When Meeting a Nice Couple Goes Completely Wrong

Who are some more of the most heartless scammers? Lets get right to it with: 3 - The Doctored..Doctor Anthony Flores and Anna Moore preyed upon a mentally ill Malibu doctor, pumping him full of mind altering substances so they could defraud him of millions- right up until he passed away. Dr. Mark Sawusch had an estate worth $60 million and, sadly, had gradually lost the ability to care

mental rehabilitation center when he met hairdresser Anthony Flores and aspiring actress Anna Moore at an ice cream parlor in June 2017. Sawusch chatted with the couple and invited them to his beachfront home so they could see the sunset. There mustve been a pretty fast connection since Sawusch also handed them the keys to his Tesla that night so they could drive it for their weekend trip to

Yosemite National Park. Sawusch had been to jail multiple times for violent outbursts during manic episodes. Less than a month after meeting the couple, he was imprisoned again on a battery charge. Sawusch was jailed that night and underwent six days of psychiatric care before he contacted his new friends, Flores and Moore, to bring him home. Friendship Sawuschs friendship with Moore and Flores, as you might expect, was

tumultuous. The couple had moved in with him early on, but after three weeks, Sawusch called the police to escort them out. Samusch then texted a friend saying that the pair were tax fraud criminals that tried to steal his Tesla and home. But Sawuschs legal troubles continued, and he was arrested and detained in an LA county jail after another severe mental breakdown not long after. Flores convinced

the doctor to grant him power of attorney so he could withdraw enough money from Sawuschs accounts to post bail and help him get his life on track. Sawusch was so excited and grateful for his freedom that he invited the couple to move back in with him. With all of Sawuschs accounts now at their disposal, the couple hired 20 housekeepers and other staff, including six massage therapists,

and moved millions of dollars into their personal bank accounts. They transferred $3 million to themselves, which they used to fund their new lifestyle of buying luxury items and hiring staff to work on their business ventures. And it didnt stop there. Taking Advantage Flores and Moore then alienated Sawusch from his family and friends. At one point, they even convinced Sawuschs family that the doctor was missing and

said they needed $4,682.72 for their expenses and the time they spent looking for him. While the pair enjoyed the high life, they arranged weekly ketamine injections to treat Sawuschs depression, something the technicians tried to fight. Flores and Moore also gave him other recreational substances, including hallucinogens. Additionally, they made Sawusch have 12 hours of massage treatments a day. During one of his last ketamine treatments, Sawusch had

a breakdown where he talked to himself, laughed, and forcefully pressed against his ears and eyes. A few days later, Flores gave the suffering doctor another popular hallucinogen, changed the two-factor authentication feature on Sawuschs brokerage account, and withdrew another $2 million. Sawusch ended up having another episode and kicked the couple out again. This time, Flores and Moore went to a luxury hotel, where they watched Sawuschs rapid

deterioration on video cameras that were installed throughout the beach house. Although the doctor was suffering another mental health crisis, the pair didnt call the police until the massage therapists found him unresponsive. Aftermath With Sawusch out of the picture, Flores and Moore moved back into his home and withdrew even more money from his accounts. They claimed the doctor wanted them to have his home and a third

of his estate. However, the victims family filed a lawsuit against the couple that uncovered their scheme. Flores and Moore were arrested and charged with 12 counts. They face a maximum of 40 years for wire and mail fraud, 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering and laundering of monetary instruments, ten years for transactional money laundering, and a mandatory two-year prison sentence for aggravated identity theft. 2

- Fattening Up Not all romance scams are completely about romance. This one falls somewhere in the sphere of friendship, romance, and just loneliness. A 52-year-old man who wanted to go by the alias Cy fell in love with a supposed woman named Jessica he met on WhatsApp. She conned him out of over a million bucks, money that he needed for his wife and kids. Jessica randomly WhatsApp

messaged Cy one day, claiming shed found his number in her phone contacts and wondered if they were old colleagues. Cy responded, saying he didnt remember her, but she was engaging enough that they kept talking. Their conversations were originally about things like the food they liked, but progressed to more serious stuff like Cys struggle to support his family and how the decision to send his father to

hospice care haunted him. Butchering Two months into their relationship, Cy was so called pig-butchered, a term that refers to the long-game financial cons where scammers would fatten up their targets to take everything they have in the end. Much like a butcher would with livestock. They convince their targets to invest increasingly large sums because they believe the wins theyre shown means they should invest more money. Once

theyre all in, thats when the butchering takes place. In this specific case, the crypto trading platforms look real, making victims believe theyre legit and getting them excited about investing. When targets think theyre about to make a massive return on their investment, the platform, the money, and the scammer disappears. Victims lose massive amounts of money, and these scams are so lucrative that theyve become increasingly common all

over.Many of the scammers are victims themselves, having been lured to countries like Southeast Asia thinking theyre getting a better-paying job. When job-seekers arrive, the scammers take their new employees passports and cell phones and threaten them with violence if they dont comply. Cy was one of many victims to fall prey to this type of scam, and between October and December 2021, he lost his life savings. Greed?

The entire relationship played out through a WhatsApp conversation. Cy shared his concerns over his finances, and Jessica seemed to have the perfect solution. She claimed she was making boatloads of cash by trading on MetaTrader, an app he could download from the App Store. Jessica said she had insider trading tips from her uncle in Hong Kong, and since Cys parents were from Hong Kong, he trusted her

advice. Jessica guided Cy through a simulation on the app, during which he lost money. She told him not to worry and that he would quickly make it all back and more. Following Jessica's advice, Cy ran another simulated trade the next day and appeared to make $28,000. She encouraged him to invest the minimum amount, $10,000, reminding him that the profits could help fix a lot of his

financial worries. Cy thought about it overnight and texted her the next day, offering to put up $5,000 if she put up $5,000 too. Of course, Jessica refused, saying that Cy would have no reason to work to make it back if she just gave him the money. After some back and forth, Cy wired $10,000 to Coinbase. Simulations A few days passed, and Cy confided to Jessica that

he was meeting with doctors to make decisions about the end of his fathers life. He spoke about feeling like an outsider and that his role in the family was to support everyone financially. Jessica used the conversation to reinforce that Cy needed to make more money. She had him move money from his Coinbase account to Crypto.com and buy $10,000 of Ethereum. After claiming her uncle texted her

with insider trading information, she guided Cy through executing a trade. He sent her screenshots, and she replied with further instructions. Cy didnt fully understand what he was doing, but he appeared to have doubled his money after the trade. He was hooked and couldnt wait to make more profits. He invested a further $50k and couldnt believe his luck as he watched his money grow. Sadly, the numbers

he was watching climb were fake and created as part of a loophole in MetaTraders setup. MetaTrader IS a real app that enables legitimate trades with actual brokerages by offering licenses for its software. But it also allows licensees to use Virtual Dealer, a plug-in that scammers can use to manipulate numbers, making people like Cy believe theyre making money when they arent. Liquidated Now that Cy was completely

onboard, Jessica teased him with news of a big opportunity coming up and that he would make a huge profit if he could pull the cash together. Cy immediately liquidated some of his stock, selling $128,000 from his mutual fund portfolio. He bought more crypto with the proceeds, which he transferred to the crypto address that Jessica gave him. He changed the subject from investments in their WhatsApp group

to sharing his grief over his fathers imminent passing. Jessica expressed concern but really wanted to know if Cy would be at the hospital for the next few days because hed be inaccessible. Hours later, Jessica messaged him with urgent financial advice, pushing him to sell more stock. Cy reminded her he was mourning his father and not really in the mood to deal with this right now. Jessica

told him his father wanted him to be better. As Jessica prodded him to invest more funds, Cy secretly sold family assets and thought hed made a $90,000 profit, which would be a 40% return. The Big Trade Cy had to prepare for the big market trade that Jessica hinted about and withdrew $200,000 from his home equity line of credit. By that point, hed invested $440,000 of his

own money, but it seemed worth it when he watched his investment grow to $2.2 million. When the critical trade occurred though, his balance changed to negative $480,000. He messaged Jessica, who very curtly explained that he hadnt initially invested enough to turn the profit. Jessica said she could bring him back if he raised more funds. So Cy liquidated more of his assets and planned to raise another

$150k at his fathers funeral by secretly asking around. Cy raised and invested an additional $600,000 and watched his money grow to $1.1 million. Once he reached $1.8 million, Jessica said shed finally teach him how to withdraw the money. Aftermath But the next day, Cys MetaTrader showed another negative balance. Jessica explained that he needed more money to compensate for the losses, but Cy was pretty much tapped

out. He had invested and lost his parents money, his daughters tuition, and forced his wife to work twice as hard to support the family. With his life in complete shambles after losing over a million dollars, Cy became suicidal. He sent Jessica a picture of himself in an ambulance on the way to a psych ward. She still told him it would be a sign of incompetence to

hurt himself, and that she couldnt do anything nor would do anything for him. Devastated, Cy begged Jessica for his money back, all the while cursing her out and wishing her family bad health for ruining his life. He did his best to escape financial ruin, and a family member set up a GoFundMe, although it only raised a fraction of his losses. In his last message to her,

Cy offered to help if Jessica had been trafficked. While he didnt have the money to save her, he knew people who could help if she was working scams against her will. She never responded. Before we get to the last story, if youre enjoying this video, be sure to stay tuned for how this wedding planner ruthlessly scammed couples on their big day! 1 - Gone again Warehouse

worker Dave Hazel had sent 15,000 pounds to his online girlfriend. Except he later discovered he was talking to an African fraudster. Hazel had met Canadian Linda Smith on an online dating site in 2012. Despite only speaking through messages, the relationship developed quickly. Before long, Linda started sending Hazel frequent requests for money, which became more extreme as the relationship progressed. Hazel was convinced Linda was going to

move from Canada to the UK to be with him. Having emptied all his savings for her, Hazel confronted Linda about the matter, but she disappeared from the internet. They spoke daily, but most interactions were through texts or online messages. Hed been desperate for a video call, but she refused. When they did speak on the phone, Linda seemed to have more of an English accent than a

Canadian one. But Hazel fell hard for Linda and desperately wanted to start a family with her when she got to the UK. Visa Funding Moving countries isnt easy, so Linda asked Hazel for money for a Visa, which cost 500 pounds. He wired her the money and two weeks later sent her an additional 500 pounds for a medical check. The requests kept coming until Hazeld spent over

15,000, thinking he was covering flights, visa complications, and more moving expenses. When Linda finally sent Hazel proof of the tickets, he saw she was flying from Ghana. Linda said shed been visiting the country, but then Hazel got a call from Ghanaian immigration to say theyd detained her for possessing a large amount of money. His local bank confirmed that, based on the evidence of where he was

sending the money, he was the victim of a scam. Since Hazel had voluntarily sent the funds and there was no way for authorities to trace them, there was no way to get his money back. Shes probably the worst wedding planner anyone could refer to a friend, since she scammed thousands from over 20 couples! But is she worse than the girl who sold expensive vacations to exotic

destinations to her friends and family?! 4 - The Wedding Scammer Dana Twidale Jason and Nicky Asquith-Thorpe had every reason to look forward to their big day. Then, it was almost ruined by a fake wedding planner named Dana Twidale. The couple was taken in by her ads on social media, showing past successes in rich detail. When they talked with her, they were promised a venue, decorations, food,

and even a ""memory ladder"" for photos of those who couldn't make it but should have. The smorgasbord offering made the 2,800 fee seem cheap compared to what they would pay more prominent planners. But 2,800 is WAY too much to pay for nothing. Jason and Nicky were in trouble when they arrived at an address given to them by Twidale. It was supposed to be the pub that

would host their reception. Instead, it was just a large empty field. They tried to contact Twidale, but she ghosted them. The couple ended up laying down an additional 5,600 to save their wedding, effectively canceling their planned honeymoon. Past Scamming The couple went on the radio to voice their woes and learned they weren't alone. All told, 24 other couples came forward with something to say about Twidale.

They had all been hooked the same way as Jason and Nicky. A reputable wedding company later came forward and said that Twidale owed many of her early successes to outsourcing, an accusation that made all too much sense in context. Twidale fled to nearby Benidorm as too many people caught on to her scam. This finding was mostly due to her constant posting on social media, including photos

of herself soaking up the sun. When authorities made a possible match, they needed some help to be sure they had the right woman. That help came from Twindale's estranged husband, Carl. He loaned Dana around 4,000 and never saw a dime of it back, and he was neither the first nor the last. When he came out publicly and asked her to sign divorce forms and move on,

he got more than he bargained for. Twidale's angry clients came out of the woodwork, with some even threatening him, despite him having no idea about her scamming during their separation. Authorities contacted him, and he identified Dana to help haul her in. Nightmare Wedding When Twidale was initially arrested in July of 2021, her case amounted to roughly 15,000 that she was found to have bilked from would-be

clients. It didn't take long for Twidale to plead guilty, and the judge handed down a five-year sentence. Authorities made a couple of nasty discoveries when trying to arrange reparations for victims. Twidale exceeded the previously reached figure, wringing around 60,000 from victims between 2017 and 2019, and she had already spent the vast majority of it. With about 600 in a frozen bank account and no home or

car to levy and sell, the impossible task of repaying her victims began. 3 - The Fake Kidnapping Frantic Call In 2020, a woman and her husband in Mexico got busted faking the woman's kidnapping to wring ransom money out of her mother. In the middle of the night on May 4th, 2020, Martha Elizabeth and Juan Samuel placed a frantic call to her mother, Elizabeth Eduviges. They told

her that her daughter had wound up in the hands of kidnappers in the town of Pesqueira. The initial call included a quoted ransom amounting to roughly $899, to be paid as 25,000 Mexican pesos. That call went a bit off the rails compared to how movies may portray ransom calls. By the end, Eduviges reported that she couldnt hear her daughter's kidnappers but she heard her son-in-law in

the background instead. According to Eduviges, her daughter and son-in-law were the only ones she heard on the call. Samuel claimed that the kidnappers were hurting Elizabeth. More than a little freaked out, Eduviges scraped together about $449 and threw it into the account she was given. This was about 10,000 pesos, less than half of what she was initially asked to pay. Any parent wanting to keep their

child safe would obviously spare no expense. This cash was all she had on hand. Aftermath Not paying the ransom in full came with predictable results. Samuel called back and upped the ante, saying that the kidnappers were now looking for about $1,120. This sum was absolutely out of her reach, so her next move was equally predictable. Four days later, she went to the cops. In practically no

time, Sonora state authorities tracked the "kidnapped" couple to a hotel room in Hermosillo. The pair confessed and ended up jailed for aggravated extortion. 2 - The Vacation Planner Jessica Greatorex-Thomas Scammer Jessica Greatorex-Thomas posed as a travel agent and scammed several people in her own inner circle. But she ended up with nothing but a lengthy suspended sentence to show for her troubles. Her scam hit four different

victims, promising them trips to destinations like Venice, the Maldives, and Disney World. All told, she raked in around 70,000 thousand pounds, which she ended up paying back. Thomas is a military wife and mother, married to active duty serviceman James Thomas, a detail that played a big part in how her scam story ended. Hailing from Saffron Walden in Essex, she lived on a military base with her

husband and kids while running her scam. After it all went down, her husband ended up deployed to Germany, leaving Thomas and the kids safely in the UK as of this writing. She put her crooked plans into action in 2016, saying she worked for a travel company and got an incredible deal on a vacation package for her family. The travel company changed over time, with Emirates and

Virgin Atlantic being the two most prominent and well-used. She bragged to whoever would listen, and when neighbor Katie Taylor-Reilly paid attention, the scam finally began. Biggest Client Thomas's interactions with Reilly were always friendly, so the fellow army wife had no reason to be suspicious when Thomas offered to act as the middleman for Reilly's holiday plans. Instead of paying the travel company, Reilly gave Thomas the money.

Over time, this amounted to 48,000, making her Thomas's most prominent victim. Reilly's mother recently had a near-miss with cancer, awakening Reilly to her own mortality. She was more than willing to splash on experiences and lasting memories, making her the perfect prey. The first trip on the list was to Venice. But when the time came, Thomas lied about trouble at work. Reilly ended up hand-waving the whole

incident and rebooking for next year on Thomas's recommendation. To add insult to injury, she was even convinced at this point to throw her aunt and uncle into the mix, booking them imaginary tickets to Venice with the rest of her family. All seemed fine, but the next trip brought it all crashing down. Reilly and her kids were excited to go to Disney World for a chance to

ride Space Mountain and hug a giant mouse. However, Thomas had terrible news for them; she had lost her job, canceling many of the holidays booked with her employee discount. The news crushed Reilly and her family, but Thomas promised a refund was on its way. Thomas also lied about a dying aunt she had to take care of. After the Disney debacle, Reilly wanted to speak with Thomas's

superiors. But when the scammer told her that couldn't happen, Reilly called Emirates herself. There were never any trips... Thomas never even worked there. Aftermath The jig was officially up. Thomas was caught, and Chelmsford Crown Court hosted a quick trial in May 2020. While she had committed three other frauds, her go at Reilly was the most significant and the only one that the courts could definitely prove.

As such, the 48,000 affair got the spotlight. After obtaining a confession, Judge Jonathan Seely sentenced Thomas to concurrent terms totaling 20 months in jail and 120 hours of unpaid labor at the court. By then, she'd already begun paying back her victims. The court just made sure she kept it up. Seely showed special mercy in this case. He ordered Thomas's sentence to be suspended, meaning it could

be served at home. According to the judge, the only reason for this was her husband's deployment in Germany. How could he care for the kids if Thomas was in jail? The suspended sentence allowed the fraudster to stay home with her children during her husband's tour of duty. 1 - The Scamming Son Unsuspecting An anonymous man out of Melbourne, Australia, was accused of stealing from his sick

mother! She was too ill to manage her own money, so he decided to just take it from her. This worst son of Melbourne scammed his own mom from 2014 to 2018, ultimately stealing north of $1.1 million. He emptied her bank accounts and charged $150,000 on her debit card. Sadly, this bold breach of trust is pretty standard across the globe. What makes this one unique, however, is

that most cases are perpetrated by people with some legitimate claim to power over the finances they're ravaging. Power of attorney for a dying or ailing relative is among the most common scenarios, but no such thing happened here. Instead, the scammy son helped himself to his mother's millions. Public Trustee Like others in other regions, Queensland's Public Trustee is tasked with watching over financial dealings and reporting anything

suspicious to local police. In January of 2021, the game was on. The investigation followed the usual course and reached its conclusion in June of 2022. Police moved in at dawn and raided the son's home. They found enough incriminating documents to arrest the worst son in Melbourne. Click to watch one of these next videos! Let us know in the comment section what you think is an easier

scam to fall for, a romance scam on a dating app OR a text message phishing scam posing as a bank you actually use!