GREENSBORO, N.C. — You know the typical online love scam. The person makes you believe they're interested and then asks you for money for something. But this, this is different.
"He was enticing. He told me how much he loved me and that I was his soul mate. It was probably about six months, 7 months. He asked me to send him $10,000. And then as time went on he'd have a friend send me money in my name for me to pick up and then after I got the money he'd ask me to buy him some Amazon cards. I called my friend from the Better Business Bureau. He told me I was a mule. And that kind of freaked me out because I didn't want to do anything illegal but I did continue on a few more times and then I thought I cant do this anymore."
An online romance turns into fraud story with this woman being duped into helping a scammer. How often does this happen? We're taking a closer look.
"Experts estimate 3 out of every ten victims end up laundering money for their scammer which is illegal and if they don't stop could go to jail," explains BBB Investigator Lechelle Yates.
Now, you might be shaking their head right now and asking how can a person like the lady in our story possible do that? But these fraudsters have spent months grooming their victims gaining their trust.
"What we have to remember is that con man is short for confidence man. They are professional liars. They are excellent at gaining people's trust. So we shouldn't judge."
Here are the RED FLAGS:
Do they ask you to pick up money
Do they ask you to pick up open bank accounts
Do they ask you to receive packages and reship them
Do they ask you to keep your relationship a secret
Yes to ANY of these, and you are in the middle of a scam.