Woman loses £100,000 in rip-off, meets ‘good-looking bloke’ on-line after which loses one other £60k

Retired Cindy Palecek was enjoying her free time when she fell for a man she met online. The encounter with ‘Mike’ ended up costing her almost £100,000

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A woman claims her fairytale romance turned into a living nightmare when her dream man ‘scammed her out of £60,000’ through fake investments.

Cindy Palecek was enjoying her retirement after leaving her job as a physical therapy assistant in 2019. However, the 67-year-old said she received an email last year about an at-home commission-based job, working an hour a day to optimise data for advertising companies.

Five months into the role, Cindy discovered that the job was in fact a task-based commission scam – a fake job that promised high-yield returns, but which actually kept requiring her to invest more and more of her own cash.

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This initial scam cost her nearly £97,000 ($130,000) and forced her into debt. During this time, Cindy joined a dating website in November 2024, where she matched with ‘handsome’ construction worker, Mike, who supposedly lived in a different state.

After weeks of chatting online, Cindy said she fell in love with Mike, confiding in him about her ongoing money troubles. Mike told Cindy about a lucrative investment opportunity that guaranteed high-interest returns, enabling her to pay off her loans.

Convinced Mike was ‘the one’, Cindy thought her new beau was helping her get out of debt, before her £60,000 ($80,000) investment went missing and she never heard from him again.

After losing the £150,000 of her life’s savings to both scams, Cindy had to re-mortgage her house and was left with £75,000 worth of debt.

She has been forced to get a new job as a supermarket food demonstrator and believes she will have to work until she’s in her 90s to pay it off. Now, Cindy is urging others to always remain vigilant of scammers operating online.

Cindy, who lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, US, said: “Mike and I started talking in November last year. He would call me three times a day.

“He was very handsome. I fell in love with him online.

“I began feeling really comfortable with him. I told him I was in debt and had all these loans and he suggested that I invest in this company.

“He told me that a co-worker of his had told him about this investment company and every seven days you gain 20 per cent and you can cash out and pay for your loans.

“He told me he had invested in that company. We were talking about living together, buying a house together, planning a future together.

“I was looking for comfort and thought Mike was going to be the one. He was going to come up for Christmas but then he called and said he got Covid. I never met him. He seemed like a very nice person.”

Despite promises of high-return investments, Cindy claims Mike cut all contact after she attempted to withdraw £37,000 ($50,000) of her near £60,000 ($80,000) investment, which she now believes was in an account run by him.

Cindy said: “He helped me establish an account and then gave me the number of the account that I could cash out from, which I ended up figuring out was his.

“I started investing with him in December, then in March I went away to Key West in Florida with my friends. Before I left, I was due $50,000, thinking it would be in my account when I got back from vacation and I could repay all my loans.

“When I came back, I told Mike I had never got the $50,000 back and that was the last I heard from him. I was panicking and frantic. I tried contacting Mike and got no response. I’ve not heard from him at all since March.

“I think he embezzled my money. I was numb and in a major depression for five months. I just thought how can someone do that to somebody and continue to live their life? I can’t imagine how he sleeps at night.”

After forking out nearly £160,000 and falling into £75,000 worth of debt, Cindy reported both scams to the police, but claims she has only had less than £1,000 recouped back to her.

Now, Cindy has been forced to return to work to pay off the mounting debts and is warning others to remain vigilant of online scams.

Cindy said: “I feel very unsettled. I can’t enjoy my life until I get this scam paid off.

“I’ll probably spend the rest of my life paying this off. After both scams I was left with nothing.

“I know people probably think ‘how stupid can you be?’ I wish I could just erase the last year.

“I’m going to have to work into my 90s before I can start and join life and then it’s way too late. I would just tell other people to be aware. If you have to send money any which way, just don’t.”

Cindy has launched a fundraising page to help recoup some of her losses. To donate, click here

Oshkosh Police Department confirmed the incidents had been reported to them.