A Buffalo Grove woman looking for a relationship online instead found a scammer, who swindled her out of $50,000, police said.
According to a Buffalo Grove police report, the 59-year-old woman set up a profile on the dating website Match.com, and in October, began chatting with a man who presented himself as an American Secret Service agent. The pair never met face-to-face, but developed an online relationship that prompted the woman to trust her new companion, police said.
The report indicates that, in January, the man sent her an urgent message: He was working undercover in Syria, and had been tasked with transporting a suitcase full of cash to a king, who reigned over a province of Poland.
But the “agent” had run into a major problem — someone else had “intercepted” the suitcase, and he now had nothing to give this Polish king, the report said. The CIA’s World Factbook lists Poland as a democratic republic, not a monarchy.
He asked the woman for help, and she delivered: The report indicates that she withdrew $20,000 from her IRA account and deposited it into the bank account of one of his “associates.” The report said that the man contacted her again, needing more money, so the woman took out another $25,000 and transferred it to him.
She then began to suspect that something was amiss, and after a brief investigation, contacted the police, the report said. She still had to pay the banks $5,022 in fees and taxes, leaving her with a total loss of $50,022, according to the report.
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