A 73-year-old grandmother in the Seattle area was duped into sending at least $20,000 by a con artist posing as MSNBC anchor Ari Melber.
Patricia Taylor, a former Boeing employee and avid watcher of the Comcast-owned cable news channel, started a monthly dialogue on Facebook earlier this year with someone pretending to be Melber, the Emmy-winning journalist who hosts daily show “The Beat with Ari Melber” on MSNBC.
Taylor was convinced she was talking to the MSNBC host, who was taken advantage of by the poser who operated the Facebook account, according to KING 5 News in Seattle.
Last Monday, Patricia Taylor flew from Seattle to New York to meet the man she thought was the MSNBC host, according to the news station.
Taylor’s trip included a stop in Portland, where a relative eavesdropped on her tracking her cell phone, KING 5 reported.
Mary Taylor said she believed that if her mother had landed in New York, the con artist would have met her and taken her hostage and demanded a ransom in exchange for her release.
“They were going to see how much money they could get from us.”
The Marysville, Washington police department has launched an investigation.
An MSNBC spokesman declined to comment.
Fake Melber asked Patricia Taylor to send him money and gift cards to treat his sick dog, Penny.
“My mom is saying, ‘You’re on TV. You don’t have any money?’” Taylor’s son, Joey Taylor, told KING 5.
“He tells her he doesn’t have access to this money,” Joey said. “He tells her it’s for Penny. ‘Please don’t let Penny die.’
According to Taylor’s daughter, Mary, her mother sent the fake Melber at least $20,000 since Nov. 1.
“There could be more,” Mary Taylor told KING 5.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Patricia Taylor was lured by the scammer into thinking they were in love and about to get married.
The scam artist sent Patricia Taylor an engagement ring that Mary Taylor said was worth $30.
Patricia Taylor began to suspect that she was being duped, prompting the fake Melber to write to her: “When did Ari Melber become a fraud?”
The scammer then used an AI-generated voice message that resembled the sound of Melber speaking.
“You are reading my messages and not responding. I would never cheat on you. Have you found someone else?” The fake Melber is heard saying.
According to Mary Taylor, the family staged two interventions with Patricia Taylor in an attempt to convince her that the individual she was communicating with was not the real Melber.
“Our mother is not a dumb person,” Meri Taylor told KING 5, noting that Patricia Taylor worked at Boeing and the University of Washington before retiring.
“”How did she fall for that? How did he not see what was happening? You try to explain the logic and it doesn’t sink in.”
The family is concerned that Patricia Taylor may still try to meet the individual posing as Melber.
“We just want our mom back,” Joey Taylor told KING 5.
Scam artists often target the elderly. According to the FBI, elder fraud generates $3 billion in illegal profits each year.
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