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well a big online warning for everyone
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ahead of Valentine's Day at least for
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the single folks out there a Tri-State
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woman looking for love found a scammer
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instead these are some of the messages
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that she was receiving she was using a
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trusted dating website for this as well
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and she actually stiffed out that the
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phony was there before he was able to
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start taking advantage of her in the
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situation possibly even financially nine
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on your side wants to make sure you
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don't get played by scammers as
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Valentine's Day and that's why Roseanne
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Aragon is here what' you find out This
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Woman's story is typical or yeah that's
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right online seems to be the fastest way
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to meet people but may also be the
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fastest way to get scammed now this
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woman says this person wasn't interested
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in her but her money and she doesn't
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want what happened to her to happen to
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you Mary Rogers Miller was open to
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finding love to meet someone just to see
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what's out there so she turned to a
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popular online matching site almost
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instantaneously it seemed she'd been
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contacted by the perfect man living in
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the city that's the city just north of
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us um go to a Catholic church building
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construction engineer as I said really
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wants honesty he then deleted his
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profile and continued to text and email
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her pushing her to download Yahoo
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instant messenger she didn't do it but
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still he promised her a life Mary I love
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you so much I want you to be a part of
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my life um you're in my dreams I kept
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reading like I'm laughing I'm like this
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is like a this is worse than a romance
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novel to catch the scammer she continued
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after 3 weeks he said he was in London I
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$25,000 contract and I have 10 days to
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deliver on it she knew he said honey I
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$400 through Western Union he also asked
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for her social security number and her
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driver's license it wasn't like honey or
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sweetie it was like again where are the
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numbers it was the textbook romance scam
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experts say scammers create a fake
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identity and profile tailored to
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people's interests which they find on
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your social media they then build a
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relationship from far and then ask for
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money according to reports filed to the
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Ohio attorney general Mike dwine the
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average victim of this scam loses
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$26,000 luckily this woman didn't lose
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any but she only wonders how many did
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people want to be in a relationship it's
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very natural you know great thing of
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course you're going to get feelings if
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you're in a vulnerable spot and of
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course he was taking advantage of that
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and he was praying on that now he
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stopped all communication with her once
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he caught on that she knew but nine is
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on your side and doesn't want to see you
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d by a scammer so some of the red flags
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Miller saw is the man's facts about her
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were inconsistent saying he'd meet her
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in Cleveland he avoided meeting her in
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person and the big clue for her he asked
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about her personal information and
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pushed for it just a warning tonight to
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be safe online especially with
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Valentine's Day right around the corner
