71-year-old man loses $80,000 in romance scam

A senior man sent over $80,000 in total to a woman he met on social media before realizing it was a romance scam.

In a recent interview with Fox 59, the 71-year-old, who stayed anonymous, explained that he met a lady from Germany on Facebook and built up a relationship with her.

After nine months, he asked about meeting this new individual in his life because he wants to become more acquainted with her.

That was the moment the woman convinced him to send her cash for inns, sustenances, transportation, and more.

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The old man trusted her, so he sent her money in increments of $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 only to realize it was a scam.

According to the Better Business Bureau's president and CEO Tim Maniscalo, these sorts of scams are known as “romance scams,” which is one of the most well-known cons in Germany.

“We think there’s in the neighborhood of a million people across the country annually that might be taken by this scam,” Maniscalo said.

He added, “The requests for money just never stop. There is another excuse and another excuse why you have to send them money. That adds up. You can lose quite a bit of money on a romance scam.”

The Better Business Bureau revealed that romance scams are the riskiest scams for individuals over 55 years old.

Maniscalo proceeded with, “We see mostly people in the 50s, 60s and 70s that fall for this scam. They may have lost their partner in life. They’re feeling lonely and scammers prey on that emotion.”

The BBB additionally estimates on common romance scams result in a higher loss of cash to victims than some other scam, but there is invariably one noteworthy warning.

“If someone asks you for money and you’ve never met that person, that’s a real tip off,” said Maniscalo.

Maniscalo is also urging the victims to report these scams, though he recognizes these things frequently go unreported because people are embarrassed to have been deceived.