UPDATE

AS OF JANUARY 1, 2013 - POSTING ON THIS BLOG WILL NO LONGER BE 'DAILY'. SWITCHING TO 'OCCASIONAL' POSTING.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Conman uses Online Dating to Scam 15 women out of $360K

by Cheyenne Roundtree For Dailymail.com
A conman scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars out of 15 women after he posed as a billionaire businessman on big-name dating sites. John Edward Taylor stole up to $360,000 from several women across the United States after pretending to be a wealthy businessman and an oil tycoon, a FBI report claims. The 46-year-old allegedly would use dating sites such as eHarmony to trick women into relationships in order to steal their identities and gain access to their bank accounts.

John Edward Taylor, 46, scammed at least 15 women out hundreds of thousands of dollars, the FBI claims Taylor, who also went by Jay Taylor, was operating his scam for the past five years, according to the complaint filed in New York in June 2016, according to NBC New York.

When a woman - who Taylor charged $60,0000 to an American Express card in her name - confronted him, he threatened to send sexually explicit photos of the woman to her employer, the FBI said. Taylor allegedly wrote in a message: 'Have fun at [work]. I'm sending them all.' He had obtained his victim's social security number when he pretended that he wanted to order furniture for her so he could open a store credit account.

He would meet women from cities such as New York City and Atlanta through a host of online dating sites such as eHarmony, Match and Seeking Arrangement, the complaint stated. The conman would also trick his victims of their money by 'forgetting his wallet' at hotels or shelling out cash for expensive office rentals once they believed they were hired by him, NBC New York reported.

To another victim, Taylor allegedly said he was robbed at gunpoint and needed to use her credit card to buy things and spent $17,000.

Taylor was arrested at country club in Yardley, Pennsylvania and police believe he was living out of his car during the scams. He faces up to 30 years in prison for charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, and threatening interstate communications.