Virginia Beach, Va. - An elderly Virginia Beach man says he was scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars after falling in love with a woman he met online.
She strung him along for months making him believe she loved him too and convinced him to wire her more than $200,000.
"I'm broke. I'm lonely. I really don't have that much to live for,” says the 84-year-old.
Promises of romance and companionship made this Virginia Beach man a believer.
He says a woman who he met seven months ago through an online dating site for seniors scammed him clearing out all of his savings.
"Her words were so fantastic that she made a believer out of me,” he says.
He wanted to share his story to educate others, but asked to remain anonymous because, he says, he's ashamed.
She sent him pictures she said were of her-- a young, beautiful woman
"I told her, “You got to be a little crazy to be your age interested in an 84-year-old guy like me," he says.
Along with the pictures, she even sent a copy of her passport but they never met
She told him she has been cheated on by younger guys and wanted to be with someone older.
"She says she somehow trusts me and she knows I wouldn't cheat on her. She was already starting to fall in love with me.”
She told him she was leaving for Malaysia for a business trip that would bring a big profit
But, while there, she started asking him to wire her money.
He says he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to help.
All the while, she was promising to marry him and pay him back every penny with a trust fund left to her by her dad in the amount of $800,000.
"All her excuses seemed so plausible and believable that I just fell for it as I fell for her,” he says.
But there was always something that prevented her from meeting him in person.
During all of this, he did get several warnings including from his bank that something might be wrong.
Then after 7 months, he says she asked for $120, 000 but he didn't have it.
Not long after, he went to police, who are now investigating and his bank is also looking into it. Now all he can do is wait.
"Even to this moment, if there's a minute chance that it could be real, I would give anything for it to be real,” says the Beach man.
