Fake Love Stories

He Said He Was a Widower - She Lost $412,000 to Love

Grief made her vulnerable: Rachel Zimmerman trusted a man she met on a private bereavement forum and ended up sending $412,000 over fourteen months to someone using a stolen identity. How did a series of timely small repayments and polished documents convince her to refinance her home and transfer six-figure sums without telling anyone?

In this episode, we follow the timeline of Rachel's online relationship, the deceptive profiles and false company details that accompanied it, and the pattern of payments that escalated from $600 to $48,000. What specific steps allowed the fraud to grow to $412,000 before detection?

Person: Rachel Zimmerman
Age: 32
Location: Hargrove Township
Period: Fourteen months
Amount lost: $412,000

- First transfer requested: $600, repaid in nine days.
- By month seven total transferred: $41,000 across nine transactions.
- By month eleven total transferred: $162,000.
- Largest single transfer: $48,000 in month thirteen.
- Fraudulent profile name used: Russell Burns; real alias used locally: Brian Calvert.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

She Sent $41,200 for Love - The Flower That Exposed Him

Fear that the person you love is a lie - and a shoebox on a park bench that smelled of perfume and held a $41,200 wire transfer are the first clues. How did a string of Wednesday-night calls, real flower deliveries, and a single dried bloom lead from romance into an international money trail and a rental unit with a secret visitor?

In this episode, we follow the chronology of Marcia Wagner’s online relationship, the monetary requests, and the physical evidence that surfaced in Dellfield, Indiana. We track the calls, the transfers, and the items left behind to ask: what specific detail finally reframed everything?

Person: Marcia Wagner
Location: Dellfield, Indiana
Date joined dating site: February 2018
Amount wired: $41,200
Destination country: Ghana

- Marcia received a wire transfer confirmation dated eight months earlier for $41,200 addressed to a bank in Accra, Ghana.
- She joined HearthConnect in February 2018 and began communicating with "Ronald Olson" within weeks.
- The man’s photos were stolen from Thomas Breck’s LinkedIn profile; Breck is a structural engineer in Tulsa who never knew his images were used for over a year.
- Marcia and "Ronald" spoke every Wednesday at 10:45 PM; she played his recorded hymn message seventeen times.
- After the first $4,000 request in September 2018, real flowers were delivered to her house the next morning with a handwritten card.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

Neighbor Discovers a Dead Man's Ring Standing in Dirt: The Donald Marsh Case

A ring stood upright in potting soil on a porch railing - a deliberate, impossible detail that led a mail carrier to a photograph and, eventually, a courtroom. How did a flat tire, a stranger who fixed it, and a small gold ring connect to the sudden unraveling of a 78-year-old widower's life?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that began on May 14, 2023 and trace the people, places, and transactions that recontextualized ordinary kindness as calculated gain. What did eleven days of evidence reveal about the man who called himself Gary Peterson and the real cost to Donald Marsh?

Person: Donald Marsh
Date: May 14, 2023
Location: 412 Sycamore Bend, Dellmar, Ohio
Person: Gary Peterson Pruitt (alias Gary Peterson)
Amount: $800 requested (first request in September 2022)

- A mail carrier, Warren Erickson, found a small gold ring standing vertically in potting soil on the porch railing and photographed it on May 14, 2023.
- Donald Marsh was seventy-eight years old, lived at 412 Sycamore Bend in a house assessed at $230,000, and had no mortgage.
- In late June 2022, Donald's truck had a flat near the Dellmar grain elevator and a man in a gray pickup stopped and fixed a lug nut, then followed Donald home to check the truck.
- By August 2022 the man, using the name Gary Peterson, was visiting twice a week, trimming hedges, driving Donald to appointments, and bringing pears.
- The first monetary request from that man arrived in September 2022 for $800.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Learned Her Thursdays: The Voice That Stole Lauren's Trust

Fear that warmth on the phone could be a calculated trap - Lauren answered a voice that knew her great-aunt's candy, her Thursday visits, and the exact shape of her week. The headset, a ceramic mug with her name, and a ledger with "Anchor Details" turned intimacy into a scheme that collected $11,060 from her alone - how did a storage unit become a factory for stolen trust?

In this episode, we follow the events that led investigators to a storage unit, a notebook, and a pattern of scripted affection that targeted organized, careful women; we outline how the scheme worked and what the notebook revealed about other victims and the finances behind it, asking how specific personal details were harvested and weaponized.

Person: Lauren Christensen
Date: April 14, 2019
Location: Storage unit 41, Tallow Basin Self-Storage
Case: Six names recorded in a spiral-bound notebook
Amount: $11,060 recorded beside Lauren's name

- Lauren was 28 years old and a second-grade teacher at Birchfield Elementary in winter 2019.
- Lauren visited her great-aunt Norma every Thursday, a 30-minute drive each way, bringing a fresh bag of butterscotch discs.
- Lauren matched with a profile named Glenn Lane on February 2, 2019; the profile claimed he was a civil engineer working in Qatar.
- The photo on the profile belonged to Andrew Suttle, a civil engineer in Portland who had no connection to the profile.
- The notebook listed another victim, Judith Farrar, age 54, with approximately $31,000 recorded beside her name.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Proposed to Four Women - The Pastor Never Suspected a Lie

You will feel the slow, stomach-drop betrayal of small-town trust: a pristine photo in a drainage culvert, a paralegal and a dog groomer filing complaints the same morning, and a man who kept victims reduced to a single adjective in his spiral notebook - "generous." How did a church’s own goodwill become the perfect cover for romance fraud, and who finally pulled the thread?

In this episode, we follow the timeline of events that unfolded in Calverton from September 2018 through March 2019, showing how a newcomer used congregational trust to create multiple romantic cons and how two citizens brought the scheme to light. What did investigators find when they opened the storage unit and read the spiral notebook?

Person: Amanda Foster
Person: Paula Hensley
Person: Angela Turner
Person: Marcus Elgin Webb
Date: March 9, 2019

- A laminated photograph inscribed "For Amanda - always yours, R.G." was found wedged in a drainage culvert on March 9, 2019.
- Angela Turner, a dog groomer, found the photo on Ridgeback Loop trail and brought it to the Calverton Police Department.
- Paula Hensley, a paralegal, filed a fraud complaint against Ryan Gallagher at the same police department the same morning.
- Marcus Elgin Webb, 43, attended Calverton Police Fellowship from September 2018 using the name Ryan Gallagher and had a 2013 wire fraud conviction in Georgia under a different alias.
- Webb rented a storage unit in October 2018 in the name R. Gallagher, paid in cash, which remained unchecked until a March search warrant.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Thought He Found Love - She Was a Stolen Identity

A man working nights and food pantry shifts fell in love with a profile built from stolen photos, and a rusted bolt in a zip-lock bag dragged a con into daylight: a river yielded dry love letters signed "Carla Simmons" and a dead soldier's portrait. How did a routine life, a scraped profile photo, and a prepaid debit account become the threads of a romance scam that ended with an arrest?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning a freezer bag surfaced on the Sable River to the discovery that the woman Howard Henderson loved was a fabricated identity. Listen to what connected a rural handyman, a stolen nurse's photos, and an eleven-day investigation that led to charges - and ask whether anyone who loves online is truly safe.

Person: Howard Henderson
Person: Stanley Porter
Person: Amanda Dalton
Location: Sable River below the grain elevator at Pettis Crossing
Date: second Friday of February

- The bag was found at 7:15 AM on the fourth trotline containing dry photographs and love letters.
- Amanda Dalton called the Pettis County Sheriff at 7:22 AM the same morning.
- Howard Henderson was 22 years old and worked for Ed Calloway Contracting servicing County Line Road.
- Brenda Henderson, Howard's mother, died of a pulmonary embolism in late November two years before the river discovery.
- Stanley Porter, 44 years old, was arrested eleven days after the bag was found.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Badge in the Field: How a Fake Engineer Took $11,200 from Peggy

Suspicion blooms from a single misplaced object: a laminated ID badge for "Roger Richardson" found in a frozen Illinois cornfield led to a six-year trail across four states and $11,200 vanished from one woman's bank account. Who was the man on the badge, why did his fake identity end up in a Midwestern field, and how did Peggy Morgan come to trust him enough to send thousands?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that connect a county surveyor's discovery to online deception and financial loss, tracing the person-to-person interactions, digital traces, and small details that revealed the scam. How did everyday routines and one stock photo unravel a constructed life?

Person: Peggy Morgan
Date: January 2019 (badge found) and 2018 (relationship timeline)
Location: Dunmore, Illinois; Calloway Township cornfield
Amount: $11,200
Search result: sunset photo appeared on 14 websites

- A laminated ID badge for "Roger Richardson" was found face-up in a frozen cornfield in January 2019.
- Peggy sent money eight times between October and December 2018, totaling $11,200.
- The initial $140 request in October 2018 was described as covering a supply order for a Gulf platform.
- Reverse-image search showed the sunset lock-screen photo on 14 separate websites, including stock photography libraries.
- The profile photos belonged to a real mechanical engineer named Brad Forsythe in Aberdeen, Scotland, who had never created the dating profile.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

She Heard a Singaporean - 173 Calls, One Man, $47,000 Vanished

Warm coffee, a ringing phone, and a wire transfer receipt for $47,000 were the first clues Pamela Clark found in an empty house on December 9, 2022 - but the voice that drew sixty-two-year-old Patricia Ward in came from a three-minute-and-forty-seven-second audio loop labeled "ambient SG clean." How did 173 calls over 14 months, a fabricated Singaporean persona, and a single IP address in Spokane convince a careful linguist to send nearly fifty thousand dollars - and who was really behind the sound file?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from Patricia’s first LinguaLink lesson to the day she vanished, describe the content of her 216-page notebook and 173 sessions, and trace the digital evidence that led investigators to Spokane. What did the recordings, server logs, and a recovered WAV file reveal about the man she thought she loved?

Person: Patricia Ward
Date: December 9, 2022
Sessions: 173 over 14 months
Transfer: $47,000 dated four days before discovery
IP address origin: Spokane, Washington

- Patricia filled 216 pages in a spiral notebook during the 14 months of lessons.
- The LinguaLink profile used 31 photographs taken from a real LinkedIn account without permission.
- The ambient audio file recovered was 3 minutes and 47 seconds long and labeled "ambient SG clean."
- Server logs subpoenaed in January 2023 showed every call originated from one IP address in Spokane.
- Wayne Hansen, age 51, had been developing accent mimicry since at least 2012 and owned the hard drive containing the audio loop.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A Widow Mails Her Flag: The Gail Holt Romance Scam

Grief made her vulnerable and patience made him convincing: a military service flag folded at a funeral traveled from a widow’s closet to a park trash can after a scammer spent seven months pretending to love her. How did a man in Harrisburg turn a careful, routine life into a target and leave a flag discarded in Millhaven Creek Park?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Gail Holt from online courtship to loss of money and the discovery that exposed the fraud. You’ll hear how the scam began, the profile details that deceived her, and the investigative lead that changed everything - but what was the single detail that made this case different from every other fraud file?

Person: Gail Holt
Event: Military service flag found in park trash can
Person: Leonard Pitts
Person: Sergeant First Class Dennis Kraft
Date: October 9

- The flag was found by park maintenance worker Tom Barela just before 7:00 AM on November 13.
- Gail Holt wired $1,800 on October 9 after seven months of online messages from the profile "SgtMichaelH83."
- The fraudulent profile used photographs of Sergeant First Class Dennis Kraft while the scam was run by 41-year-old Leonard Pitts.
- The scammer operated from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania using a laptop and three prepaid phones and had been active for at least three years.
- Gail Holt was 26, a billing coordinator on Fenwick Street, who fed her Holland Lop rabbit Biscuit every morning at 6:15 and every evening at 5:50.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

She Finds a Sealed Envelope With No Stamp: The Edward Evans Case

Fear that someone who knows your smallest routines can steal everything - a sealed envelope with no stamp led to a scam that emptied a curator's inheritance and used his Wednesday calls to time the fraud. How did a postcard and a forged postage ritual become the breadcrumb to a $112,000 loss?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from a seventeen-year-old's discovery at a museum delivery slot to the fraud investigator's interview and the digital trail that tied a fake "Stanley Vickers" persona to a suspect in Scottsdale. What patterns and details allowed the con to appear legitimate, and where did the operation reveal itself?

Person: Edward Evans
Date: October 23, 2019
Age: 48
Loss: $112,000
Investigator: Marcia Griffin

- The sealed envelope addressed to Edward Evans had no stamp and was placed in the museum's delivery slot before 7 a.m.
- Inside the envelope was a generic Adriatic-sunset postcard with the handwritten message "Thank you for loving me the way I deserved to be loved," and no signature or return address.
- Forensic exam found trace adhesive on the flap consistent with a stamp removed by steaming, indicating a fabricated mailed appearance.
- Contact began August 2018 via a professional networking platform with a persona claiming to be "Stanley Vickers," an Edinburgh-educated repatriation broker.
- By the time Marcia Griffin interviewed Edward in October 2019, his father's inheritance, savings and brokerage account totaling $112,000 had been lost.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].