Love, Lies and Lost Money: Two Portsmouth Residents Learn Costly Scam Lessons

Portsmouth police recently handled two very different complaints that had one thing in common: people who voluntarily handed over money and later realized they may have been taken advantage of. In one case, a man came to the Portsmouth Police Department wanting to file a report about an alleged scam that dated back to 2023 and 2024. The man told police he had been communicating with a woman he believed was in Canada and paid shipping costs for a package. According to the police log, the package supposedly traveled from Mexico to Tennessee and then back to Mexico. The man said all of his communication was through email with a shipping company that police determined was a scam operation designed to mimic a real company. Police told the man there was little they could do because he had voluntarily complied with the scammers’ requests. Officers provided him with the Ohio Attorney General’s scam hotline information. No police report was filed. In a separate call, an elderly Portsmouth resident contacted police after saying she had lost about $1,000 to a man she met through Facebook Dating. The woman told police she began talking with and meeting a man from Hebron, Ohio. She said they went on multiple dates and stayed in hotels, but she paid for everything because the man said he did not have money. The relationship eventually fell apart after she said she discovered he was cheating on her. The woman told police she had seen Facebook posts from other women who claimed he had cheated on them as well. She also said the man later called her names and cursed at her, which she believed amounted to elder abuse. She wanted to file a theft report because she had paid for the dates. Police explained that, based on what she described, the money had been spent voluntarily while they were in a relationship, making it a civil matter rather than theft. An officer documented the complaint and advised her to block the man. Both cases show how easy it can be to lose money without an obvious break-in, stolen wallet, or forged check. Sometimes the scam comes wrapped in a fake shipping company. Sometimes it comes wrapped in romance. The biggest warning sign is the same: when someone you barely know begins asking you to pay, send money, cover expenses, or keep funding a relationship, slow down before opening your wallet. And if a new online romance starts costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars, it may be time to ask whether you are dating someone — or financing them.

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