She was looking for love online, months after her husband died and thought she’d found it with a man who claimed to be an Army major general named Wayne Jackson.
“I was grieving, and I was lonely, and I wanted someone to share my life with,” she told ABC. “He was romancing me. He told me he was a widower and he lost his wife in an automobile accident. He would say things like, ‘We’re going to live together. We’re going to be happy together. You’re the woman of my dreams. Things that a woman who is hurting for attention and love would want to hear.”The object of her infatuation presented himself as a military man who had only given in to online dating after insistence from his pleading sister.
Soon “Wayne” began asking for money – first, a few hundred dollars to help his son, then thousands to launch a business, one he said the two of them would share and run together.
Esther complied, sending money all over the world, she told ABC.
She cleaned out her personal savings, her husband’s life insurance and 401K. When she ran out of cash, she took out loans.
It wasn’t until Esther sent her online companion money for a plane ticket to come see her in Castle Rock, Colo., and he never showed up, that she realized she was the victim of a scam.
“I could just kick myself,” she said, leafing through a stack of wire transfer receipts.
Castle Rock police Lt. Tim Gormon says Ortiz-Rodeghero’s story isn’t an isolated case, and warned online daters to be cautious of so-called “sweetheart scammers.”
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