Ladies Fooled by Online Dating Scammer

If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a million times. NEVER send money to someone you’ve met online; especially if he says he’s friends with Michael Jackson.

Some very ill-informed ladies made that mistake and lost as much as $10,000 each after meeting Paul S. Krueger, a homeless man whose sole possession was the laptop he used to navigate the online dating site MillionaireMatch.com. He told his 13 honeys that he had been a record producer who worked with Quincy Jones, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Michael Jackson. But he was totally over that biz and was ready to start a career in investing (another giant red flag. If a guy tells you he’s into investing, run away), and that he wanted them to get in on the deal. The ladies fell for his line and sent him the money.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if the guy used the $102,000 to pay for his grandma’s life-saving liver transplant or oh gee… a house! But no, he spent it all on a gambling and spending binge in Atlantic City, where police found him sipping on a soda at Harrah’s Casino.

It’s easy to feel sorry for these hoodwinked women, but it’s also important to learn from them. A representative from MillionaireMatch.com told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the website was largely self-policing, i.e. any schmoe can go on and pretend he’s the next Rockefeller. It’s ok to aim high, just do your research before you invest—monetarily or emotionally. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]