A Bruce Springsteen fan was bilked out of nearly $12,000 after developing a year-long relationship over Facebook with a man she thought was The Boss.
Speaking with CBS in Chicago, the woman, identified only as Mary, explained how one day she received a Facebook message from a man she thought was the Born to Run singer after commenting on a Springsteen social media post.
“I have been loving Bruce Springsteen since the ‘80s, ever since I heard him and I thought, ‘oh this guy is so handsome and has a good voice,’” the woman said. “I’m like ‘Whoa Bruce Springsteen, I’m good how are you?’”
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The woman said over the course of almost a year, the two exchanged text messages and photos, describing their exchanges as “flirty.” She said the man told her that he was getting a divorce and his wife had locked his accounts and needed money, preferably in the form of iTunes gift cards.
“I sent him iTunes up to maybe four, five, six-hundred bucks, little by little every week,” Mary told CBS.
And it didn’t stop there.
The Springsteen impersonator apparently sent her a photo of a pile of gold “worth millions” and needed some money to ship it back home to Dubai. So Mary said she sent a person in Dubai $11,500 through MoneyGram, Western Union and cashier’s cheque.
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“I was vulnerable at the time, but you know it hurt, it hurts and you feel so stupid,” Mary told CBS. “I was just so fooled.”
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, nearly 350,000 people reported “imposter scams” in 2017, with about one in five reporting they were bilked out of some money. The agency reported $328 million was “lost to someone pretending to be a loved one in trouble, a government official, tech support, or someone else who’s not who they say they are, but who wants your money.”