Retired sportswriter reveals how he lost $270K life savings to online scam featuring young and gorgeous woman | Latest Tech News
A retired journalist says he lost his life savings — almost $300,000 in 10 weeks — after a scammer posing as a young woman lured him into a so-called “pig-butchering” scheme.
Al Levine, an 82-year-old former Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter, said it began with an unsolicited textual content message from one “Daisy Miller” inviting him to a cookout. Even after the texter said they thought they have been contacting another person, Levine saved answering pleasant questions about issues like his age.
“I took 10 years off my 82,” he wrote in a first-person account for the AARP web website.
The scam started with a random textual content from a woman calling herself “Daisy Miller,” who shortly struck up a relationship with Al Levine. terovesalainen – stock.adobe.com
Levine said the exchange shortly turned into a relationship with a woman claiming to run a jewellery business in Los Angeles.
According to the scribe, “Daisy” started telling him that she “wanted to spend her October birthday with me.”
“Glamorous photos followed,” Levin wrote.
“She was young and gorgeous. A flirtation broke out.”
Levine wrote that the textual content messages between the 2 “quickly moved from budding romance to business.”
Levine said the scammer used glamorous photographs and fixed messages to construct trust before steering him toward investing. M-Production – stock.adobe.com
“I believe there are many beautiful things waiting for us,” read one textual content message from “Daisy.”
Levine wrote that “Daisy” then recommended that he “join her in investing in short-term gold futures.”
Levine, who resigned from the Journal-Constitution in 2005 after he was caught plagiarizing, admitted that he was “lonely” and “believed her despite all the red flags waving in my face.”
“What made it so believable was her tactic of telling me where she was and sending pictures along the way – the San Diego Zoo, Catalina Island,” Levine wrote.
“One Friday night, we cooked a meal together through texts and screenshots.”
Levine said he harbored “suspicions” about “Daisy” — going so far as to vet her with the Los Angeles Police Department’s fraud division — though he wrote that he “came up empty.”
The retired journalist said he ignored repeated warnings from his daughters as he poured more money into the scheme. Smile Studio AP – stock.adobe.com
He also did a reverse image search on Google, “but 10 photos revealed nothing.”
“After those cursory efforts, I let down my guard completely.”
According to Levine, “Daisy” began displaying him screenshots of profitable investments she made by trading in gold through a web site called SunX.
While there’s a reliable trading website identified as SunX.io, scammers have been utilizing an imposter website identified as “SunX” to “carry out illegal fundraising, investment scams, and Ponzi-like activities,” according to the real company’s web site.
“I had no idea I was dealing with a fake site until it was too late,” Levine wrote.
He said he told his two daughters about “Daisy” — even displaying them photographs.
“How do you know she’s real?” one of them requested. “I hope you’re not doing any kind of trading with her.”
Despite his household’s advice, Levine wrote that he was “blind to all the warnings.”
“Daisy” nudged him into trading, and Levine dipped in with $20,000 — mendacity to his longtime financial adviser about needing the money for a car. Early “profits” hooked him fast.
The faux online relationship shortly shifted from romance to investment, with the scammer pushing gold trades. sebra – stock.adobe.com
“The first night I invested, I almost did handstands when I seemed to make a profit of $1,920,” Levine wrote.
Within days, he pulled another $70,000, then emptied the remaining of his $133,000 portfolio under false pretenses, even as his daughters warned he was being scammed.
He ignored them — and doubled down, taking out a $20,000 loan after “Daisy” promised larger returns.
By early October, his account appeared to show $1.3 million. It was all fiction.
When he tried to withdraw funds, he was told to pay $216,000 in bogus taxes — the ultimate crimson flag.
A relative later confirmed the trading platform was faux and the money had been funneled to scammers.
Levine lost $271,000 complete — the whole lot he had.
Now dwelling on Social Security and a pension, he’s been pressured to unload personal valuables to get by.
Investigators say the money is probably going gone for good, wired abroad through channels that are almost not possible to hint or get well.
As for “Daisy,” she never existed — and her photographs have been doubtless stolen or AI-generated.
The fallout hit hardest at home, where his daughters say the deception shattered their trust — harm that could take far longer to restore than the financial loss, according to Levine.
A pig-butchering scam is a long-running fraud that blends phony romance with faux investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.
The trading platform “SunX” appeared reliable but was truly a fraudulent website used to funnel victims’ money to scammers. SunX
fraudmers construct trust over weeks or months, then lure victims onto fraudulent trading platforms that show faux income to encourage bigger deposits.
Once the sufferer tries to withdraw, they’re hit with bogus charges — and finally the scammer disappears with the money, which is often unrecoverable.
Incidentally, “Daisy Miller” is the title of a celebrated Nineteenth-century novella by American author Henry James, though Levine made no point out of that in his essay.
Experts say the scheme follows a calculated playbook.
Former cybercriminal Brett Johnson — once dubbed the “Internet Godfather” by the Secret Service — told The Post that scammers must first win a sufferer’s trust before going after their money.
“In order for me to defraud you … I have to get you to trust me,” Johnson, who stole thousands and thousands through online fraud schemes, told The Post.
He described the painstaking course of during which victims are step by step lured into the scam.
“It doesn’t start with, ‘Send me money,’” Johnson said, noting scammers first construct a relationship before making any financial ask.
“He’s not looking for one payday; he’s looking for everything that you’ve got,” he said.
Johnson said the best protection is simple: don’t ship money.
“Money should never be given at all,” he said, including that slick photographs or even video calls shouldn’t be trusted.
“Photos, voice notes, video calls — that’s not proof in today’s age of deepfakes,” Johnson said.
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