A Georgia woman whose key role in a series of romance scams that defrauded seniors in several states of at least $5.8 million was sentenced on March 7 to almost four years in prison in Rhode Island.
Syretta Scherer, 42, of Snellville, Georgia, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit money laundering; she laundered almost $1.1 million of the $3 million stolen while she participated in the conspiracy.
The primary scam involved cultivating online romances with widows through dating apps, including Plenty of Fish, Christian Mingle, and Our Time, then convincing the victims that money was needed for serious medical issues and other dire reasons. The victims were directed to send money through the mail or by wire transfer to different people and addresses.
Ms. Scherer then deposited the money into accounts she controlled before redirecting it elsewhere. She used a sham company she created, Precise Carriers, to open a number of bank accounts at different banks where the funds were deposited.
She participated in the scam between February 2018 and November 2019 and was able to structure her deposits and withdrawals to avoid bank currency transaction requirements.
When a bank finally questioned the activity and shut down one of the accounts, she opened another one. Some of her friends also opened bank accounts at her request which she used to launder money she got from victims.
28 Known Victims
There were a total of 28 known victims in multiple states, including a 76-year-old widow who gave more than $600,000 to the scammers by refinancing her home and selling property she owned in Massachusetts.
The conspiracy involved at least three other women and one man. Three others, Sadae Mills and Dominique Golden of Houston, Texas, and Breauna Williams of Jacksonville, North Carolina, have also pleaded guilty to various related charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
Ms. Mills admitted that she received a total of $34,710 from the scheme between April and June 2018. She spent some of the funds and transferred some to other banks. She also withdrew some of the funds and gave them to Ms. Golden.
Ms. Golden has been sentenced to 78 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,263,822.54 in restitution, the amount she admitted that she took from victims. No further information about Ms. Mills’s and Ms. Williams’s sentences was available.
Wisdom Oghenekaro Onyobeno of Atlanta, Georgia, was also arrested in 2019 and was in custody awaiting trial as of February 2023. No further information was available about his case.
The suspicious activity finally caught the attention of the FBI, which investigated along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in Atlanta.
Assistant United States Attorneys Denise M. Barton and John P. McAdams prosecuted the case.
Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams in 2022, the last year figures were available. More than 70,000 people reported falling victim to a romance scam; the average loss was $4,400.
While dating apps are a common place for scammers to operate, about twice as many used social media instead. After establishing the relationship, many scammers moved their messages to WhatsApp, Google Chat, or Telegram for greater privacy and anonymity.
Besides faking economic distress, some scammers also get their unsuspecting victims’ money by offering to invest money for them with a friend or colleague who has a “sure thing.” Some also say that they shipped a valuable package to the victim but need money for customs or other fees.
Finally, some scammers operate through “sextortion,” which involves getting the victim to send explicit images and then threatening to expose them.
Cryptocurrency was a common way to pay scammers, but the largest dollar loss was gift cards, which are easy to get and almost impossible to trace.
