A man from Lake County is warning others this Valentine’s Day after being scammed out of $50,000 from a woman he met through a dating app.
After losing his wife of 43 years, Gary told NBC Chicago he turned to online dating looking for love, but he won't ever again.
“I’m hurt to the point that I don’t want to move forward trying to find another lady right now,” he said.
The 72-year-old said he learned his lesson the hard way after being scammed from a woman claiming to be from Wilmette.
“The feeling that I have now I’ve been hurt traumatically, and I wake up, God, Gary, you gave $50,000 dollars away,” he said.
The victim said the two matched on the dating app Tinder and started chatting last summer, messaging back and forth about their interests. The woman went by “Nasha” and over time gained Gary’s trust.
“She picked up on one of my… I call my adventures and there’s a lot of adventures I’ve done in my life and one of them was fishing,” he said.
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But he knew something was off when she refused to meet in person. That’s when Gary said he cut off communication, but "Nasha" persisted. She told him she wanted to marry him.
“She went to the point which is logical for a scammer is they get your trust, they get your love,” he said. “You’re emotionally set up on a different platform than you thought you would be.”
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After messaging for months, the conversation then shifted to gold trading and investing. Gary said he made the mistake of making multiple transfers and when he tried to get the money back from his returns he couldn’t. That’s when he knew "Nasha" wasn’t real.
“My pride was hurt, I said, Gary, you should have known, you already know not to do that, why did you do it?” he said. “The only reason why I did it was because it was emotion.”
Gary reported the scam to the Better Business Bureau which has been tracking romance scams for years, warning people of the dangers of online dating.
The BBB offering these safety tips: do your research, if its too good to be true, don’t believe it; never give your money or personal information to a stranger, ask specific questions, and take it slow.
Gary hopes by sharing his story he can prevent someone else from becoming a victim.
“Be very cautious,” he said. “Be very careful.”
