Genuine identification Theft Tales | Case #14: Romancing the Stones: Fraudster Woos Online Lover with Phony Diamonds

Genuine identification Theft Tales | Case #14: Romancing the Stones: Fraudster Woos Online Lover with Phony Diamonds

This website show is aimed at revealing real-world tales of identification fraudulence and theft — and merely exactly exactly how damaging these crimes is on companies, people, and people. Only with time for Valentine’s Day, our newest post shows the perils of succumbing to using the internet romance scams, and just exactly just what the lovelorn can perform to guard against all of them.

Victim crime that is wired Hundreds of Thousands

The connection from a woman that is japanese identified in reports just as F.K., as well as a U.S. Army captain stationed in Syria started innocently sufficient: they came across on the web, through a worldwide social network that attached pen friends online. The relationship grew into an internet romance, according to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the case over 10 months of daily emails. Nonetheless it ended with all the lady $200,000 in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy, after she borrowed funds from friends and family to aid her beau, Capt. Terry Garcia, along with his intends to smuggle a case of diamonds he stated he present in Syria with assistance from a few colleagues, including somebody saying to be always a Red Cross diplomat.

As it happens that there have been no diamonds, with no Captain Garcia. Alternatively, F.K. dropped target to a far-flung fraud prepared up by a ring of cyber thieves operating in l . a . and Nigeria. U.S. police force officials apprehended a number of the causes, calling it “one of this biggest situations of their sort in U.S. record.” Additionally the fallout is heartbreaking: as mentioned within the complaint that is federal “F.K. had been and it is excessively despondent and annoyed about these losses. Read More …