Heartless Scammer Fleeces Divorcee Of $300,000 On A Christian Dating Site

A 66-year-old American woman looking for love online ended up
with a broken heart and a depleted bank account when she lost
$300,000 to a fake Nigerian suitor on a Christian dating site.
The San Jose divorcee met the Nigerian on Chris tianMingle.com
falsely claiming to be an Irish citizen ‘David Holmes’, according to
the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office.
‘Holmes’ said he worked on a Scottish oil rig, and his profile picture
turned out to be a picture of a male model downloaded from the
internet.
The two never met in person, but talked over the phone and ‘Holmes’
even sent the woman flowers. Eventually he convinced her to loan
him $300,000 for his oil business – funds she supplied from her
retirement account. To come up with the money, the woman had to
dip into her retirement account and refinance her house.
After wiring him an additional $200,000 to a bank in Turkey, the
woman got suspicious and informed the DA’s office.
Cherie Bourland of the fraud unit called the bank in Turkey and was
successfully able to freeze the funds before Holmes’ associate
Wisdom Onokpite showed up to withdraw the money, according to
CBS San Francisco.
Onokpite was arrested by the Turkish National Police on suspicion of
committing fraud.
The DA’s office traced ‘Holmes’ to Nigeria, but he remains free. While
the woman was able to get her $200,000 back, Ms Bourland says
there’s just a ’1 per cent’ chance she’ll recover the over $300,000
because ‘it’s just impossible to track down’ and federal authorities
won’t investigate losses below $1million.
Ms Bourland says reports of lost money on dating sites has been on
the rise, especially among the elderly since ‘studies show the ability
to make financial decisions is the first to be affected by aging.’ ‘You
get the love drug in you and you end up getting duped,’ she told the
San Jose Mercury News.
Dating site Chris tianMingle.com’s slogan is “Find God’s Match for
You.” But the match the San Jose divorcee found was anything but
holy.