In today’s rundown of catfishing horror stories less convoluted or hard to believe than Casey Donovan’s, a 39 year old single mother from Sydney’s south west is now believed to be the first person in New South Wales to have been charged with “romance fraud” after swindling more than $2 million out of elderly men she had met on the internet.
The mother of four is alleged to have duped four men – two in their 60s and two in their 70s – into depositing large sums of money into her bank account which she subsequently spent on holidays, plastic surgery, cars and designer handbags.
The accused met her victims on dating websites Lavalife and Meeting Point between August 2008 and February 2014 and only physically met one of them, police say.
After winning their trust and affection, the woman claimed she needed help paying medical bills for a sick family member and funeral arrangements for a deceased one. One of the men is understood to have forked over $1.9 million while the others are thought to have paid $190,000, $58,000 and $12,000 respectively.
She was arrested yesterday morning with police raiding two properties in Miller in Sydney’s south west, seizing multiple cars including a Mazda CX7, a Toyota Prado and a Toyota Corolla and freezing more than $1 million worth of cash and assets.
She was then charged with four counts of fraud, one count of money laundering and four counts of being a terrible internet friend.
Via SMH
