According to police, the woman, who has not been officially identified, started talking with the man on a social network in March, according to an ABC affiliate in Georgia.
When the two’s relationship got “serious,” the man began to demand money only in cash, according to the outlet, citing police documents.
The woman gave the scammer a total of $95,000, which she got from selling her home. She used UPS and FedEx to deliver the money to a Nebraska place. According to the Athens Banner-Herald, the woman stated that she never met the alleged scammers in person.
As previously revealed by Insider, romance frauds like these are becoming more common. Americans wasted $1.3 billion to scam artists posing as love partners in the previous year alone. An expert previously told Insider that scammers take advantage of people’s loneliness, take the time to build relationships, and then beg for money.
“It may be six months before they ask for money,” Stacey Wood, a forensic neuropsychology expert, previously told Insider. “That’s a commitment.”
Earlier this year, police arrested a woman for scamming an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor she met on an online dating service out of $2.8 million, which she used to support a luxurious lifestyle.
According to prosecutors, the woman, known as Peaches Stereo, used her target’s life savings to buy “a home in a gated community, a condominium, a boat, and numerous cars, including a Corvette and a Suburban.”