A 78-year-old man from Virginia who was looking for love on a dating app was scammed out of $500,000 after falling victim to a pair of online con artist.
The man from Annandale, who has not been named, who had worked his entire life investigating fraud for the government, then fell victim to it himself.
Hecreated an account on a social network called iFlirt in an effort to find some companionship and made contact with someone who identifying themselves as a widowed woman in her 30s, who seemed interested.
The person sent him photos supposedly of herself that matched that description, but as the online relationship grew, the scam started to emerge.
The woman, who at first claimed to be from New York, said she was arrested while traveling to Germany to retrieve an inheritance of gold bars, and needed money to make bail.
Ghanian nationals Richard Broni, 31, and Linda Mbimadong, 29, were involved in a plot to scam money from unsuspecting individuals online. Prosecutors described them as ‘money mules’ who never made contact with the victim themselves but helped receive and launder the money in return for a 5 to 10 percent cut of the proceeds
Despite the bizarre circumstances, the man paid it, only to receive yet another message that she had been arrested a second time and needed even more cash to make bail.
The co-conspirators convinced the man to use money from his IRA.
A man Virginia created an account on a social network called iFlirt in an…
