Ottawa woman victimized by both romance scam and money recovery scheme

Article content

A 62-year-old Ottawa woman is out almost $50,000 after falling victim to a romance scam and then another, related fraud as she sought to recover her initial losses.

Lise Frappier says the scams have wiped out her life savings and left her more than $13,000 in debt to her sister and a friend.

“I’m disappointed in myself,” said Frappier, who lives on Ontario Disability Support Program payments. “I’m disappointed because I kept going on with it. I’m 62 and I’m still gullible.”

Article content

Born and raised in Sudbury, Frappier moved to Ottawa about 25 years ago after falling in love with the city during a visit. She worked at Hillary’s Dry Cleaners before her health deteriorated. She now suffers from depression, anxiety, degenerative disc disease and diabetes, and lives in an Ottawa Community Housing highrise near Billings Bridge.

Frappier has decided to share her story because she wants to warn other vulnerable people in Ottawa about the dangers of online fraudsters.

“This isn’t an easy thing for me,” Frappier says, “but I’m worried about other people going through this.”

The trouble began three years ago when Frappier received a friend request on Facebook from someone she didn’t recognize. She accepted the request, she says, because she thought “he might need somebody to talk to.”

The man said he worked for the U.S. military and had no friends or family. They corresponded for a time, and the man quickly professed his admiration and love for Frappier.

He phoned her, learned she lived alone and began to pressure her for money. He said he needed the money to travel to Ottawa to visit. He promised to pay her back.

Article content

She resisted the idea, but he pleaded, and, “He wore me down,” Frappier says.

Although she had her doubts, Frappier sent the man a series of gift cards. More requests for money followed, with varying explanations: an inability to access his bank accounts; the need to escape his work situation; medical issues. Always he promised to pay back her money.

The man taught Frappier how to open a Bitcoin wallet and to deposit money for him.

“I like to help people,” Frappier explains, “and I thought, ‘If he needs a bit of help, he needs to talk to somebody, he needs a bit of money, well, OK.’”

Eventually, Frappier recognized it as a scam. The man’s Facebook messages and phone calls stopped when she stopped sending him money.

Soon, though, Frappier received a new friend request from another man, Paul, who said he could help get her money back. Frappier was desperate to recover her lost funds, and Paul was able to convince her that he held her money and that she only had to open a new Bitcoin wallet with $5,000 in order for all of her money to be released.

When the $5,000 disappeared, Paul blamed Frappier for failing to protect her password.

Article content

“Stupid me, I kept going,” she says.

Frappier borrowed money from her sister and a friend to pursue new schemes to recover her lost money from people who purported to be from reputable firms. All of them were scams. She lost more than $20,000 in pursuit of the money she had already lost.

“They know how to get you,” she says.

Frappier was warned by her sister and by her bank that she was likely being defrauded, but she didn’t believe them until she had exhausted her savings: the product of a lump-sum disability support payment that settled an old claim.

“It has taken my freedom away,” she says of the fraud. “I can’t go anywhere, and I’m afraid to answer the phone.”

She continues to receive calls from people attempting to pursue new scams.

On its website, Facebook warns users about the various scams that are deployed on the social-media site, including romance scams.

“Scammers may send romantic messages to people they don’t know, often pretending to be divorced, widowed or in a bad marriage, claiming they are seeking a relationship,” Facebook warns. “They may claim they need money or your information to purchase a flight or apply for a visa. Because their goal is to first gain your trust, they may engage in conversations for weeks or months before they ask for money.”

Article content

Earlier this summer, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) also warned about scam artists who pretended to be working on behalf of the fraud centre or police.

“If you have been a victim of a fraud, you may be targeted again with a promise to get your money back,” the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre warned in July. “They will claim that a payment is required to assist with the investigation and will promise to return the funds, but they never will.”

The CAFC said neither it nor a police force would ask someone to transfer money or make a payment.

Andrew Duffy is a National Newspaper Award-winning reporter and long-form feature writer based in Ottawa. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

Article content