Troy Woman Swindled Out Of More than $700K By Match.Com Scammer

TROY, MI — A Troy woman has been swindled out of more than $700,000 after falling victim to a person presenting themselves as “Danny Koch” on Match.com. The scammer told her he was a widower having financial difficulties and working on an oil rig near London, England, according to Troy Police Department reports.

The victim started sending money to the scammer on Feb. 7 and didn’t stop until her bank advised her of the ruse on March 18, reports said. At one point, the woman also sent money to someone claiming to be an Interpol Director. He told the Troy woman that the London widower was arrested at the airport with a large sum of money that he has not paid taxes on.

“Danny Koch” promised that he would pay the victim back for her generosity, but police say he hasn’t to date. In total, the Troy woman was swindled of approximately $703,000, police said.

These kinds of scams are not uncommon. Two women in Colorado recently were victimized in similar Match.com schemes.

Rita met “Michael Richardson,” who claimed to be a pipeline engineer working in the Philippines. He sent the woman a number of pictures along with pictures of his passport, and certificates from the job he was working on, CBS Denver reported.

Sharon met “Michael Barnett” on match.com. He was an industrial rail engineer with a project in the Philippines. She received the same slew of pictures as Rita, CBS Denver reported.

Phone calls and gifts from the man to both Sharon and Rita followed. After he gained their confidence, he came up with a story and, like the Troy woman, were told “Michael” was being held at an airport on tax evasion charges. The two Colorado women then starting sending money to the man and wound up being swindled out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Match.com replied to the CBS Denver investigation in a statement:

“While a minuscule number of our millions of subscribers have been scammed by the sophisticated criminals who prey on individuals in every corner of the web, we take this issue very seriously and we diligently address it on the site, tracking, monitoring and preventing fraud at every step of the way,” the company wrote.

“While a single act is reprehensible, financial fraud can be prevented. We constantly educate our members throughout their Match.com experience to never give out any financial information to anyone over the internet.”

Match.com said it also provides safety tips to its users.

Photo by banspy via Flickr Commons