A Baltimore woman named Anh Tran began chatting with a newly acquainted Facebook friend from whom she accepted a friend request. The man was supposedly a traveling doctor and convinced Tran to wire him thousands of dollars to pay his workers and pay his taxes. She ended up transferring over $100,000 to a scammer.
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According to WMAR, she received an unexpected Facebook friend request from a man. Tran began speaking with the stranger and, soon, he convinced her to share her phone number. They both started messaging each other every single day for six weeks. The scammer, although Tran didn't know that at the time, told her he was a traveling doctor currently stationed in Greece.
After the initial six weeks, the faux doctor then asked Tran for a favor. He needed to pay his workers and, for whatever unspecified reason, he was out of money. The scammer asked Tran for a loan, to which she agreed, transferring his oddly acquainted friend thousands of dollars.
"He said, 'If you help me out to borrow this much money, I will finish my job, [I'll be] done sooner and then I could be home sooner,'" Tran told the outlet.
Scammed
Of course, this was far from the first time the non-doctor asked Anh Tran for money. He continuously requested more loans to pay his workers. Tran, unfortunately, continued to lend a helping hand. The scammer even upped the ante later, claiming he had been detained at an airport after his Greece job was done. He convinced Tran to transfer more money, as he needed funds to pay his taxes.
"And he borrowed like $12,000, $17,000, $22,000, $15,000, $6,000, and $20,000," Tran told WMAR-2 News' Mallory Sofastaii. When prompted, Tran revealed that she had transferred "$100,000 not including some wire fees."
Eventually, Tran realized she had been scammed and confronted the scammer, to no avail. She would then only receive $5,000 back from her bank after she reported the incident.
"The scammer promised the victim that they were going to repay all the money that they put upfront, but of course, that didn't happen," Better Business Bureu's Clay Campbell said. Campbell received Tran's romance scam reports, and he continuously deals with similar cases.
Campbell pointed out several red flags such as using high-pressure tactics, refusing to meet in person and even refusing to appear in front of a camera to video chat.
