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Scams are getting more and more complex nowadays, and it seems that entire gangs could be going after vulnerable people’s life savings. 67-year-old Katherine Goodson found this out the hard way, even after she thought she’d dealt with a scammer.
It all started when someone pretending to be actor Keanu Reeves reached out to Goodson in her DMs. The scammer asked her to send a $500 gift card to prove she wasn’t just speaking to him for the fame and money.
When Goodson sent over the gift card, she asked to hear the scammer’s voice. Once she did, she knew she’d been scammed, and blocked the original scammer. After posting online about how she had been deceived, Goodson then received a message from who she thought was the real Keanu Reeves, saying that he felt awful about her losing money to the scam.
Goodson then says the two developed a relationship. “He wanted to marry me,” she told NBC San Diego. Goodson sent this fake Reeves thousands of dollars, clearing out her life savings. She revealed that her loneliness was exploited by the scammers in order to maximise how much money they could get from her.
Romance scams are becoming more and more common, and while you may think they’re easy to avoid, with AI and scammers becoming smarter, it’s tricky to know who you’re speaking to online nowadays.