- A federal decide sentenced a former Army service member to jail for operating a romance rip-off.
- Romance scams value Americans $1.3 billion in 2022.
- The service member impersonated army officers and others to defraud his victims, police say.
A US soldier will spend greater than three years in federal jail for a romance rip-off through which police say he impersonated army officers.
A federal decide sentenced Sanda G. Frimpong, 33, on Friday and ordered him to pay his victims tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in restitution, based on the Department of Justice. Before his arrest, Frimpong was an active-duty Army service member stationed at Fort Bragg, the division stated.
Romance scams are one of many largest within the United States, costing American victims $1.3 billion in 2022, based on the Federal Trade Commission. Targets of those scams are sometimes older people who find themselves bilked for his or her life financial savings, retirement funds, and inheritances.
One of the biggest perpetrators of the scams — the Nigeria-based crime group “Yahoo Boys” — is now utilizing AI to create deepfakes for the scams, making them even tougher to identify, based on Wired. One fast technique to spot a deepfake is to do a reverse picture search and verify the true supply of a picture.
Kate Kleinert, a 69-year-old widow, beforehand informed BI that she misplaced $39,000 to a romance rip-off. Kleinart stated she had misplaced most of her financial savings, her late husband’s life insurance coverage, pension, and earnings from Social Security by the point she realized she was being scammed.
One of Frimpong’s victims had not too long ago divorced after a 25-year marriage, based on courtroom paperwork. Using the alias “Tom Tanner,” Frimpong tricked the sufferer into sending him at the very least $100,000 in cashier’s checks, which he wired to different coconspirators, courtroom paperwork say.
Authorities accused Frimpong of impersonating “romantic love interests, diplomats, customs personnel, military personnel, and other fictitious personas” to achieve individuals’s belief. Frimpong then promised romance, incomes their confidence with the intention of “fraudulently inducing the victims to provide money or property,” the Justice Department stated.
“Romance scammers exploit our most vulnerable citizens, even our seniors and military veterans, sometimes leaving them financially and emotionally devastated,” US Attorney Michael Easley stated. “The fact that an Army service member was involved in romance scams while serving as a soldier is appalling.”
An lawyer for Frimpong didn’t instantly return a request for remark from Business Insider.