Calgary woman swindled out of nearly $500K in online dating scam
CBC
His online dating profile included a handsome looking photo and an uncomplicated life.
He was from Calgary. He was 62. He was divorced with no kids. Christian. He had an advanced degree.
And he was a romantic at heart.
"He basically said, 'I want to rush to where you are at the end of the day,'" said Shelley Smith, 60.
CBC News has agreed not to use the woman's real name because she is ashamed of having fallen prey to a romance scam that left her near financial ruin, at one point shunned by her family and feeling suicidal.
Calgary police are now investigating. Its blockchain investigative team is working with Europol and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre to trace the source of the fraud. Police are also encouraging other victims to come forward.
Smith says as hard as it is to come forward, that's the only way these scams will stop.
"It's easy to look at people and go, 'How stupid could she be?' But it's not that. It's that people are in a place in their life where they're so vulnerable that they fall victim to something like this," said Smith.
Smith says looking back she realizes she was not in the best state of mind to initiate a relationship in September 2021. Her sole sibling, a brother, had recently passed away. Her father fell ill and died within weeks. Her mother was recently diagnosed with dementia, and Smith says she had her own health issues.
"I was probably the most vulnerable that I've ever been in my entire life," said Smith.
But she says the man she met online through the dating app was there for her.
Carl Pettersson (not his real name) texted and talked with her constantly.
But attempts to meet in person were always thwarted before he said he had to leave the country. He'd told her he was an architect and was going to build a luxury hotel in Turkey starting in December 2021.
But when Pettersson landed there, he said his laptop had broken and he needed her to access his bank account to transfer money to different contractors. And, by doing so, she could see his bank balance. It was more than $1 million — allowing her to believe he was rich.
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