Fake Love Stories

The Shoebox Full of Crossed-Out Faces: How Kent Lost $10,000 Fear tightens like a noose when you realize the person who loved you may not exist: forty-one photographs of the same man, every face crossed out in red, found in a recycling bin on September 11 - and a romance that cost Kent Baker $10,000. How did a profile claiming to be a deaf architect in Scotland turn a landscaping forum post into a months-long deception, and who finally made the mistake that cracked the operation? In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning Leon Price discovered the shoebox to Detective Kimberly Sanders reconnecting it to earlier victims, tracing how the scam used public images, a fabricated disability, and patient attention to build trust. What single error pulled a local romance fraud case into view? Person: Kent Baker Date: September 11 (discovery of shoebox) Person: Leon Price Person: Detective Kimberly Sanders Amount: $11,000 - Leon Price found a shoebox with forty-one photographs at 6:40 a.m, on September 11. - Each of the forty-one photographs showed the same man's face crossed out in red. - Kent Baker was 26 years old and lived at 414 Dunmore Terrace for three years. - The fake profile identified as James Young used photographs of Doug Haas, an architect from Portland, Oregon. - Eleven months before Kent's discovery, Evelyn Trask reported losing $11,000 to a man she never met in person.

The Dock Photo, The Red Word, and the Man Who Wasn't Fear that the person you love is a fabrication: a framed photo in a ditch, the single red word NOBODY written on the glass, and a romance that cost one woman $31,000 - how did a fake profile named Marcus Hale convince a careful, organized 48-year-old to wire thousands? What really happened between the dock photo and the bug behind her heater? In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the first match to the final discovery, laying out the timeline, the people whose identities were stolen, and the money that moved between accounts to fund the deception. How did a methodical con artist build trust so fast that Debra stopped questioning and started wiring money? Person: Debra Jones Age: 48 Location: County Route 7, Merritt Flats Total stolen: $31,000 across seven wire transfers First money request: $2,400 for a customs delay - At 6:40 AM on a rain-soaked August day, a framed photograph was found upright in a ditch with the word NOBODY written across the glass in red dry-erase marker. - Debra Jones had lived on County Route 7 for 11 years and kept a photo of “Marcus” in a dark wood frame on her nightstand. - Debra joined the dating site in January 2022 and matched with the fake profile Marcus Hale by early February; by March she believed she was in love. - The photo used in the Marcus profile belonged to real civil engineer Scott Ingram; the biography came from Paul Tatum’s LinkedIn and other details from Chris Varga’s Facebook. - Forensic exam found a small audio monitoring device behind the living-room baseboard heater installed since late April; by June seven wires totaling $31,000 had been sent, none reaching Marcus.

He Said He Was a Widower - She Lost $412,000 to Love Grief made her vulnerable: Rachel Zimmerman trusted a man she met on a private bereavement forum and ended up sending $412,000 over fourteen months to someone using a stolen identity. How did a series of timely small repayments and polished documents convince her to refinance her home and transfer six-figure sums without telling anyone? In this episode, we follow the timeline of Rachel's online relationship, the deceptive profiles and false company details that accompanied it, and the pattern of payments that escalated from $600 to $48,000. What specific steps allowed the fraud to grow to $412,000 before detection? Person: Rachel Zimmerman Age: 32 Location: Hargrove Township Period: Fourteen months Amount lost: $412,000 - First transfer requested: $600, repaid in nine days. - By month seven total transferred: $41,000 across nine transactions. - By month eleven total transferred: $162,000. - Largest single transfer: $48,000 in month thirteen. - Fraudulent profile name used: Russell Burns; real alias used locally: Brian Calvert.

She Sent $41,200 for Love - The Flower That Exposed Him Fear that the person you love is a lie - and a shoebox on a park bench that smelled of perfume and held a $41,200 wire transfer are the first clues. How did a string of Wednesday-night calls, real flower deliveries, and a single dried bloom lead from romance into an international money trail and a rental unit with a secret visitor? In this episode, we follow the chronology of Marcia Wagner’s online relationship, the monetary requests, and the physical evidence that surfaced in Dellfield, Indiana. We track the calls, the transfers, and the items left behind to ask: what specific detail finally reframed everything? Person: Marcia Wagner Location: Dellfield, Indiana Date joined dating site: February 2018 Amount wired: $41,200 Destination country: Ghana - Marcia received a wire transfer confirmation dated eight months earlier for $41,200 addressed to a bank in Accra, Ghana. - She joined HearthConnect in February 2018 and began communicating with "Ronald Olson" within weeks. - The man’s photos were stolen from Thomas Breck’s LinkedIn profile; Breck is a structural engineer in Tulsa who never knew his images were used for over a year. - Marcia and "Ronald" spoke every Wednesday at 10:45 PM; she played his recorded hymn message seventeen times. - After the first $4,000 request in September 2018, real flowers were delivered to her house the next morning with a handwritten card.

Neighbor Discovers a Dead Man's Ring Standing in Dirt: The Donald Marsh Case A ring stood upright in potting soil on a porch railing - a deliberate, impossible detail that led a mail carrier to a photograph and, eventually, a courtroom. How did a flat tire, a stranger who fixed it, and a small gold ring connect to the sudden unraveling of a 78-year-old widower's life? In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that began on May 14, 2023 and trace the people, places, and transactions that recontextualized ordinary kindness as calculated gain. What did eleven days of evidence reveal about the man who called himself Gary Peterson and the real cost to Donald Marsh? Person: Donald Marsh Date: May 14, 2023 Location: 412 Sycamore Bend, Dellmar, Ohio Person: Gary Peterson Pruitt (alias Gary Peterson) Amount: $800 requested (first request in September 2022) - A mail carrier, Warren Erickson, found a small gold ring standing vertically in potting soil on the porch railing and photographed it on May 14, 2023. - Donald Marsh was seventy-eight years old, lived at 412 Sycamore Bend in a house assessed at $230,000, and had no mortgage. - In late June 2022, Donald's truck had a flat near the Dellmar grain elevator and a man in a gray pickup stopped and fixed a lug nut, then followed Donald home to check the truck. - By August 2022 the man, using the name Gary Peterson, was visiting twice a week, trimming hedges, driving Donald to appointments, and bringing pears. - The first monetary request from that man arrived in September 2022 for $800.

He Learned Her Thursdays: The Voice That Stole Lauren's Trust Fear that warmth on the phone could be a calculated trap - Lauren answered a voice that knew her great-aunt's candy, her Thursday visits, and the exact shape of her week. The headset, a ceramic mug with her name, and a ledger with "Anchor Details" turned intimacy into a scheme that collected $11,060 from her alone - how did a storage unit become a factory for stolen trust? In this episode, we follow the events that led investigators to a storage unit, a notebook, and a pattern of scripted affection that targeted organized, careful women; we outline how the scheme worked and what the notebook revealed about other victims and the finances behind it, asking how specific personal details were harvested and weaponized. Person: Lauren Christensen Date: April 14, 2019 Location: Storage unit 41, Tallow Basin Self-Storage Case: Six names recorded in a spiral-bound notebook Amount: $11,060 recorded beside Lauren's name - Lauren was 28 years old and a second-grade teacher at Birchfield Elementary in winter 2019. - Lauren visited her great-aunt Norma every Thursday, a 30-minute drive each way, bringing a fresh bag of butterscotch discs. - Lauren matched with a profile named Glenn Lane on February 2, 2019; the profile claimed he was a civil engineer working in Qatar. - The photo on the profile belonged to Andrew Suttle, a civil engineer in Portland who had no connection to the profile. - The notebook listed another victim, Judith Farrar, age 54, with approximately $31,000 recorded beside her name.

He Proposed to Four Women - The Pastor Never Suspected a Lie You will feel the slow, stomach-drop betrayal of small-town trust: a pristine photo in a drainage culvert, a paralegal and a dog groomer filing complaints the same morning, and a man who kept victims reduced to a single adjective in his spiral notebook - "generous." How did a church’s own goodwill become the perfect cover for romance fraud, and who finally pulled the thread? In this episode, we follow the timeline of events that unfolded in Calverton from September 2018 through March 2019, showing how a newcomer used congregational trust to create multiple romantic cons and how two citizens brought the scheme to light. What did investigators find when they opened the storage unit and read the spiral notebook? Person: Amanda Foster Person: Paula Hensley Person: Angela Turner Person: Marcus Elgin Webb Date: March 9, 2019 - A laminated photograph inscribed "For Amanda - always yours, R.G." was found wedged in a drainage culvert on March 9, 2019. - Angela Turner, a dog groomer, found the photo on Ridgeback Loop trail and brought it to the Calverton Police Department. - Paula Hensley, a paralegal, filed a fraud complaint against Ryan Gallagher at the same police department the same morning. - Marcus Elgin Webb, 43, attended Calverton Police Fellowship from September 2018 using the name Ryan Gallagher and had a 2013 wire fraud conviction in Georgia under a different alias. - Webb rented a storage unit in October 2018 in the name R. Gallagher, paid in cash, which remained unchecked until a March search warrant.

He Thought He Found Love - She Was a Stolen Identity A man working nights and food pantry shifts fell in love with a profile built from stolen photos, and a rusted bolt in a zip-lock bag dragged a con into daylight: a river yielded dry love letters signed "Carla Simmons" and a dead soldier's portrait. How did a routine life, a scraped profile photo, and a prepaid debit account become the threads of a romance scam that ended with an arrest? In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning a freezer bag surfaced on the Sable River to the discovery that the woman Howard Henderson loved was a fabricated identity. Listen to what connected a rural handyman, a stolen nurse's photos, and an eleven-day investigation that led to charges - and ask whether anyone who loves online is truly safe. Person: Howard Henderson Person: Stanley Porter Person: Amanda Dalton Location: Sable River below the grain elevator at Pettis Crossing Date: second Friday of February - The bag was found at 7:15 AM on the fourth trotline containing dry photographs and love letters. - Amanda Dalton called the Pettis County Sheriff at 7:22 AM the same morning. - Howard Henderson was 22 years old and worked for Ed Calloway Contracting servicing County Line Road. - Brenda Henderson, Howard's mother, died of a pulmonary embolism in late November two years before the river discovery. - Stanley Porter, 44 years old, was arrested eleven days after the bag was found.

The Badge in the Field: How a Fake Engineer Took $11,200 from Peggy Suspicion blooms from a single misplaced object: a laminated ID badge for "Roger Richardson" found in a frozen Illinois cornfield led to a six-year trail across four states and $11,200 vanished from one woman's bank account. Who was the man on the badge, why did his fake identity end up in a Midwestern field, and how did Peggy Morgan come to trust him enough to send thousands? In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that connect a county surveyor's discovery to online deception and financial loss, tracing the person-to-person interactions, digital traces, and small details that revealed the scam. How did everyday routines and one stock photo unravel a constructed life? Person: Peggy Morgan Date: January 2019 (badge found) and 2018 (relationship timeline) Location: Dunmore, Illinois; Calloway Township cornfield Amount: $11,200 Search result: sunset photo appeared on 14 websites - A laminated ID badge for "Roger Richardson" was found face-up in a frozen cornfield in January 2019. - Peggy sent money eight times between October and December 2018, totaling $11,200. - The initial $140 request in October 2018 was described as covering a supply order for a Gulf platform. - Reverse-image search showed the sunset lock-screen photo on 14 separate websites, including stock photography libraries. - The profile photos belonged to a real mechanical engineer named Brad Forsythe in Aberdeen, Scotland, who had never created the dating profile.

She Heard a Singaporean - 173 Calls, One Man, $47,000 Vanished Warm coffee, a ringing phone, and a wire transfer receipt for $47,000 were the first clues Pamela Clark found in an empty house on December 9, 2022 - but the voice that drew sixty-two-year-old Patricia Ward in came from a three-minute-and-forty-seven-second audio loop labeled "ambient SG clean." How did 173 calls over 14 months, a fabricated Singaporean persona, and a single IP address in Spokane convince a careful linguist to send nearly fifty thousand dollars - and who was really behind the sound file? In this episode, we follow the timeline from Patricia’s first LinguaLink lesson to the day she vanished, describe the content of her 216-page notebook and 173 sessions, and trace the digital evidence that led investigators to Spokane. What did the recordings, server logs, and a recovered WAV file reveal about the man she thought she loved? Person: Patricia Ward Date: December 9, 2022 Sessions: 173 over 14 months Transfer: $47,000 dated four days before discovery IP address origin: Spokane, Washington - Patricia filled 216 pages in a spiral notebook during the 14 months of lessons. - The LinguaLink profile used 31 photographs taken from a real LinkedIn account without permission. - The ambient audio file recovered was 3 minutes and 47 seconds long and labeled "ambient SG clean." - Server logs subpoenaed in January 2023 showed every call originated from one IP address in Spokane. - Wayne Hansen, age 51, had been developing accent mimicry since at least 2012 and owned the hard drive containing the audio loop.