checks?

    1) how lonely you are
    2) how much you trust 'em
    3) how much of that 'first blush of love' still exists

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Greg Nelson, 2 Dec 2003 @ 4:43am

    Re: stupid!

    I would never say that a person 'deserved' being scammed out of 1/3 of a million dollars.
    It is soo easy to say how dumb and stupid these people are. Simple fact is, some people Are dumb[not everyone is average - it's a fact!], some people are born with learning disabilities, and some people [because of sheltered upbringings] are notoriously gullable.
    It is not hard to imagine that perhaps the women who were scammed were desperate for someone to care about them, or maybe for some someone to care about - and so would do anything to feel the way they did. Maybe they have been alone their entire lives.
    To make judgement on such a small amount of information is absurd.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    AMetamorphosis, 2 Dec 2003 @ 8:32am

    Re: stupid!

    Oh what a load of crap ... Anyone, & I mean ANYONE who has 1/4 of a million dollars and doesn't even check to see what they are investing in deserves to get screwed. To make excuses for such blatant stupidity is even more absurd.

    A fool & their money are soon parted ...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Greg Nelson, 2 Dec 2003 @ 5:36pm

    Re: stupid!

    To say someone deserved something because they were not aware or considered a certain piece of wisdom is overly harsh.

    Does a person deserve the be a quadraplegic because they were not sensible enough to check the waters depth before diving in? Stupid decision? Definitely. Did they deserve to lose all quality of life as a result? No.

    I do not believe people DESERVE to have their lives ruined because of an innocent absent minded decision.

    Nobody has perfect judgement.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    james blackwell, 4 Mar 2008 @ 2:18pm

    Re: Re: stupid!

    you are probably a scammer yourself mr. nelson

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.