Federal prosecutors in Ohio just closed the door on a romance fraud crew that ran for years on the loneliness of American retirees. The sentences add up to fifty years. The restitution adds up to more than $8 million. The machine that produced both is still running under other names.
Federal prosecutors in Ohio unsealed an indictment this week against two Ghanaian brothers and a Virginia woman accused of running a romance fraud ring that fed on lonely Americans for nearly two years. The script is older than the internet. The pipes are new.
An Indonesian fugitive arrested in Bangkok allegedly ran a $10 million romance fraud operation that turned loneliness into a pipeline. The machine had a script, a shift schedule, and a cryptocurrency off-ramp. The hearts were just the interface.