Liza Jane Likins had no concept {that a} easy replace to her social media profile following the dying of her husband of 23 years would change her life endlessly.
Likins, a backup singer who toured with Fleetwood Mac and Linda Ronstadt, fell sufferer to a Nigerian on-line romance scammer and was conned out of greater than $1 million in money and crypto funds.
Over the course of two years, Likins grew to become concerned with a “very complicated scam” by a person who claimed to be an Australian gold miner and who wooed her over the Web with stolen images of a German life coach.
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Liza Likins, Stevie Nicks’ roommate and former backup singer, was conned out of greater than $1 million by a Nigerian scammer. (Liza Jane Likins)
“I had nothing left. I sold my house,” Likins solely informed Fox Information Digital. “This scammer wanted me to sell my car, but fortunately that was when I saw the ‘Social Catfish’ show, so I didn’t sell my car.
“I wished to kill myself at first, as a result of my husband left me in excellent form, and after two years with this scammer, I did not have something left however my automobile and my garments and I simply wished to finish my life. I did not know what I used to be going to do.”
Likins added, “I did not have cash for meals. I did not have cash to pay my utilities. My electrical energy was turned off twice. I misplaced 40 kilos. I bought Covid. I did not have cash for a health care provider. I imply, I used to be actually, actually in serious trouble.”
Her problem with the scammer began immediately after one small change to her social media account.
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“When my husband handed away, on my Fb profile, I put in there that … I used to be now a widow. Large mistake,” Likins said. “That is like placing an indication on your self that claims rip-off bait. That is how it began.”
Likins sang for years with Linda Ronstadt (right) and was roommates with Stevie Nicks (left). (Liza Likins)
Likins recalled the scammer being a “good gentleman” in their initial online conversations, and said that despite her not being interested in anything romantic just yet, he would write to her “day-after-day for six months.”
“When my husband handed away, on my Fb profile, I put in there that … I used to be now a widow. Large mistake. That is like placing an indication on your self that claims rip-off bait.”
“Sooner or later he despatched me footage, and every image had an advanced, convoluted story that went with it,” she remembered. “All of the images had been stolen off of the German life coach public web site on Fb. Sooner or later, he despatched me an image of him, supposedly, subsequent to a statue of Buddha, and that did it once I bought that image. I assumed, ‘OK, this particular person could be all proper.'”
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Likins had no idea that the web of lies had already begun. She was told that her online suitor was the director of a gold mine, and he was currently in the Australian outback with a team of 20 men on his last job before retirement.
He was running out of time on the expedition, and was already $8,000 in the hole. To make matters worse, if they wanted to communicate, she’d have to send him $1,000 and cryptocurrency so he could purchase the proper Wi-Fi to use his phone so they could stay in contact while he was working in Australia.
Likins claimed they spoke via Facetime through a “very refined” method using audio equipment matched with video components. When the video elements “stalled,” the scammer would say, “I can not hear you anymore, Let’s return to texting.”
Likins began speaking to a romantic suitor after changing her Facebook profile to “widow.” (Liza Likins)
Each request for money became more complicated and convoluted, but Likins was still hooked by the scammer, who showed off 24-karat gold bars and asked for her home address so he could securely send a safe packed with bundled $100 bills to her home.
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“I’ve a video of this purple helicopter lifting off,” Likins said of one extravagant scheme. “I checked out all of the specs, the deal with, the e-mail, the cellphone quantity, every thing checked out. They usually despatched me emails that they had been en path to ship this protected to my residence deal with.
“The scammer said if I would upgrade the logistics company shipping, I would have it in three days. So I did. That was the first really large sum of money.”
Nothing was ever delivered to her residence.
“I went to the airport four different times to pick this person up, because he would send me pictures of his name on a boarding pass arriving at a certain day and time,” Likins stated. “I would go to the airport, and of course … that flight did not exist, and neither did he.”
“Social Catfish” tv present helped her understand she was being scammed. (Liza Likins)
The rip-off was over by chance when Likins tuned right into a tv present referred to as “Social Catfish.” She “went into shock” inside minutes of this system after watching a narrative just like her personal play out on TV, and wrote to the producers asking to get in contact.
By way of analysis, “Social Catfish” (an organization which verifies on-line identities by way of AI reverse search expertise) found the scammer’s actual id.
“I would go to the airport, and of course, . . . that flight did not exist and neither did he.”
Regardless of dropping every thing, Likins discovered power in an unlikely particular person and bought in touch with the true particular person within the pictures she had been despatched by the scammer.
“As it turns out, the reason there was a picture of him with Buddha is because he is a German spiritual and business life coach,” Likins stated. “He is like Germany’s model of Tony Robbins.“
She added, “He started doing everything he could do to advise me on how to heal myself and reminding me to love myself and to forgive myself and to keep living. And that what I had to do was tell my story to help other people so that other people like me don’t get scammed.”
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