Liza Jane Likins had no idea that a simple update to her social media profile following the death of her husband of 23 years would change her life forever.
Likins, a backup singer who toured with Fleetwood Mac and Linda Ronstadt, fell victim to a Nigerian online romance scammer and was conned out of more than $1 million in cash and crypto funds.
Over the course of two years, Likins became involved with a “very complicated scam” by a man who claimed to be an Australian gold miner and who wooed her over the Internet with stolen photos of a German life coach.
STEVIE NICKS TELLS KATY PERRY TO ‘GET OFF THE INTERNET’
“I had nothing left. I sold my house,” Likins exclusively told Fox News Digital. “This scammer wanted me to sell my car, but fortunately that was when I saw the ‘Social Catfish’ show, so I didn’t sell my car.
“I wanted to kill myself at first, because my husband left me in very good shape, and after two years with this scammer, I didn’t have anything left but my car and my clothes and I just wanted to end my life. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
Likins added, “I didn’t have money for food. I didn’t have money to pay my utilities. My electricity was turned off twice. I lost 40 pounds. I got Covid. I didn’t have money for a doctor. I mean, I was really, really in deep trouble.”
Her problem with the scammer began immediately after one small change to her social media account.
MANTI TE’O CRACKS JOKE ABOUT INFAMOUS CATFISHING INCIDENT
“When my husband passed away, on my Facebook profile, I put in there that … I was now a widow. Big mistake,” Likins said. “That’s like putting a sign on yourself that says scam bait. That’s how it all started.”
Likins recalled the scammer being a “perfect gentleman” in their initial online conversations, and said that despite her not being interested in anything romantic just yet, he would write to her “every day for six months.”
“One day he sent me pictures, and each picture had a complicated, convoluted story that went with it,” she remembered. “All the photos were stolen off of the German life coach public site on Facebook. One day, he sent me a picture of him, supposedly, next to a statue of Buddha, and that did it when I got that picture. I thought, ‘OK, this person might be all right.'”
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Likins had no idea that the web of lies had already begun. She was told that her online suitor was the director of a gold mine, and he was currently in the Australian outback with a team of 20 men on his last job before retirement.
He was running out of time on the expedition, and was already $8,000 in the hole. To make matters worse, if they wanted to communicate, she’d have to send him $1,000 and cryptocurrency so he could purchase the proper Wi-Fi to use his phone so they could stay in contact while he was working in Australia.
Likins claimed they spoke via Facetime through a “very sophisticated” method using audio equipment matched with video components. When the video elements “stalled,” the scammer would say, “I can’t hear you anymore, Let’s go back to texting.”
Each request for money became more complicated and convoluted, but Likins was still hooked by the scammer, who showed off 24-karat gold bars and asked for her home address so he could securely send a safe packed with bundled $100 bills to her home.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
“I have a video of this purple helicopter lifting off,” Likins said of one extravagant scheme. “I checked out all the specs, the address, the email, the phone number, everything checked out. And they sent me emails that they were en route to deliver this safe to my home address.
“The scammer said if I would upgrade the logistics company shipping, I would have it in three days. So I did. That was the first really large sum of money.”
Nothing was ever delivered to her home.
“I went to the airport four different times to pick this person up, because he would send me pictures of his name on a boarding pass arriving at a certain day and time,” Likins said. “I would go to the airport, and of course … that flight did not exist, and neither did he.”
The scam was over by accident when Likins tuned into a television show called “Social Catfish.” She “went into shock” within minutes of the program after watching a story similar to her own play out on TV, and wrote to the producers asking to get in touch.
Through research, “Social Catfish” (a company which verifies online identities through AI reverse search technology) discovered the scammer’s real identity.
Despite losing everything, Likins found strength in an unlikely person and got in contact with the real person in the photographs she had been sent by the scammer.
“As it turns out, the reason there was a picture of him with Buddha is because he is a German spiritual and business life coach,” Likins said. “He’s like Germany’s version of Tony Robbins.“
She added, “He started doing everything he could do to advise me on how to heal myself and reminding me to love myself and to forgive myself and to keep living. And that what I had to do was tell my story to help other people so that other people like me don’t get scammed.”
