Arlington Woman Loses $18K in Internet Scam

An Arlington woman has reported being the target of an Internet scam in which she sent about $18,000 to Ghana since June 2011.

The woman, who is in her 40s and lives in the Radnor-Fort Myers Heights community, told the Arlington County Police Department about the scam on Friday, according to information police released today.

"She was contacted through emails and Facebook by a gentleman who claimed to own a jewelry store in Ghana. He told her his ex-wife was trying to take it from him. The only way he would be able to save it was to take it to the U.S. And he needed help filing paperwork, plane tickets, and all that jazz," police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said.

"He came across as wanting to enter into a romantic relationship with this woman. And to show his gratitude and to thank her for all the money she'd been sending, he falsified a document claiming she was entitled to all these gold bars, and it had a fake seal of their government on it."

The woman made numerous wire transfers over the past nine months, Sternbeck said. The money trail leads to an address in Ghana, which makes it extremely difficult for local police to investigate, he said.

The woman reported the scam after the man failed to meet her and she was unable to obtain any gold.

Criminals are becoming more sophisticated with email scams, Sternbeck said, turning to popular social network sites where people sometimes share intimate details of their lives.

Attempting to initiate a romantic relationship with a victim is the next progression of that, he said, as it causes the victim to feel a connection with the person and begin to trust them.

"You shouldn't send money to anybody you don't know and have a prior relationship with," Sternbeck said. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."