A single mom in Illinois was scammed out of $85,000 by a scammer posing as a Greek bachelor on a dating app after showering her with affectionate texts, emails and phone calls.
Christine Settingsgaard, 37, met “Mark Godfrey,” a suspected architectural engineer from Greece, through dating app Hinge and quickly became infatuated with the widowed father-of-one, who said he works in the US.
Mark used images of an unknown man with brown hair and a beaming smile to trick Settingsgaard, along with messages vowing his love for her and planning vacations.
There is no indication that the man pictured is in any way involved in the scam against Settingsgaard, who is a successful executive.
He successfully cheated her out of $85,000 by forwarding a check to Settingsgaard for that amount and then asking her to wire the money to his siblings.
But Settingsgaard fell victim to a quirk where banks often make the cash available to the check recipient before it is cleared.
This meant that Mark’s sister “Kelsey” was able to withdraw the money before the check bounced, meaning Settingsgaard had lost her life savings.
She was threatened with becoming homeless — until the Chicago Tribune reported the story and her bank refunded $82,000.
In a message, Mark told her, “I’ve picked a vacation spot for when I get back… All I need is you.” The displays of love worked, Settingsgaard said. She told the situation had “consumed her” for months and “publicly embarrassed her”.
Christine Settingsgaard was scammed out of $85,000 by a man on a dating app that used fake pictures, ending up as a Nigerian scammer
Settingsgaard thought she had met Mark Godfrey, a widower with a daughter, but the pictures turned out to be stolen by an unidentified man who is pictured
The scammer sent Settingsgaard messages telling her he loved her and even planned a mock vacation for the couple. There is no indication that the man pictured above is in any way implicated in the wrongdoing
In that news, the scammer said he had planned a surprise after Settingsgaard deposited the check that would ultimately plunge her into financial despair
He detailed a romantic vacation he would treat her to, but almost immediately afterwards made sure she had the right banking details to scam them
She said the ordeal left her “penniless” and if it weren’t for friends, neighbors and her parents, she “don’t know” what she would have done as she could no longer pay for her groceries or her mortgage.
“My six-year-old son wanted to go to soccer camp this summer and the most heartbreaking thing was having to tell him he can’t go to camp because I was cheated on,” she said.
After “liking” each other’s profiles on dating app Hinge, the pair began chatting off the app for weeks, where he showed interest in her hobbies and asked her personal questions to show his interest.
He even “wrote” her a love poem that made her even more in love with online love, but after the incident, she found the poem was removed from a Google search.
After six weeks of the conversation, Mark asked Settingsgaard for help wire money to his sister and daughter, who he said lived in Utah.
He asked Settingsgaard to send his “sister” Kelsey $500 via Paypal. She promptly did so and Mark repaid the money, further gaining her trust.
Despite this, Settingsgaard was still a bit suspicious and asked for ID. She says he sent a California driver’s license with his name on it, which convinced her.
Mark then told her that he made $85,000 from a job in Houston but couldn’t access his bank to send the money to his sister. He also claimed he was concerned that the IRS was monitoring his account.
He said he would send Settingsgaard a check for the amount and all she had to do was deposit the money and then wire the money to his sister, making it seem like she didn’t have to touch any of her own money .
But the scam is based on the fact that some banks do not verify that the account the money is being sent from has the money before making it available to whoever cashes the check.
This means that the next day, Settingsgaard saw that she had the $85,000 in her account and sent it to Mark’s sister. He even told her she could keep $3,000 of the money as a token of goodwill.
Still, she was uncomfortable with the situation, writing to him, “I’m tired and I don’t understand and I feel like I’ll be arrested for money laundering or something.”
‘No baby lol. No money laundering, you will not be arrested I promise,” the scammer replied. He made sure she deposited the check into an ATM instead of giving it to a teller, which helps the check clear.
The bank then realized that the check had bounced and debited her account for a loss of $84,334.
Weeks after her money was stolen, the scammer contacted her again and tried to be “honest” with her, revealing what he claims to be his real name along with a picture of himself
The Nigerian scammer contacted Settingsgaard through the account weeks after he remained silent and shared this photo of himself. He claimed he was forced into a life of crime – and then demanded another $30,000. It remains unclear whether it really is the scammer or another unwitting victim whose photo was also stolen
Settingsgaard said the scam left her “penniless” and she had to rely on friends and family to help with her mortgage payments and groceries
The check was issued by Central Christian Church in Mesa, Arizona, and security officials there quickly realized it was a fake.
Cory Calkins, a bank security adviser, told the Chicago Tribune: “It was obviously a fake and a scam. We don’t write $85,000 checks.”
She also gave him access to her cell phone account after he offered to pay her monthly bill. He continued to make expensive calls from Nigeria, accumulated $5,000 in the account and bought five iPhones.
When Settingsgaard saw the huge negative balance she immediately contacted Mark, who played dumb and continued to apologize until finally she received one last strange message from his account.
“This is Fiorani, E6 representative of the state’s Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the message said.
“We’re reluctant to tell you, Mrs Settingsgaard, but none of this person’s information is genuine… The perpetrator manages to steal people’s information, open bank accounts in their name and use their identity for money laundering.”
The Facebook account became unresponsive afterwards, and Settingsgaard realized that Fiorani, like Mark, had been a scammer.
But after three weeks of silence, the account texted her again and just said, “Hey.” An outraged Settingsgaard immediately replied: “You ruined my life. Who are you? Where are they?’
The scammer replied that his real name was William Ojo, and in a last-ditch effort to keep her on board with the scam, he professed his love for her, this time sending a “real” picture of himself that differed greatly from the one previous difference .
He also said he was part of a criminal network in Nigeria and scammed people to make a living. He claimed, “I feel bad for cheating on you, but I have no choice.”
In one message, the scammer wrote, “Normal jobs here aren’t like those in the United States where all is well,” along with “it darkens my soul and I hate it but what choice do I have?”
He went on to say that he fell in love with Settingsgaard when he cheated on her: “At one point I wanted to stop all the cheating because I’ve FULLY fallen in love with you. I started deflecting from my fake stories into my real life.
But again, the affectionate demeanor appeared to be a ruse, as she was again asked to deposit a $30,000 check, which she declined.
Settingsgaard eventually reached an agreement with her bank to pay off the $85,000 debt, but she says they only did so after being threatened by poor media coverage and that they started before that point unhelpful and disinterested in their case.
“To date, they have never apologized,” Settingsgaard said. She also said managers at the bank told her they had made several “honest mistakes” that contributed to her being scammed.
Similarly, Verizon left her on the hook for the expensive international minutes he had accumulated on her account, telling her that the situation could not be considered a scam because she had been in contact with the scammer.
Carmo Dalla Vecchia exposes netizens after receiving a comment about his son. Image: Reproduction / Actor’s Official Instagram.
