Scammer on dating website cheats Buffalo Grove woman out of $50,000

A 59-year-old Buffalo Grove woman was scammed out of $50,022 between October and January by a man she met on a matchmaking service, Buffalo Grove police said.

The woman told police she met the man, who claimed he was an undercover secret service agent working in Aleppo, Syria, on match.com and they corresponded for several months.

In January, he told her he was in was in danger and could lose his job because he was to deliver a suitcase containing a large amount of cash to a king in Poland when it was intercepted, according to the police report.

She withdrew $20,000 from her IRA account and purchased a cashier's check on Jan. 29 and deposited it in the bank account of a man who he said was his associate. Later, he told her he needed $25,000 more to pay legal fees and to cover the remainder of the missing money, police said. She deposited a second cashier's check into the same bank account.

When she became suspicious, he told her to contact his son in New York and she spoke with someone claiming to be the offender's 18-year-old son. The scammer also told her he lived in Antioch when he wasn't away for work. When she went to the address, she found a "For Rent" sign in the yard and she eventually stopped corresponding with the offender. In addition to the $45,000 she had sent, she was billed $5,022 for fees and taxes, police said.