Woman fell victim to romance scammers — then she became one herself, feds say
An Ohio woman who believed she was in a relationship with an army general has been indicted after being accused of sending money to romance scammers and then helping her scammers take $590,000 from three others, Missouri court documents show.
Linda Matson is accused of willfully defrauding individuals of money through the mail, her indictment said.
Matson, 61, fell victim to these romance scammers and believed she was in a relationship with a United States Army General, according to prosecutors. The man she believed to be the general was a romance scammer, the documents said.
The common goal in the conspiracy by romance scammers was to recover a $20 million portfolio, the document said.
In February 2020, scammers convinced Matson to open a post office box rental in St. Louis based on fraudulent information. The scammers then persuaded Matson to mail express packages to the post office box from her home in Ohio. The packages contained about $300,000, her indictment said.
After the packages were seized by authorities, law enforcement in St. Louis told Matson she was the victim of a romance scam. She assured law enforcement she wouldn’t send more money. Matson sent texts to law enforcement with links of “Dr. Phil” segments that described romance scams, documents showed.
Days later, Matson began scamming others, prosecutors said.
Matson began to persuade three different individuals to “loan her money and make investments totaling more than $590,000,” which would be used to recover the fraudulent general’s portfolio, pay taxes and fees on Matson’s Mexican lottery winnings and pay for the “general’s” return from an overseas assignment. This went on for months, the court documents showed.
In May 2020, Matson also contacted law enforcement agents in St. Louis and claimed she needed money returned to her to help return her “missing niece.” But prosecutors say Matson wanted to use any money received to “further her relationship” with the fraudulent general.
For months until the end of September 2020, Matson is accused of lying and telling people that she had met the “general” multiple times in person, and said his alleged portfolio was worth $20 million to scam them out of hundreds of thousands in loans, court documents said.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Matson will plead not guilty on Dec. 7.
The case is the latest in a string that are being prosecuted in St. Louis involving romance scammers that targeted older women across the country.
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Woman fell victim to romance scammers — then she became one herself, feds say."
