INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis woman, looking for love, said she lost thousands of dollars instead.
The FBI warns that cases like this aren’t as uncommon as you might think – anyone is capable of falling victim to an online scam.
The woman said she wound up in the middle of an elaborate online scam, put on by someone she never actually met.
In order to protect her identity, we’re calling the woman “Susan.”
Susan’s husband died two years ago, and friends suggested that she should start looking for someone online.
“I was lonely and some people suggested that I get on a dating website,” said Susan.
She found what she thought was a perfect match, a man who claimed to live in Illinois but was temporarily working overseas.
They never actually met, and then months into their cyber relationship, Susan said her new love started asking for money.
In total, she said she sent nearly $250,000.
“I just can’t believe I fell for it,” said Susan. “I’m usually not that careless with money but I had a lot going on in my life.”
The FBI says online dating scammers prey on women over 40 who are divorced, widowed or disabled.
And while this type of scam isn’t as common to them, the FBI in Indianapolis said they deal with dozens of other cases, schemes that are just as convincing.
“Those individuals who are out there are professions,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI Indianapolis, Gregory Massa. “They do this for a living and not only that, they do a bunch of research. They are persistent, they are patient.”
And once you’ve sent the money – it’s almost impossible to get it back.
“If it’s more than 72 hours after the money is sent, the chances of that person getting that money is as close to 0 as possible. So you have to be timely on your notifications,” said Massa.
“It was my future, my retirement, it was for my children. It was my security and now I’m working three jobs to try and build up some sort of security in the next few years so I can eventually retire,” said Susan.
If you believe you’re a victim of a scam you can file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center at IC3.GOV.
