Roberta Marcus

Women, mainly widows, are being e-mailed on match.com and then phone calls are added. There are several a/k/a’s and I have found a source, whocallsme.com, and you will find the same letters, just different names and pictures. The story is the same – widower for 10 years now wanting to find someone; only son and father killed in car crash; and mama lives in Italy with auntie and daughter Diana, a student. Long e-mails and then when he is about to meet you, an emergency trip to New York, followed by 10 days in the UK; gives you his phone number; his calls start with a 011 number. Next scenario – mama sick; mama dies; distraught; plans funeral in Italy; aunt in a coma from being distraught. Beware at this point – off to Dubai, then will ask for full name/address; over the last three years many women have lost their life savings. The FBI hasn’t helped; match.com hasn’t returned calls. The letters/calls are believable until you catch on and then reread everything. Heartbreak changes to fury to laughter (unless you are one of the unfortunate who has lost money).

I am reaching out to women to please watch out for this and other scams. I pride myself as I am educated as an RNC in psychiatry as a counselor and I was trying to help him with his grief, never dreaming what would follow. We live in a world with the internet which makes anything possible. Please remember to use common sense as you would in your normal everyday lives. Please follow the rules of staying on the site, not giving out private information and listening to yourself when you think this is too good to be true. We think that we are too intelligent to get caught in a scam until it happens. Please stay safe and use common sense.