A Nanaimo, B.C. woman was bilked $15,000 and forced to delay her retirement after falling victim to an online romance scam.
The 67-year-old woman had received a Facebook message in January from a man identifying himself as Kevin Rand, according to Nanaimo RCMP.
The man claimed to be an American military officer stationed in Turkey.
After two months of increasingly personal conversations over the internet, Rand told the woman he was in love with her and proposed marriage. The woman agreed and arranged to move to Homestead, Florida to be with him.
But police say things started to turn sour for the woman in April, when Rand emailed her asking for $3,000 for a close friend’s wife who was in desperate need of emergency surgery.
The woman sent the money immediately, and soon after Rand began requesting more and more money for different situations. After she had sent close to $15,000, Rand has disappeared from her Facebook friends list.
“This didn’t have to happen,” Nanaimo RCMP spokesman Const. Gary O’Brien said in a news release. “[The woman] was planning on retiring soon but realizes now she will need to continue working to recoup from her financial loss.”
There are numerous reports online of a man named Kevin Rand defrauding others.
Read more at CTV News
