[00:00:02] Isabella: I want to send the gift to you."
And I said, okay, so, What was it?
It was a pallet of gold.
And I said, I dont want it.
And he said, No, no, no.
[00:00:24] I kept hounding Michael, I said, “I need my money.”
I mean I was in debt to my eyes.
[00:00:31] Bob: Welcome back to our new season of The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
Well, I think you’ll be really happy when you hear how this story ends.
[00:01:26] Bob: The year was 1989.
[00:01:41] Isabella: My first real date?
[00:01:43] Bob: Yeah.
And he said he was going to marry me.
[00:02:02] Isabella: I was close to a retirement age at that point.
My husband had been retired.
By the beach, and it, we love it.
[00:02:16] Bob: Yeah, how did you pick the place you moved to?
[00:02:18] Isabella: He picked it actually based on a, a conversation with a golfing buddy.
They said you should try the beaches in Delaware.
We never heard of it, and he did, and he liked it, and so did I.
It reminded me of the Jersey Shore, and I said, that was it.
[00:02:41] Isabella: Yeah, so we bought a um, we had a house built.
Now it is booming like crazy because of everyone leaving the cities.
Um, and thats what we did.
We built a house and um, Im literally four miles to the beach.
It takes me 10 minutes to get there.
And I, he said to me, I cant walk.
We didnt know what it was.
He, from the pain, because he said it was extremely painful.
I said, Fine.
And so I looked at the clock.
They think it was um, a DVT, a blood clot in his leg.
And the doctor thinks that it was a clot that broke off from this bruise that killed him.
[00:05:17] Bob: Isabella’s life is turned completely upside down.
Do, documents that you needed.
I mean it was an absolute nightmare.
But life goes on.
[00:06:16] Bob: Oh, I’m so sorry.
That sounds like such a horrible, my god.
[00:06:29] Isabella: Correct.
[00:06:52] Bob: And it is a rough few years.
And I didn’t want to, and then I finally did, and changed my life.
[00:07:22] Bob: So, so dating site did you try first?
[00:07:25] Isabella: The only, I only went on once, and it was Our Time.
One was from uh Oregon, and one was from West Virginia.
And I was like, why would anybody from those parts of the country want to contact me?
So I responded to the one from Oregon, and I said, Why are you contacting me?
You live 3000 miles away.
And he says, Im moving to Delaware in two weeks."
[00:08:11] Bob: Now, that intrigues Isabella.
He would be local, very soon.
[00:08:17] Isabella: Well, I was a little skeptical at first.
The entire time I was skeptical.
And I said fine.
[00:08:52] Isabella: Oh the, the same day.
[00:08:55] Bob: Wow.
[00:08:56] Isabella: He was very aggressive.
Um, or, or yeah, pushy, I would say is more than aggressive.
And um, I said, fine.
And he contacted me, you know, quite quickly.
Um, constantly, um, for the next few days.
It is quite dramatic.
He had one child.
And he said, Well, I was born there.
And I was like, “born here?”
There was a military installation back then when he was born.
So I said, okay.
That, you know, that would last.
That would make sense.
And Im like, right, sure.
So I said, okay, well maybe thats what it, he is doing that.
And when Michael might be able to start his move to Delaware.
Instead, a surprise request comes.
And I said, you know, Ill try.
He said, My son needs some uh iTune cards right away.
Could you purchase them for me, and Ill give you the money when I see you.
And I said, Okay, but Ive never purchased an iTune card.
And he said to me, Yeah, just go ahead.
And then, “How do I do it?”
and he explained to me how to do it, and I said okay.
And I said, All right.
It was only a small amount of money, Ill do that.
I’ll get it back.
[00:12:38] Bob: Isabella doesn’t think much about the money.
After all, she expects to see Michael in a week or so.
But then he says there will be a delay in his move.
A very important mission has come up.
So I was just waiting for the details of how he was getting there, etc., etc.
And hell be gone only 10 days, and um, hell be back for good.
And I questioned what he said, and he said, I cant say no.
And I said, okay, that was it.
And he sent me a link of, of some of the information.
I read a New York Times article about the monies that were missing, and I said, okay.
You know, theres some validity to this.
And he was leaving the next day.
Which, at that day, was Sunday.
This was one week after I met him.
[00:14:13] Bob: One week after you met him.
[00:14:22] Isabella: Oh, absolutely.
And Ive never been on social media.
So theres no way you could find out anything about me, nothing.
So, its not uncommon for me to have heard something like that.
So I said, okay.
[00:15:09] Isabella: So he got on the airplane, and he texted me.
[00:15:34] Bob: But once Michael lands in Afghanistan, there is a small crisis.
Well, a medium-sized crisis.
So I didn’t expect to hear from him for a day or so.
I, I didnt know what he was talking about.
He said, I had to set up this camera to take pictures to monitor.
And I lost it, I left it in the cab on the way from the airport.
He said, Can you help me?
I need to get another camera.
And I, I was like, “How can I help you?”
Im not in the city," you know, anything.
And he was like, “Youve got to help me, youve got to help me.”
And he was pleading with me.
I said, okay.
We have nothing like that.
Were a beach community.
I said, Well how did you meet him?
I said, okay.
He can get me the camera.
I said, Oh good.
So he said, But youve got to send money.
Im like, “Okay…” and he said, Its an expensive camera.
And I said, Well, okay.
But now it seemed the only way to help him was to send money – a lot of money.
And he said, Well this person can get it, and he will send it to me.
And this persons name was Robert Asante.
And I said, Okay.
So I said, Well how do I send him money?
And then he told me what to do, and how to get the money to him.
And I said, But its, I cant get any money, its Presidents Day weekend.
So he said, Well just send a deposit.
Ive never done anything like this before.
And I sent him $1000.
He gave me his name, his address, his telephone number, and this person lived in Ohio.
And I said, okay.
Um, but I thought he was abroad with, with Michael.
And, but the address was in Ohio.
And um, we, so I, in addition to Michael, I started communicating with Robert.
And Robert would direct me to where the money should be sent.
And Robert gave me all of the information to do the wire transfer.
[00:19:39] Isabella: Oh sure.
That and then some.
And I said, okay.
It went up to like $17,000.
And I said, okay.
I had all of Roberts information.
And so I deposited that money.
He had another mission he was secretly working on in Afghanistan.
And it had been a success.
So successful that there was a reward.
I said, okay.
And he said, What is your address?
So I said, okay.
And I said, okay, and so, What was it?
It was a pallet of gold.
And I said, I dont want it.
And he said, No, no, no.
So, give me your address and its the um, shipping companys on its way.
And I said, But I dont want it.
So he says, No, take it.
And give me the address.
So I gave him my address, and he says, Ill be in touch, and disconnected.
[00:22:07] Bob: But he says a pallet of gold is coming to your house?
[00:22:11] Isabella: A pallet of gold.
[00:22:12] Bob: Wow.
I said, I dont, you know, I dont want that responsibility.
[00:22:34] Bob: She’s also a bit skeptical of the whole story.
But when she does some research online, things seem to check out.
So I said, okay, check that box off.
And so I just waited.
The next thing on that next day um, I hear from the shipping company.
And Im like what is this?
[00:23:55] Bob: How, how did the shipping company contact you?
[00:23:58] Isabella: They contacted me via, he had my phone number.
He sent me via text.
[00:24:03] Bob: So someone called… or they texted.
[00:24:05] Isabella: All texts.
[00:24:15] Bob: And this was, do you remember the name of the shipping company?
[00:24:19] Isabella: Northwind Express.
[00:24:21] Bob: Okay.
[00:24:21] Isabella: And I googled it.
It specialized in um, precious metals, etc., etc.
And they needed this money in order for the shipment to proceed.
[00:24:54] Bob: Okay, so um, but you were incredulous at this point.
You’re, I don’t want gold bars.
I dont know about this rescue mission, but, but what happened next?
[00:25:04] Isabella: Um, so I didn’t want them.
Michael said, You just have to do this.
I will give you the money back.
Just think of all the, you know, all the money thats there.
I can sell that.
His wife had, coincidentally, been a jeweler.
So he had a gold license to buy and sell gold.
What did that amount to?
[00:25:45] Isabella: A lot of money.
They went me, and I would not do anything, I had to see documents.
It was a raised seal on it.
They sent me transferring, showing transfer of ownership from Michael to me.
They sent me um, another document along with that.
Now I had worked with the airlines, so I know how to track this information.
[00:27:27] Isabella: All via emails.
That was via emails.
[00:27:29] Bob: Oh, okay, I see, okay.
It was an email, but it looked like it had a raised seal.
[00:27:33] Isabella: Yes.
You could see the raised seal.
[00:27:35] Bob: Got it.
[00:27:51] Bob: Oh boy, wow.
Um, so and this is money you had worked your whole life to save, right?
[00:27:57] Isabella: Oh, sure.
[00:27:58] Bob: Weeks go by.
Each time Isabella needs to send more money.
[00:28:10] Isabella: He wanted to leave; they didn’t want him to leave.
He needed more money to get out of there.
Um, because I, he had to pay some sort of duty, I guess, for himself.
And I said, I dont have any money.
I gave you everything.
So, he said they only wanted $125,000.
And I said, What about insurance?
Im like, what car would be $125,000?
So Im thinking maybe a Mercedes.
He said to me, They dont repair cars there.
I said, Well this is ridiculous.
Go to the Embassy.
And that was another nightmare trying to get him out of Dubai.
[00:29:36] Bob: But you just said to me that you had given him everything.
Do you mean, did you actually fully liquidate your 401k?
[00:30:02] Bob: Oh my god.
[00:30:05] Isabella: Oh no, it gets better.
[00:30:08] Bob: Well, what happens next?
And the lawyers are communicating with me, one lawyer is anyway.
So I, I, I took care of that.
And as, as I said, I had to liquidate everything.
They had me um, buy another ticket for someone else to travel.
[00:31:16] Bob: Isabella has spent pretty much all her available cash at this point.
Well, he actually gets someone else to fill out the software for her.
[00:31:34] Isabella: I didn’t have the money.
[00:31:36] Bob: Yeah, so, so what did you do next instead?
[00:31:39] Isabella: So, that’s what the thing was, I didnt have the money.
And I had taken out the home equity loan.
I didnt even apply for it.
They applied for it all online, um, although I provided all the documentation.
They provided credit cards with me.
I had to get cash advances, would send that for, to them.
[00:32:32] Isabella: Yes.
To prove that to her, Michael lets her log into what he says is his bank account.
It shows many of her payments to him, and it shows a multi-million dollar balance.
And this bank had his account information.
And I said, “Well I don’t have the fee.”
And I didn’t pay the fee.
And there it is, and it’s, it’s an investment company.
[00:34:28] Bob: And it, it appears to have your money in it?
[00:34:31] Isabella: No, his money.
Money, supposedly his money in it.
[00:34:37] Bob: But that was the money he was going to repay you with.
It was um, I guess, I guess $12 million, something of that nature.
[00:34:53] Bob: It takes a year before Michael says he’s out of the Middle East.
As Isabella’s reserves start to become exhausted, she doesn’t know what to do.
Michael isn’t helping, but still every time she challenges his stories, they seem to check out.
And even when something suspicious happens, well Michael seems to have an answer for everything.
[00:35:15] Isabella: We didn’t communicate as much because the money started to dry up.
I don’t that.
Well, finally, um, I guess it was about a, over a year and four months.
I was getting very, very suspicious.
And something popped up on the internet about him, about his name.
And I mentioned it to him, and he said, do you believe I’m a scam?
[00:36:51] Bob: Still, Isabella’s love overrode her suspicions.
Even as friends venture to warn her about what’s happening.
I said, because he wasn’t a scam.
And then, finally, I kept hounding Michael, I said, “I need my money.”
I mean I was in debt to my eyes.
[00:37:24] Bob: Finally, Michael offers to help Isabella pay some of her bills.
It seems that she might have hacked into someone else’s bank account.
But that is coming.
That’s next week on The Perfect Scam.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch web link Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
Thanks to her, the mission is a great success and there is a reward of gold bars.
Though Isabella pays more than $100,000 to a company, neither Michael nor the gold ever arrives.
