Relationship Cheating Stories

Dry Birthday Card, Hidden Will: How "Jeff" Stole Earl's Life

Dryness in a marsh-a blue birthday card, upright and untouched after three inches of rain-became the single oddity that unspooled eleven months of careful deception. How did a man with no license, a prepaid phone and a mysterious past end up inside Earl Richardson’s life and his will?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning Ross Brooks found the card to the discovery of a revised will at Earl’s house, laying out the meetings, money transfers and small gestures that built trust until it was weaponized. What did the card and the will reveal about the same quiet plan unfolding across Maddox County?

Person: Ross Brooks
Person: Earl Richardson
Person: Jeffrey Sullivan
Location: Cutter's Bend marsh
Date: May 14, 2022

- A blue envelope was found upright against a wooden survey stake forty meters into a wetland after three inches of rain.
- Inside the birthday card, written in blue ballpoint, was: "You are the only thing I have ever done right." Signed Jeff.
- Earl photographed twelve rows of his garden weekly and filed the prints in a three-ring binder dating back to 2011.
- In June 2021 Jeffrey Sullivan began spending time at Briar Mill Road and installed drip irrigation on rows four through seven.
- Earl wired $11,000 to Sullivan in October 2021; fourteen days later Sullivan repaid $4,000 in cash.

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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].

Unlit Candles: How a Fake Lover Stole a Birthday-and $9,000

The chill of a sweet, unfamiliar smell, twenty-three unlit candles standing upright on an untouched cake, and a woman who left to meet a man who did not exist - this episode opens on a quiet detail that signals something far more calculated. How did a pattern of daily calls, a stolen photograph, and precise lies culminate in $9,000 leaving one account and a birthday that never happened?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Cheryl Stevens to trust a fake profile and send money, how the scam used a real civil engineer’s photo and daily phone intimacy to gain credibility, and how one unanswered video call and a knock in a motel unraveled five months of work - what exactly broke the scheme?

Person: Cheryl Stevens
Date: April 8-9 (Cheryl's 23rd birthday and the morning the apartment door was found open)
Location: Unit seven, Pinecrest Garden Apartments on Brauer Avenue
Case: Romance scam involving a fake profile named Glenn Russo and organizer Troy Bassett
Amount: $9,000 total requested (including $4,000 deposit and $2,200 customs fee)

- Cheryl matched with a Pairing profile named Glenn Russo in early November and exchanged phone numbers by the following Tuesday.
- Glenn’s profile photo was actually of David Kwan, a civil engineer in Sacramento who did not consent to its use.
- Cheryl wired $4,000 in January for a supposed subcontractor deposit and later $2,200 for a claimed customs fee.
- Troy Bassett, a 38-year-old shift supervisor at Meridian Outreach Solutions in Denfield, managed call routing and watched Cheryl’s calendar.
- Twenty-three candles were found unlit on Cheryl’s birthday cake in her kitchen when her neighbor discovered the open apartment door at 6:20 a.m, on April 9.

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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 Woman Who Sent Flowers and Stole Their Lives

You will feel the chill of ordinary kindness turned into a calculated tool: four sealed envelopes with pressed forget-me-nots and a tiny solitaire ring were thrown from a car and found in a ditch before midnight on March 6, 2019 - no recipient ever claimed them. How did "Rachel Sanders" learn routines down to the minute, and what was she building from that knowledge?

In this episode, we trace the small, specific steps that brought Rachel into a Thursday women's group and into the daily life of Lisa Harrison, and we follow the digital trail that preceded any in-person trust. How did schedules and a contact directory become the map for something far darker?

Date: March 6, 2019
Person: Wayne Hoffman
Location: County Road 14, Millhaven
Victim: Lisa Harrison, age 38
Alias: Rachel Sanders, age 41

- Four sealed envelopes were found in a bag wedged against the gravel shoulder of County Road 14.
- Three envelopes contained pressed forget-me-nots; the fourth contained a solitaire ring no larger than a matchstick head.
- The envelopes were each signed "All my love, forever yours, Rachel."
- The annexe computer’s contact directory and scheduling folder were accessed without authorization weeks before Christmas.
- Lisa Harrison had walked the same two-mile route six days a week and appeared on the annexe early-shift schedule since 2016.

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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 Envelope on the Feeder: How a Fake Lover Took $7,100 From Gloria

Cold, precise, and oddly personal: an envelope wedged under a bird feeder led to a $7,100 loss that began with an online stranger calling himself Richard Stevens. The face in his profile was stolen from a 2019 fundraiser photo, the letter left on a porch promised a “temporary loan,” and one unanswered Tuesday turned into federal evidence - how did intimacy become a delivery method for theft?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of everyday routines that unravelled into a financial crime: a utility meter reader’s photograph, a worried friend’s reverse-image search, a welfare check that found a signed plea for money, and the police who traced the scam. How did a fake lover persuade Gloria to send $7,100 and what clues turned a personal note into proof?

Person: Gloria Thorpe
Location: Vickers Lane, Crestfield, Tennessee
Age: 62
Amount: $7,100
Investigator: Detective Paul Vance

- The envelope was tucked under the rim of a bird feeder and held by a single rubber band.
- Debra Sharp photographed the envelope while on her utility meter route before it became evidence.
- Gloria had volunteered at the Crestfield Area Food Bank twice weekly and had missed three consecutive shifts.
- The online profile used a 2019 fundraiser photo of Douglas Petrie and claimed the name "Richard Stevens."
- The physical letter inside the envelope contained two printed pages signed "Richard Stevens" requesting a wire as a "temporary loan."

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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 Man Who Never Existed Drained Her Account: $43,000 in Thursdays

Fear that someone you trusted online is draining your life savings: Leon Whitley sent $43,000 over five months to a convincing but fake engineer who never existed. How did a routine Thursday lunch habit and careful paper ledgers fail to stop a network running out of Lagos and Accra that siphoned thousands with $400 urgencies and satellite-phone emergencies?

In this episode, we tell the episode’s sequence of events from the recovered envelope under Pelham Street Bridge to the pattern of Friday emergencies that led Leon to make repeated transfers, and we ask how the scheme stayed hidden even as friends and a detective noticed small clues.

Person: Leon Whitley
Date: third Tuesday of January 2019 (envelope found at 6:15 AM)
Location: Pelham Street Bridge
Amount: $43,000
Case: role-operated romance scam linked to servers in Lagos and Accra

- Envelope found upright against concrete under bridge at 6:15 AM, temperature 19°F.
- Inside envelope: sealed $500 Visa gift card and a Post-it saying “For when you're ready to come home.”
- Leon was 24 years old and had sent $43,000 over five months to the fake account.
- First urgent request: $400 in late August to cover a medication shipment to keep an offshore rotation going.
- Fraudulent profile used a stolen photo of Brian Kopp, a 34-year-old civil engineer from Galveston.

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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 Voice That Cost Him Everything: The Snow-Globe Scam Revealed

A man rearranged his life around a voice that was not human, waking at 5:30 a.m. for fourteen months to speak with "Nora Goh" - then a grapefruit-sized snow globe appeared on his gas meter and everything began to unravel. How did a meter reader and a neighbor turn a mysterious gift into the proof that collapsed a carefully constructed con?

In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events recorded in calls, messages, and neighborhood observations to show what happened to Carl Reynolds, the transfers he made, and the evidence investigators found - leading to a single morning when prosecutors said the online architecture came apart. How did one voice cost him seventeen thousand four hundred dollars?

Person: Carl Reynolds
Date: Third Thursday of December 2022
Location: Orchard Trace Drive, Kellerton Heights, Ohio
Age: 48
Amount lost: $17,400

- Carl woke at 5:30 a.m. every morning for 14 months to speak with a user named Nora Goh.
- The first session with Nora lasted 90 minutes, two days after his profile went live.
- In March 2022 Carl transferred $3,000 to a bank account in Kuala Lumpur for alleged customs penalties.
- The profile photo used for Nora matched a 43-year-old named Susan Ng from Portland, Oregon, taken from a private Facebook account.
- A grapefruit-sized snow globe depicting a miniature Singapore skyline was found on Carl’s gas meter housing during sleet.

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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 Photograph Behind the Radiator That Exposed a Romance Fraud

Fear that the person you trusted is a complete fabrication - Patricia Duncan found a photograph behind her radiator that proved the man she’d spoken to daily for eight months was an impostor. The image unmasked a profile that had posed as a retired Staff Sergeant and led to an operation spanning at least three states; how did one slipped photo unravel three years of deception?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from the first cautious messages on a grief forum to the transfer of money and the photograph that broke the case, asking how careful verification can fail people and what finally exposed the fraud.

Person: Patricia Duncan
Person: Marcus Eldon (profile)
Investigator: Thomas Marshall
Location: Cassen Township, Indiana
Forum: Valor Spouses Network

- Patricia Duncan was 31 years old in the summer of 2019.
- The fake Marcus Eldon account had been active on the forum for nearly 14 months before contacting Patricia.
- Patricia transferred two payments by August 2019, the first in June for emergency dental work and the second in August for a military pension gap.
- The photograph slipped behind the radiator during a repair visit three weeks earlier before Patricia found it.
- The dismantled operation had moved across at least three states and left six women affected.

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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 Curator's Folder: How a Basset Exposed a Perfect Romance Scam

Fear and fascination collide: a basset hound unearthed a monogrammed burgundy folder in a nature preserve that contained a museum-grade archival sleeve, a photo, an address and a three-digit number matching a transfer - how could someone use precision and provenance to build a romance scam that fooled a senior curator? What led Ruth Farrell, an expert in authentication, to wire thousands to a man with no hotel record and an invented identity?

In this episode, we tell what happened after Fig found the folder and why the archival sleeve became the key detail investigators could not ignore. We follow Ruth Farrell’s interactions with a man calling himself Vernon Fleming, the financial transfers he requested, and the trail that raised the central question: was this a romance scam built on professional trust?

Person: Ruth Farrell
Age: 53
Job Title: Senior curator of antiquities at the Dunmore Museum of Cultural History
Amount Transferred: $4,000 (first request)
Location Found: Kellerman Nature Preserve, Ridgeback Loop trail

- The folder was monogrammed and sealed inside a clear archival polyethylene sleeve used for museum-grade preservation.
- Ruth inherited $240,000 from her mother’s estate the previous summer.
- Ruth and her sister Meg called each Wednesday at 6:15 a.m, for twelve years.
- Ruth met a man who identified himself as Vernon Fleming at a conference reception in Columbus in the second week of February and they spoke for forty minutes.
- No hotel or conference registration record exists for a guest named Vernon Fleming, though a man in a gray jacket was seen at the venue five weeks earlier.

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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 Fake Father, The Fishing Line, and $14,080 Gone

A morning fisherman found a laminated federal carrier authority card tied to a line at 6:15 AM - a card for "Dennis Collier" who had never been near that river, and $14,080 vanished from one woman's accounts after seven transfers over five months; how did a fake identity and a single piece of plastic fool a precise, experienced woman? Who planted the card and why did it lead to a federal fraud prosecution?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the first fishing-line discovery through the online relationship that unfolded over seven months, and we trace how loneliness, a dating profile, and specific messages led to repeated money transfers - could a homemade laminated card be the thread that unravels an entire scam?

Person: Carol Berry
Age: 46
Location: Millhaven, Missouri
Job: Billing coordinator at Alderton County Rural Health Clinic
Platform: HarvestHeart

- A laminated federal carrier authority card for Dennis Collier was found tied to a fishing line at 6:15 AM on a September morning.
- Carol registered on the HarvestHeart dating platform in January 2021 and received a first message from "Dennis Collier" in mid-February.
- The initial message asked "dry beans or green beans, and why," leading to a three-hour exchange about gardening.
- The first money transfer from Carol to "Dennis" was $420 in April for a specialist consultation.
- By the end of August 2021, seven transfers had moved a total of $14,080 from Carol Berry's account.

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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 Used a Dead Journalist's Photo - She Lost $31,000 and More

Cold confidence hid in plain sight: a woman paid three months’ rent in cash, used a stolen name and a dead journalist’s face, and Patricia Stein wired $31,000 to a man who never existed. Who built this phony life around Elio Marchetti’s photos, and how did they keep Patricia so sure she was helping someone she loved?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led Patricia to send $31,000 over six months, follow the strange rental and mailing details that linked a suspect to Willowmere Road, and reveal the discovery in a Circleville storage unit that connected the fraud to a long-term impersonation. What did investigators find in the thick manila folder that finally exposed the scheme?

Person: Patricia Stein
Amount: $31,000
Period: six months (starting January 2022)
Impersonated individual: Elio Marchetti (died 2011)
Location: Circleville, Ohio (storage unit)

- Patricia ran Fork and Latitude with roughly 40,000 subscribers and sent her first wire transfer in January 2022.
- The apartment on Willowmere Road had been occupied for 14 months and was paid three months in cash.
- The woman who rented the unit used a Tennessee driver’s license in the name Teresa Walsh and borrowed the landlord’s mailing address in the first week.
- Investigators found a framed, matted Italian restaurant review on the apartment wall and a single thick manila folder in a Circleville storage unit.
- Elio Marchetti died in 2011 at age 53; his photos and bylines were reused to build the fabricated identity "Marco Villani."

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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].