Woman realizing she’s been duped in romance scam swindles $590K from family, feds say
A woman caught in a romance scam convinced family members to send her more than a half-million dollars on behalf of a fake military officer, officials say.
Despite knowing she was caught in the scam, the 62-year-old woman continued to send money through the mail to the people duping her, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Missouri.
She was caught lying to a federal official about the money, leading to her arrest in 2021, officials said. On Thursday, Feb. 16, she was sentenced to two years in prison, according to a news release.
Postal inspectors first became aware of the scam in April 2020 when they found two packages containing a total of $100,000 sent by the woman from Xenia, Ohio. The inspectors reached out to her, and she acknowledged “she had been scammed by someone claiming to be a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
But just three days later, she began persuading family members to give her money for her to send to the fake officer, officials said.
The woman was deceived into sending money “to aid in the purported recovery of a portfolio valued in excess of $20,000,000,” according to the indictment.
Relatives sent her more than $590,000, and the woman devised a plan to attempt to thwart federal agents, the news release states.
“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,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “(The woman) also sent links to news articles and Facebook stories about a missing Ohio teenager to deceive the inspector into acting quickly.”
Federal agents learned she was sending the money to P.O. boxes in St. Louis that were opened by the accused scammers. The $590,000 was sent to the P.O. Boxes over the course of three months, the news release states.
She admitted she lied to the postal inspector and FBI about the money, and pleaded guilty in August to making false statements to a federal agent, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
As part of her plea deal, she admitted that “intended to use the money for reasons she was concealing from the postal inspector,” according to an August news release.
Her charge carried a penalty of up to five years in prison, and U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk ultimately gave her a two-year sentence.
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