MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A Cordova woman has lost time, trust and at least $24,500 to a man she met on the internet."This is so embarrassing, but I just - I don't want anybody else to have to go through that," said Dayna Everon. She told FOX13 she met a man named Jackson Salazar on a dating app meant for Christian singles. "He was encouraging," she recalled. "He asked, 'Can we pray in the morning?'"Salazar told Everon he was a servicemember and single father who lost his wife at childbirth. "Anything ...
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A Cordova woman has lost time, trust and at least $24,500 to a man she met on the internet.
"This is so embarrassing, but I just - I don't want anybody else to have to go through that," said Dayna Everon. She told FOX13 she met a man named Jackson Salazar on a dating app meant for Christian singles. "He was encouraging," she recalled. "He asked, 'Can we pray in the morning?'"
Salazar told Everon he was a servicemember and single father who lost his wife at childbirth. "Anything to just kind of pull on the heartstrings," she said.
Eventually, the person she was texting started asking her for money. He claimed to need cash for food. "I would even tell (him), money doesn't even stay in my account for 24 hours and you're already asking for it," she said.
Over the next few months, Everon sent money via Apple Pay, gift cards and Bitcoin. She told FOX13 she sent him her state and federal tax refunds.
As the scammer sent photoshopped images of her on his desk, she granted him access to her line of credit. "I went from having a line of credit for $6,000 to now owing my bank $13,000," she said.
When she tried to attend what she thought was his retirement ceremony, Salazar claimed he had suddenly deployed. "When they say they can't talk to you by phone, they can't do video chat, that those are usually the biggest red flags," she said.
The single mother said she took the images of him to a military recruiter, who informed her they were stolen from another person and photoshopped. She then reported to the scam to the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South.
"She's actually really courageous and brave for telling her story in an attempt to warn others," explained Daniel Irwin, a BBB spokesman.
Here is more advice for avoiding a romance scam:
"I think that's what made it harder," Everon said. "I was not talking to anybody else, and they knew I wasn't talking to anybody else."
Anyone can steal a photo from the internet and claim it as their own. Here is advice from Google on how to "reverse search" an image to see if it's posted on another part of the web.
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