A Bradford woman called South Simcoe police Wednesday morning after she suspected she was being scammed by a man she met online.
The 18-year-old woman told police she met the man, named John Murphy, on an adult dating app called Sugar Daddy.
The woman made a deal with Murphy, and agreed to send him pictures of herself in exchange for payment, according to police. In order to do so, she sent him her bank account number and password.
However, the woman became suspicious when Murphy deposited $9,500 into her account, according to police. He told her to donate $4,000 of it to charity and keep the rest, police say.
South Simcoe investigated and believe this was a so-called over-payment fraud.
Over-payment fraud is a scam in which victims are tricked into sending back some of the “extra” money they are sent by the scammer. The victim sends the “extra” money to the specified charity or account before realizing that the deposited money, usually a cheque or money order, is fraudulent.
Later, once the cheque bounces or initial payment doesn’t go through, not only will the victim have not received any of the promised money, they have also sent some of their own to the scammer.
South Simcoe police say this is a very popular scam, and remind people to be cautious when handing over banking information to strangers from the internet.
They say if something sounds too good to be true, it likely is.