When Simon’s wife of 43 years died, the loss left him struggling with a loneliness he had never known. She was part of an online scam, and over the next few months, Simon lost $800,000 from his retirement savings. Simon was left with $185,000 in borrowed money to repay and tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes on funds he had withdrawn and subsequently lost, according to an investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE.
He reported the crime to local police and the FBI, but said he received little meaningful help. Like many widows and widowers, he eventually turned online, hoping to find some companionship. Instead, he found Emily. The woman seemed real. The conversations continued and a relationship began to take shape. But Emily did not exist as Simon believed she did. The money was devastating enough. What followed made matters worse. Then came another scammer. This time, someone contacted Simon claiming they could connect him with the Secret Service and help recover his stolen money, for an additional fee.
Because he remains too ashamed to tell most of his family what happened, he has asked that his full name not be published. That sense of shame is common among victims and it can make an already devastating experience even harder to escape.
The investigation found that this pattern, victims being targeted again by people promising to recover their money, is not unusual. For Simon, the search for companionship began with grief and ended with the loss of a lifetime of savings. What makes his story especially troubling is that the person who deceived him was thousands of miles away, yet the consequences followed him home. And even after the scam was exposed, the money was still gone.