BALTIMORE — A Pennsylvania woman is warning about romance scams, especially during the holiday season when people are looking for love and connection.
Scammers will invest their time developing a relationship with their victims in order to steal as much as they can. Sadly, it cost Kate Kleinert everything.
“His name, atleast he told me his name was, Tony Richard and he sent pictures of a very handsome doctor,” said Kleinert.
The photos are of a real doctor, but they’re not the person who contacted Kleinert on Facebook.
The impostor told her they shared similar interests and their chats quickly morphed into daily phone calls.
“He said the most beautiful things to me, and I had been widowed for 12 years at that point and it was just nice to have a man ask me at the end of the day, ‘How was your day, hunny?’” Kleinert said. “I didn’t realize how much I missed that, and I missed being in love.”
The man claimed to be in Iraq working on a United Nations contract as a surgeon and due to safety concerns, he couldn’t Facetime or carry money on him. After four months of communicating, Richard asked a favor for his daughter.
“She needed a gift card and that started the whole business,” said Kleinert.
Kate bought a $100 Visa gift card, took a photo of the numbers, then sent it to Richard. Then came more requests for upgraded cell service, money for food, and a plane ticket to visit Kleinert.
“All told, I gave him $39,000 and had nothing myself, nothing,” Kleinert…
