[00:00:05] She pretended to love me.
The whole purpose is to get my money.
My judgment was terrible, but judgment is not criminal.
What she did was criminal.
[00:00:18] Julie: Welcome back to AARP’s The Perfect Scam.
Frank, thanks for being here.
[00:00:30] Frank Abagnale: Hi, Julie, great to be with you today.
[00:00:32] Julie: Frank, our topic this week is sweetheart scams.
Frank, why is this scam such a lucrative business?
Well that’s because he had 20 different people he was scamming at the same time.
It wasn’t you he was devoting one year of his time to the romance scam.
[00:02:26] Frank Abagnale: It’s devastating.
Thanks, Frank, and let’s talk more after we hear this week’s story.
[00:02:35] Frank Abagnale: Right, thanks, Julie.
They never had any children and he now lives alone.
(telephone ring)
[00:02:53] Jerry Needleman: Ya, hello.
[00:02:54] Julie: Hi Jerry, this is Julie Getz from AARP.
[00:02:57] Jerry Needleman: Oh yes, I’m fine, thank you, and you?
[00:03:00] Julie: I’m well, thank you.
Have you had a good morning so far?
[00:03:03] Jerry Needleman: Yes, everything is, everything is going well.
[00:03:05] Julie: Right now Jerry is 91.
But this story begins seven years ago when he was a youthful 84.
She’s extremely distraught.
[00:03:25] Julie: The woman introduces herself as Sylvia Anderson.
She confides through her tears that she’s at the end of her rope.
[00:03:31] Jerry Needleman: She had just left her husband that used to beat her.
She had two young teenaged children.
[00:03:57] Jerry Needleman: I’ve helped people all my life.
I had a sister that I cared for throughout her life.
She was an artist.
Her father died very young and I took care of my mother.
I’ve taken care of other people.
This is my nature.
[00:04:38] Jerry Needleman: She was entirely different than everything I was ever familiar with.
If I would talk to her about something she didn’t know, she would get very excited.
I once showed her a map of the world, I laid it out on a table.
She didn’t know what she was looking at.
So I loaned them money for that purpose so they could buy, fix up, and resell vans.
I said, how much is that?
[00:06:01] Jerry Needleman: As a young man, I had no money.
When I became successful, I lived modestly.
I had 212 million dollars when I met her.
I couldn’t have spent 212 million dollars the way I live, no matter how long I live.
His reward, Sylvia’s enthusiastic gratitude which gradually turns into more.
I guess what I was doing for her, uh both verbally and in writing.
She often said that.
And I can show you greeting cards and writings that she undertook, promises eternal love, care.
[00:07:06] Julie: Sylvia never gets tired of asking for more.
Jerry is happy to give.
Two years after they meet in the park, Sylvia makes her biggest request yet.
[00:07:16] Jerry Needleman: At some point she pleaded with me for me to marry her.
I said, Sylvia, I’m not interested in marriage.
Not just paid attendants.
So after all that pressure, I finally gave in.
After we got married, we never had sex, never, never.
She would stay up until 3 in the morning.
Sometimes she went out and didn’t come home until 3 in the morning if she came home.
Never made breakfast for me.
Very rarely cooked dinner.
[00:08:40] Julie: This isn’t the marriage that Jerry hoped for.
Sylvia’s moods are unpredictable and unnerving.
So she was living with me very, very little.
[00:09:25] Julie: The tiring drama goes on for months.
The arguments, the pleading, the reconciliation.
[00:09:37] Jerry Needleman: All my relatives had died.
All the good friends, three of them, all died in one year.
I really didn’t have friends.
I had some acquaintances.
And well, they thought I was nuts.
[00:09:59] Julie: Nearly two years into the marriage, Jerry decides that he’s had enough.
He files for divorce, and finally (audio cuts out) that gets Sylvia’s attention.
She said she would take care of me; it’s what I wanted to start with.
Well we remarried, six days later I filed for annulment.
She was lying again.
She moved out of here the end of the first week in November 2017.
She fled in anger.
I never saw her again after that.
[00:10:52] Jerry Needleman: She pretended to love me.
The whole purpose is to get my money.
My judgment was terrible, I don’t, I don’t question that.
But judgment is not criminal.
What she did was criminal.
Enter Bob Nygaard, a bulky ex-cop who’s now a private investigator.
His specialty, investigating fraud, especially sweetheart scams.
And I say, “Well, what’s so bad about that?”
And they said, “Well Bob, he’s 80 and she’s 25.”
Within a week she’s taking him out to dinner.
So she used the same story on an–, on another old man, back in 2011.
[00:12:57] Julie: But that’s not all the investigation uncovers.
Nygaard finds that Sylvia has a sister, and that she targeted Jerry first.
Is that typical to work as a team?
[00:13:45] Bob Nygaard: It’s not typical to work as a team, no.
Can you tell me about that?
And meanwhile I had an interview with the young man.
He told me, “Bob, I was never getting married like that.
I never, it was never any $60,000 dowries that were needed.”
So it was one, one complete scam.
[00:15:17] Julie: What did Sylvia’s son think about what his mother was doing?
[00:15:38] Bob Nygaard: Yeah, these cases are not hard to prove.
[00:15:45] Julie: And what was the total financial loss for Mr. Needleman?
[00:15:52] Julie: Wow.
[00:16:07] Julie: So how did this whole situation affect the way that Jerry is living now?
They can’t go back to work.
And he went out and started to look for jobs.
He says, “But Bob, no one will even give me an interview.”
He said, “Who’s going to hire me?”
What happened to Sylvia?
[00:16:55] Bob Nygaard: Sylvia’s still out there.
Nothing happened to Sylvia at all.
[00:17:04] Bob Nygaard.
[00:17:21] Julie: When you say trying to report it, what do you mean?
So these are nontraditional organized crime suspects.
They uh take advantage of the criminal justice system’s uh propensity to treat nonviolent offenses with leniency.
[00:18:26] Julie: And hopefully things will change.
Have a great rest of your day.
[00:18:34] Bob Nygaard: Thank you.
[00:18:35] Julie: Thank you.
He loses his wife and then he finds himself in a scam that financially ruins him.
More than double the rate of people in their 20s.
Now, at the same time, people 70 and over reported the highest individual losses.
[00:20:15] Julie: Okay, Frank, last question.
We know that most romance scams happen online.
Is there a way that we can prevent our friends and family members from falling into this devastating trap?
Have I ever actually met this person?
That’s been really great.
So then your friend can say the exact thing, do you know this person?
I mean, have you actually met them?
Do you know who they are, that they say they are?
But always, I remind people, you’re not just the only one.
They’re scamming a number of people at the same time.
[00:21:43] Julie: And are there any clear warning signs?
Well I bank at Wells Fargo.
Well how long have you banked there?
So the, the red flags are the same.
[00:22:43] Frank Abagnale: If that’s a real person.
That’s what I mean.
[00:23:26] Julie: Thanks, Frank.
It’s always so great to talk to you and hear from your experience.
[00:23:29] Frank Abagnale: Okay, Julie, thank you.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP - The Perfect Scam, I’m Julie Getz.
Meanwhile in Florida, a woman named Sylvia is pursuing a relationship with a retiree.
The man has spent thousands of dollars on his much-younger girlfriend.
When they become engaged, the mans son steps in.
In 2012, the family successfully sues Sylvia for fraud.
The woman is Sylvia.
For instance, if you are looking for a job you are more vulnerable to a work-at-home scam.
