A 76-year-old widow was duped out of her life savings by a man she met on Facebook and fell in love with.
Jennifer Dennis was living in Georgia when she contacted a man named Caleb on Facebook who claimed to be a Red Cross doctor in Yemen.
After months of online communication, Caleb proposed that they buy a home together in Cary, North Carolina, to live together and start over.
Dennis loved the notion because, as she described her living condition to WTVD, “everything about the house and the area reminded me of my husband, which was just heartbreaking.”
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Caleb stated that he would contribute $600,000 towards their new home and asked her to contribute the remaining $70,000. Dennis stated that she sent him that cash, plus an additional $8,700 for various expenses.
Dennis and her son, Raymond, packed their stuff, sold their Georgia home, and went to Cary. Her son quickly realised that the entire narrative was strange.
‘I recognised it was a fraud when I noticed someone was still living in the property and knocked on the door,’ Raymond told the TV station.
‘The owner of the home told them he had lived in the home for years and had no intention of ever selling.’
When Dennis informed Caleb, he sent her a picture showing that he had ‘supposedly been beat up’, she said. She never heard from him again.
‘I had all that money and I don’t think I’ll ever get it back,’ Dennis told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday, September 29.
Dennis’ life savings were lost, and she and her son were left homeless. They slept in the car.
A member of their church later donated a camper for them to live in. Dennis said her story should serve as a warning to others.
‘I think that it’s devastating for me, but I have my son, which has been a blessing,’ she told WTVD. ‘So some women are totally alone and they get scammed like that.’
Last year, romance scams cost nearly 70,000 people roughly $1.3billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
