Woman Loses $500,000 On Online Christian Dating Site

There’s an old saying about being ever careful who you decide to give (or lend) your hard-earned money to. This is doubly true if you are giving money to someone you met over an online dating site. One 66 year-old woman from California just recently learned this the hard way; maybe she learned it the hardest way, I don’t know. When all was said and done, though, she ended up giving $500,000 to a man she’d never met or really even laid eyes upon. Yes, that’s a lot of money, and yes, she should’ve known better, and yes, she was more than likely blinded by what she thought was “love”. Still, that is a lot of money to give someone. And the story is just as hard to believe as the amount of money is.

How’s This For A Love Story?

A 66 year-old woman from California met who she thought was a respectable Irishman on ChristianMingle.com. This man said he was working on an oil rig but wanted to branch out on his own. In order to do that, he needed $300,000 to start his own business. So, you guessed it – he asked his 66 year-old love interest for the money and….she wired it to him!

Here’s the big problem (other than the amount of money sent) – it turns out that he was a Nigerian man who had nothing to do with the oil business and was only after the money and not the girl. The man must not have returned some messages after he was initially sent the money, because something tipped off the woman and the police. The man ended up asking for an additional $200,000 which she sent to a bank in Turkey. A man, Wisdom Onokpite, withdrew the money and was promptly arrested. Sadly, this man was just a runner and the main person behind the scam is still on the loose. The woman eventually got this $200,000 back.

Moral of the story: please use common sense when using online dating sites.

[Image via Digital Trends]

SOURCE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57617368-71/woman-scammed-out-of-$500k-on-christian-dating-site/