‘Now I know the truth’ says widow saw $1million drain from her account - even though she ignored scam for 4 months

A WIDOW had more than $1 million drained from her bank account after she thought she had found love again.

Liza Likins, from Las Vegas, Nevada, had been contacted by a man she thought was a gold miner in Australia who resembled her husband. 

Likins, whose husband died in 2020, had received Facebook messages from a man named “Donald” but ignored them for four months.

Despite this, she later entered into what she thought was a relationship for over two years but it turned out to be a scam, according to USA Today.

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"I fell in love with this person; deeply, deeply in love. It was almost 2 ½ years of this going on," she said.

The scammer had convinced Likins he was the man in the photos and told her he would join her in Las Vegas.

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Likins and the scammer started to talk several times a day and “Donald” had started to ask her for money.

Initially, he asked the widow for $1,000 to purchase Wi-Fi at the apparent rural gold mine he was working at so he could communicate with her.

Another lie from the fraudster was that he needed $140,000 for a logistics company and the widow said she believed him because the company existed when she googled it.

“Donald” also told the widow that he had ended up in a Spanish prison and needed $250,000 for bail money.

Likins sold her home and sent over the funds.

In total, the widow had sent over $1 million to “Donald” and he told her he was ready to move to Las Vegas in a few days.

Likins said this was the moment her money started to vanish.

“And that’s when all the big money and Bitcoin money started changing hands,” she said.

Likins shared why she believed the man despite never meeting him.

“There were pictures that went with every story. His story was bulletproof,” she said.

“I went to the airport four times to pick him up. I’ve still never met him,” she added.

She also explained that whenever they attempted to call the service would be patchy.

“This Donald guy had somebody else pretend it was him and rig the video and then they just press play every time they’re supposed to talk to you so that their mouth is moving...so you think it’s real,” she explained.

Likins said she discovered the truth after she watched a show by Social Catfish about women who had been conned out of money from supposed partners.

She reached out to Social Catfish and they told Likins her cryptocurrency payments had been tracked to Nigeria.

"Now I know that he is a criminal. I know he's a major criminal who preys on lonely, widowed women," she said.

Likins said she is working with authorities and is attempting to track down the fraudster.

She said she has since changed her number and blocked the profile from her Facebook account.