Romance scam cost Englewood woman nearly $20K

Police are warning people of romance scams after an Englewood woman said she was scammed out of thousands of dollars after accepting a friend request from a stranger on Facebook. CONTRIBUTED

Police are warning people of romance scams after an Englewood woman said she was scammed out of thousands of dollars after accepting a friend request from a stranger on Facebook. CONTRIBUTED

Police are warning people to be wary of romance scams after an Englewood woman said she was scammed out of thousands of dollars after accepting a friend request from a stranger on Facebook.

According to an Englewood police report from Nov. 24, a 71-year-old woman lost about $20,000 over the course of about eight months by sending money and gift cards to a person she friended on social media by the name “Matt Erick.”

Shortly after she accepted the request they started to message each other. ‘Erick’ told her he was a 60-year-old male working with the UN Peace Keeping Forces in Afghanistan and that his daughter and son had been in a car accident in Turkey as a result of his job.

They continued to communicate through Hangout and she sent him money and gifts cards for $300 or more so that ‘Erick’ would be able to communicate with his children.

According to the police report, “Erick” sent her a photo of a crate of money telling her he wanted to send her that money because he wouldn’t be able to claim it. She then sent him more money as she thought it was going toward processing fees to have the crate of money sent to her.

In the police report, she told police that she knows she made a mistake and will most likely never get her money back.

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