An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor embraced modern technology, using a dating app to find love. Unfortunately, he hooked up with a 36-year-old Florida con artist who milked the man for $2.8 million over a five-year period, CNN reports.
Calling herself “Alice,” Peaches Stergo met the unidentified victim, then a Manhattan resident, about seven years ago. In 2017, she asked him for a sizable amount of money to pay for a lawyer to get a settlement she said she was due; in fact, there was no settlement and she kept the money. She then created a stream of fake invoices, collection statements, correspondence and other material to convince the victim that she needed a $50,000 monthly allowance. She also set up a fake email account and impersonated a bank employee to convince the victim that he would be repaid the cash he thought were going to help “Alice” out of financial scraps.
Instead, Stergo used the money to buy a house in a gated community in Florida, a condo, a boat, and numerous cars including a Corvette. The victim ultimately told his son that he had no savings remaining, telling the son that “Alice” was going to repay him. The son called the police. Federal officials say more than half a billion dollars were lost in 2021 to romance app scammers.