Romance scams cost Florida residents millions private investigator tells how to protect yourself, check them out

 

Romance scams cost Florida residents millions private investigator tells how to protect yourself, check them out. Fraud is broad and is a growing problem across all of Northeast Florida. Romance scams are a small part of a bigger problem. People are receiving phishing texts from fake Apple accounts, fraudulent toll road notices and fake bank alerts. Others are losing money to home-buying scams or having their identities stolen outright. The threats are wide-ranging, and investigators say no one is immune. Detective Dakota McDonald with the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office Florida says the pattern is familiar and costly. “These people end up falling further and further, and they just keep shelling out money, one hand over the other,” he said. Many times, he said, the people being scammed never meet the person they are messaging. “Most of the cases, they never met,” he said. When it comes to making arrests, investigators face long odds. McDonald says they are successful around 20% to 30% of the time. 

Romance scams are surging in Florida, with victims losing over $22 million in 2025 in the Jacksonville area alone, often leading the nation in average losses per victim. Scammers use fake online identities, artificial intelligence (AI), and social engineering to build trust and steal money, frequently targeting older adults. Romance scams involve criminals creating fake online identities to gain victims' trust and affection, often using AI or stolen photos, to steal money through emotional manipulation. Scammers frequently work from abroad, requesting funds for emergencies or travel before disappearing. Victims should immediately stop contact, report to ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI’s IC3, and inform financial institutions.

SCAM ALERT: Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms urged users to stay vigilant about "romance scams" and other social media platforms, as well as general text messages. Scammers tend to pose as "attractive, single and successful individuals," Meta says. They often claim to have military, medical or business backgrounds, with photos either stolen from real people's accounts or generated through artificial intelligence.

Better Call Bill Warner Investigations for domestic infidelity and child custody cases, surveillance, stalkers, and and online dating background checks call 941-926-1926. FAKE, FAKE, AND MORE FAKE PROFILES at Bumble, Hinge, Tinder, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish, the video chat app Azar, the League, Match, and others. Why Are There Fake Profiles On Dating Sites: Fake Hinge Profiles, Bumble Fake Profiles, Catfishing On Dating Sites, Fake Hinge Accounts, Fake Bumble Accounts. 

Jan 4th, 2022 A Texas man was arrested after allegedly kidnapping a woman he met on a dating app and holding her hostage for five days in his apartment — where he tortured and sexually assaulted her before she managed to escape. Zachary Mills, 21, allegedly picked up the victim on Christmas Eve and drove her to his apartment in Spring after the two exchanged messages on Bumble, according to court documents obtained by KHOU. Scammers use fake profiles to get with women online and eventually start the money train to them. The apps don’t create fake profiles, people do. DON'T SEND CASH! see https://wbipi.com/  

UPDATE ROMANCE SCAMMER PATRICK GIBLIN GETS 5 1/2 YEARS IN PRISON. A New Jersey-based romance scammer who has allegedly conned at least 155 women out of more than $500,000 was sentenced to five and a half years behind bars, authorities said Friday. Patrick Giblin, 58, of Atlantic City — who has been busted repeatedly for swindling widows, disabled women and single moms — had faced 25 years in prison for his most recent fraud arrest, according to the United States Attorney District of New Jersey. The deceptive Don Juan, Patrick Giblin, has been to jail at least four times for scamming women he met through dating services, has escaped federal custody twice — and continued to pull the con while on the lam, according to local police and federal authorities. For decades, Giblin wooed his women with conversation designed to sniff out their emotional weak spots — then used charm and pressure to convince them to wire him money, ranging from $250 to $50,000 per victim, according to prosecutors from past and current cases. see https://wbipi.com/

With that said, dating apps don’t always verify profiles nor are they quick to remove fake profiles. They rely on crowdsourced efforts (user feedback) primarily which is why profiles are up for a few days before getting flagged. It’s up to users to flag profiles and flag them often. If you don’t, you are not helping the societal dating pool on dating sites like Hinge, OkCupid, Tinder, Match etc, a guy could end up with someone like Casey Anthony with out a background check. See below International News article concerning “The dangerous side of online dating” by Gretchen Peters Foreign Correspondent.

https://paypal.me/wbipicom?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA // With as many as 40 million single Americans using online dating services or web-networking sites such as MySpace to look for love, it would seem that there has never been an easier time to find a soulmate online. The numbers are worrisome – and horror stories abound. In February, MySpace was forced to cancel 90,000 accounts on its site that authorities revealed were linked to registered sex offenders. It was a fraction of the 130 million users of the site, but a significant percentage of the more than one million registered sex offenders in the United States.

 

In April 2009 a Boston medical student, Philip Markoff, dubbed the “Craigslist killer” by the media, was arrested and changed with murdering a masseuse who advertised on the popular website’s erotic services section. Two months later Craigslist was hit with another scandal when it emerged that a North Carolina man used the site to hire a man to rape his wife while the husband watched. BACKGROUND CHECK $50 PAYPAL ME
 

Bill Warner, a Florida private investigator who offers on his website to “sort out the winners from the losers” for a flat fee of $50.00, Bill Warner says running background checks on potential internet dates now constitutes more than 50 per cent of his business. “Usually the problem is that the man is married or he turns out to be one of these crazy stalker people that follows a woman for months,” he said in a telephone interview. 

 

“It’s shameful because it lulls women into a false sense of security,” said Mr Warner. “You get young naive women or the over-50 year olds who are recently divorced, they are often excited about meeting a new man and they make easy prey.” In some instances, the first date ends in violence. Last October, for example, police in Minnesota charged a 39-year-old man with raping a woman he met through the internet, after he slipped drugs into her drink that caused her to pass out. In other cases, the motive is financial. BACKGROUND CHECK $50 PAYPAL ME
 

In many cases, Mr Warner said he would discover that men had joined a online dating site using a false name, a prepaid, throwaway cell phone and a phony e-mail address from free services such as Yahoo or Hotmail. “There are a lot of people out there who get jazzed up by disguising themselves,” he said, adding that nearly 100 per cent of his cases involved women being victimized by men. Industry experts say the website True.com is unique in the field for warning on its home page that criminals and married men who come hunting “will be sorry if they do”. The site recently sued a convicted sex offender in California who tried to register himself as an eligible bachelor. 

 

But True.com is one of the few online dating websites to actually run background checks on its members, even though a recent survey found that a majority of people visiting online dating sites believed that most did. Police in Tampa arrested a Tennessee man who was wanted for swindling a woman he met online out of tens of thousands of dollars and leasing a Mercedes in her name that he wrecked, leaving her with more than $60,000 in liabilities.

 

Bill Warner Investigations, check out romance scammers who hide their motives behind seemingly innocuous virtual identities, do background checks, Never Send Cash, see https://wbipi.com/

 

Bill Warner Private Investigator Sarasota 941-926-1926 - Cheaters and Child Custody Cases.

Federal Grand Jury Charges Southern Poverty Law Center for Wire Fraud, False Statements, and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering with KKK & Neo Nazis

Federal Grand Jury Charges Southern Poverty Law Center for Wire Fraud, False Statements, and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering with KKK & Neo Nazis. Miss Lie Detector on Instagram is 'dead on balls' correct! She is right in putting the SPLC on blast. The real story from the Federal indictment shows that the SPLC paid off the leaders of KKK groups, Neo Nazi groups, 'the bosses" to incite racial hate like in Charlottesville, SO THAT the SPLC could write about the racial hate with their so called investigative reports on their websites with inside info from their CI's to gain more and more "donations' from their readers, hit that tip jar. Major fraud to fill the pockets of the SPLC by inciting racial hate nationwide, the SPLC is worse than the KKK! It worked both ways for KKK and SPLC the more hatred incited by KKK and funded by SPLC the more donors and members were gained by both! “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. 

See link to 'Miss Lie Detector' on Instagram and her post calling out the liars at SPLC https://www.instagram.com/p/DXcu_D5j1NH/

Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America. A Grand Jury in Montgomery, Alabama, today returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division filed two forfeiture actions to recover alleged proceeds of the organization’s fraud scheme. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated this case with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

“Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.” “The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public," said FBI Director Kash Patel. "They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups - even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

The SPLC is a non-profit organization headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, whose mission, according to its website during the relevant time period, was to be a “catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.” According to the indictment starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.

“Donors gave their money believing they were supporting the fight against violent extremism,” said Acting United States Attorney Kevin Davidson. “As alleged, the SPLC instead diverted a portion of those funds to benefit individuals and groups they claimed to oppose. That kind of deception undermines public trust and social cohesion.” Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including:

Ku Klux Klan
United Klans of America
Unite the Right
National Alliance
National Socialist Movement
Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club
National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party)
American Front

According to the indictment, the objective of the scheme and artifice was to obtain money via donations through materially false representations and omissions about what the donated funds would be used for. In order to covertly pay the individuals, the SPLC opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities. The covert nature of the accounts allowed the SPLC to disguise the true nature, source, ownership, and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money the SPLC paid the individuals. In order to keep the scheme going, the SPLC made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts. 

Sarasota Private Investigator Bill Warner, True Crime Stories, Bill Warner Investigations Sarasota Fl.