KFI: A combat medic returned home from a tour in Afghanistan to find out that a conman had stolen his Facebook photos and used them to catfish dozens of women and steal thousands of dollars. United States Army veteran Albert Lovato realized something was not right when strange women started contacting him and professing their love to him. Lovato said that he knows of at least 30 women who had been victims of the fraudster. Many of the women sent money to the man, believing it was going to be used to help his three children.
The imposter targeted vulnerable women from around the world on dating apps and social media and tricked them into long-distance relationships. After he gained their love, he would tell them he was injured while serving in the Middle East and desperately needed money to help care for his kids.
Lovato told the Daily Mail that he “was really angry” when he found out that somebody had “swooped in and took my name and face.” MORE
“Catfish”
I’m slow. I don’t get it.
‘Catfish’ .. bottom-feeder; scumsucker
… internet scam where someone pretends to be someone else online to suck money out of some sympathetic rube’s bank account
Sounds like this one was a Sturgeon then.
Catfish is a term that refers to a person who pretends to be someone that he is not online. Users who deceive other users on social sites, particularly with online romances.
MJA
Got it. I always try and learn at least one thing a day. LOL
There’s a show called “Catfish”. I can’t stand it. It’s about emotionally immature people pretending they’re some hot chick or dude (sometimes both) trying to hook up with someone. Anyway, one of the hosts recently got busted for -allegedly- sexually assaulting one of the people they featured. (I posted it here a month ago, I think) He kept hitting on a gay girl who was trying to get with another girl, who didn’t know the ‘dude’ she was talking to was actually a female. It’s Jerry Springer meets Columbo. lol
MJA
I’ going to take a wild ass guess and say that show appears on MTV. How am I doing?
Brad, if you learn anything with this story it’s to not fall in love with some “cute, unattached, looking for a good time, young lady”, you never know it could be the Prime Minister of Canada.
joe6pak
Lust and love are two different things. LOL
Catfish=Yummy when fried!
I hope the scammer is found and as geofraz said, “catfish” fried.
Gee Wally, I thot it wuz about noodling!
Naw Beave, yer thinking about Canoodling!
Sweetheart scams, being run mostly by Nigerians and its been going on for a long time. Before social media made it easier for them to get average, everyday photos of people doing things, the scammers used to dig up online portfolios of models and use them. Of course their disadvantage was that it was a limited number of photos and all looked too staged like a model shoot. People still fell for it.
The scammers find lonely hearts on the dating sites (using stolen credit card info to sign up with), sorry to say they looked for the people that were rather on the plain side, who had trouble finding dates, let alone Mr/Mrs Right. Then they would begin a process of winning over the heart of the victim in order to scam them. The pros would spend months, slowly building up the relationship to firmly get their hooks in the person. There was always the promise they would be coming back to the states soon for good and they will be together. Sprinkle in the photos here and there. Send them flowers and gifts on occasion to show their feelings, albeit paid for with stolen credit card info. Once the scammer felt the victim was truly in love with the imaginary person, then they would bring the scam into play.
Not always for money. They would sometimes use the victim as what we would call a “mule”. The scammer might say they have an overseas business, but retailers here in the US would not accept orders from their location. So they would ask the victim if they would not mind receiving the items at their location. Then package it up for them so a shipping company could come and pick it up at their house.
The victim never paid a dime because their “sweetheart” was paying for the merchandise and paying for the shipping labels to be printed out and used by the victim. Of course everything was being paid for by stolen credit card. The victim would have no idea of course. That is until the police showed up one day and wanted to know why they were receiving goods paid for with stolen CC and then shipped to Africa, Europe or wherever.
There were other things too, but I don’t want to expand on this novel. I used to belong to a world wide group of people who messed with these scammers years ago, until egos got in the way that led to infighting and break up of the group. Anyhow, these scammers were the worse. Yeah you had complete idiots who fell for the Prince’s trunk box of millions scam and still do til this day, but the broken hearts are the worst, especially the women because they were mostly the ones looking for love. The male victims were the most embarrassed because they would think they were going to get a piece of hot ass until they found out that hot model chick was actually a 23 year old Nigerian male operating out of an internet cafe in downtown Lagos.
Just to add, if you ever encounter somebody who is in the middle of such a scam and refuses to believe that it is a scam, there is an easy way to expose it.
You tell the person to ask their “sweetheart” for a particular photo that would be impossible for the scammer to make up. Like you ask the scammer to hold up a sign saying the victim’s full name on a yellow background.
Since the scammer would not be able to get one from his stash of stolen photos, he’ll make up every excuse not to produce such a photo. Camera just broke, send another photo from his collection instead, he/she just got sick and cannot take such a photo. Trips em up 100% of the time. Of course they all suck at photoshop, so the few that try it f–k and expose themselves.
“Catfish” – – an insult to both fish and cats.