Man Loses $200K to Fake Girlfriend

Falling in love with somebody is unlike anything else, but when that person rips your heart out of your chest just to watch it stop beating it can leave a feeling of emptiness and longing deep within your very soul. Admittedly, I know this feeling only too well. But now I can at least comfort myself by rationalizing that at least the woman in my case didn’t cost me $200,000.

Sadly, not everybody is so lucky. Case in point: A 48-year-old Illinois man who had the terrible misfortune of falling in love over the Internet. Over their two-year “relationship,” the person posing as the woman in question was able to convince this poor sod to part with upwards of $200,000 that he deposited in a variety of bank accounts in the US, UK, Malaysia and Nigeria.

But how did the man discover that his “girlfriend” wasn’t even a real thing? “She” went missing. In a panic, the man contacted what he believed to be her local police department to report a kidnapping. At that time the police proceeded to open an investigation during which they discovered that there was no woman, and this man was now out $200K.

While I could keep on the jaded “this is why you never fall in love” track, I’ll simply point to this as an example of what happens when you actually respond to those “Nigerian Prince” type of emails. While a lot of outlets will easily laugh at the guy, I feel for him and wish him nothing but the best.

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