Online scams continue to victimize many gullible people.

A 70-year-old widow from Davao City was befriended on social media by someone who introduced himself as an American citizen. During one of their chats, the guy professed love for the old lady and told her he would go to the Philippines to marry her. His sweetness and vow smote her.

The man asked the granny for money so they could meet, promising to repay it three times the amount. She obliged and gradually sent him cash which reached P60,000.

When the online “boyfriend” asked for an additional P30,000, the widow’s grandson got suspicious and did a background check on the alleged lover, according to a report by GMA Regional TV One Mindanao. The grandson learned that the guy was claiming his grandmother’s money remittance in the country. He eventually traced the address to his friend, who admitted to knowing the scammer.

The widow had fallen victim to a love scam, and the grandson sought help from police.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Cowles of Brooklyn, New York, is someone who won’t fall into such a love scam. As a financial advice columnist for New York Magazine, she knows too well how to care for one’s own money. Her column on 15 February, however, revealed the contrary.

Recalling an incident in October, Cowles wrote in her column that a man called her to say that her laptop had been hacked, her home was being watched, and she and her family were in imminent danger.

The caller, who introduced himself as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, convinced Cowles that her identity was stolen by mentioning her Social Security number, home address, the names of family members, and that her two-year-old son was playing in the living room, New York Post reported.

The CIA agent also told Cowles that her bank accounts were used in wiring more than $3 million overseas, a car rented under her name was found abandoned and with drugs in the trunk, and warrants were out for her arrest in Maryland and Texas on charges of cybercrime, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

The man promised to help Cowles by opening for her a new bank account so her old accounts could be monitored to catch who was using her identity. He instructed her to put $50,000 in cash in a shoe box, tape it shut, carry it to the sidewalk in front of her apartment with the phone clasped to her ear, hand it to the driver of a white Mercedes SUV in the curb, and go back inside the house, according to NYP.

Cowles recalled the CIA man’s warning that failure to cooperate would result in the freezing of all assets in her name, including her bank accounts, so she did as was told.

The last message from the fake CIA man was an SMS showing her a photo of a Treasury check made out to her for $50,000, the hard copy of which would be delivered to her the following day.

Cowles had fallen victim to an identity theft scam.