Love makes the world go round -- and Dale man's bank account shrink

What began as a quest for love ended with a large deficit in a Dale man’s bank account after he fell victim to an on-line dating scam and lost $300,000 in the process.

The Larry Island Road victim told deputies on Monday he thought he was falling in love with a woman named Michelle and began to send her money orders to fund a jewelry store she claimed to own in Charleston, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

At one point in their online conversations, the victim said Michelle told him she was traveling overseas in order to purchase jewelry for the store.

While she was gone, a man named Marc resumed the conversation and told the victim he was the only person who could contact Michelle at that time, the report said.

Michelle eventually got back in touch and said she needed more money for taxes on the jewelry.

The victim sent her several money orders ranging from $8,000 to $29,000 each, the report said.

It wasn’t until the victim’s bills became overdue because Michelle had not repaid the money that he realized he had been scammed, the report said.

Deputies took the emails exchanged between all parties and the money wire transfers as evidence.

Such scams are normally run by people who know what they’re doing.

“These people work as hard at deception as normal people do working,” Capt. Bob Bromage said Thursday. “They’re techniques are only limited by their imagination.”

Bromage said the Sheriff’s Office often receives reports of credit card fraud and other scams.

In December, a Bluffton man reported to the Sheriff’s Office that he was cheated out of $15,000 by a woman he met through Skype messaging who claimed to be from Ghana, and went by the name “Godsent.”

Through many messages, “Godsent” asked the man to send her money for the shipment of several kilograms of gold she said had been found on her father’s property. The man sent the money believing she would come to the U.S. so they could get married.

The “golden” romance fizzled after the man sent a final wire transfer of $4,000 on Nov. 18 and realized he was the victim of a scam, a revelation that came after he spoke with his family.

People met through on-line dating websites may be after money if they press their counterparts to leave the website and communicate through personal e-mail or instant messaging, possess instant feelings of love, send photographs of themselves that look like something from a magazine, plan to visit and then can’t because of a tragic event or ask for money for various reasons, according to the FBI.

“If there is anything suspicious, contact law enforcement and get them involved,” Bromage said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”

Follow Caitlin Turner on Twitter at twitter.com/Cait_E_Turner.

Love makes the world go round -- and Dale man"s bank account shrink