2018 CBS Interactive Inc…
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the FBI is warning of online dating scams. The bureau received more than 15,000 reports linked to romance scams last year with more than half of those complaints involving losses of money. Over the past three years, those scams cost Americans up to $210 million. (I believe it’s much more than that!)
Debby Montgomery Johnson signed up for an online dating service after the sudden death of her husband, Lou, in 2010, reports CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil.
“I wasn’t lonely, desperate lonely. I really — I wanted someone to talk to,” Johnson said, explaining why she signed up. “I thought, that’s safe, I can do it from my home.”
That’s where the widowed mother of four met a British businessman who called himself Eric Cole.
“I talked to him a few times, I mean we messaged every day,” she said.
Johnson says she and Cole engaged in a two-year online relationship but never met in person. Over the course of that time, Johnson says she gave Cole more than $1 million in increments. (I didn’t have $1M to give…but you find it for your “family.”
Check out the rest of the story on CBS This Morning (February 13, 2018)
