{"id":13630,"date":"2021-09-22T08:50:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T15:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/blog\/?p=13630"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:58:23","slug":"victim-lost-a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars-in-a-romance-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.socialcatfish.cloud\/scamfish\/victim-lost-a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars-in-a-romance-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim Lost a Quarter Of a Million Dollars In a Romance Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Social Catfish,<\/a> we helped a man named Bob who just went through a recent divorce. He was trying to get back on his feet after having to move out of his home and was trying to find a companion. He went onto Match.com<\/a> and met a woman named Laverne who immediately hit it off with them. They started talking about their future together and promised that they were always going to be by each other’s side. Then things started taking a turn for the worst when she started investing in Bitcoin<\/a>. We look into this case and uncover secrets that will blow you away. Watch the video below and read the article to see all the mind-blowing secrets we have found about this romance scam.<\/p>\n[aesop_video src=”youtube” id=”kzejGZxY6EE” width=”100%” align=”center” disable_for_mobile=”off” loop=”off” controls=”on” mute=”off” autoplay=”off” viewstart=”off” viewend=”off” show_subtitles=”off” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Bob’s Romance Scam Story<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/unnamed-1.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Bob’s wife of 43 years decided to divorce him last year, which left him to take care of a house, four cats, and a bunch of bills all by himself. Because of this, he decided to go on social security benefits<\/a> which meant he had to sell his house and move into an apartment where his rent is based on his income. Once he settled into his new place, he was ready to find a companion who would let him be himself. He decided to go on to Match.com to meet potential matches which is where he met a woman named Laverne.<\/p>\n

Bob and Laverne immediately hit it off and started sharing intimate things about one another. They would send each other videos and emails<\/a> that expressed how they felt about one another, making Bob feel like he had really found the one. Then things started to take a suspicious turn when Laverne started talking about how she was staying in South Africa to close a deal. She claimed that she had sold gold, metals, and antiques so she was there closing the deal. She sent Bob documents to prove she did this, which are investigated below in the next section.<\/p>\n

Bob had received $250,000 from the scammer so that he could help her disperse payments to various people from who she had supposedly bought cryptocurrency. However, when he dispersed the money<\/a> to these people, Wells Fargo called him claiming that the wire transfers got recalled and owes the money back. The problem with this is the money is already gone, so he can’t pay Wells Fargo back the money. Now, his bank stopped doing business with him as a customer and took all his money to pay them back. He now has to go find a different bank after this scam. She also asked for money for various things but was left without any money after Wells Fargo took it all.\u00a0Bob committed money laundering without knowing and is now facing the consequences.<\/p>\n

Catfish Cases: How We Know That Bob is a Victim in a Romance Scam<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Travel-Lies-Alix-copy-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

The Sales and Purchase Agreement is FAKE<\/h3>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Sale-and-Purchase-Agreement-For-Gold.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

When we were doing research on this document, we noticed that this was not a legal document with recitations of who each person is. By looking at this document, we can also tell that the signatures of each person do not match up<\/a> to the name of the person who was supposed to sign it. When we ran some of the text of this document through a Google search, we could tell that most of the text in this document was copied and pasted from other sources. Therefore, we can conclude that this sales and purchase agreement was fake.<\/p>\n

Laverne’s Gold Bar Certificate is FAKE<\/h3>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Gold-Certificate-2.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

When looking at this certificate that Laverne received for selling the best gold bar ever, we noticed a few things that made us suspect that it was fake. First, we noticed that the signatures on the certificate did not match the names that were printed on it. We also found that the certificate was not notarized<\/a> and that it contained mixed fonts along with grammatical errors. From our observations, we can conclude that this certificate is not legit.<\/p>\n

Laverne Sent Bob a Fake Cashier’s Check<\/h3>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fake-Check.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Laverne supposedly received this check from people who purchased the gold. Bob tracked the bank down to Kentucky and contacted the bank to see if this Cashier’s Check was real. The bank looked further into this check and confirmed that it was indeed a fraudulent check. If you ever receive a check from a particular bank, make sure to call that bank to see whether or not a check is real before cashing it in. Because of Bob’s efforts, he was able to confirm it was fake.<\/p>\n

Laverne’s Love Letters Were Copied and Pasted<\/h3>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Love-Letters.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Whenever Laverne would send him a heartfelt message, it was never actually from her heart. Instead, she found these loving messages on various sources across the Internet and sent them to Bob to gain her trust. Then once Bob was hooked, she knew that he would fall for her schemes in order to gain more money from him.<\/a> We were able to trace every lovey-dovey message that she sent him back to different websites on the Internet.<\/p>\n

She Used a VOIP Phone Number to Communicate with Bob<\/h3>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/VOIP-Number-Bob.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

When we ran a reverse phone search on Laverne’s phone number, we found out that it was actually a VOIP phone number.<\/a> This means that she was able to create a phone number using a third-party app and could claim to be from any location she wanted to. For example, she wanted people to think this phone number came from Delaware so she created a phone number with that area code.<\/p>\n

You can also run a reverse phone search here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/i> Name<\/span><\/a>\n <\/i> Email<\/span><\/a>\n <\/i> Phone<\/span><\/a>\n <\/i> Username<\/span><\/a>\n <\/i> Address<\/span><\/a>\n <\/i> Image<\/span><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \n