We sometimes hear about people who were scammed out of money, and we often feel sorry for them. That isn’t necessarily the case, however, with the following woman, as many are saying they don’t feel sorry for her.
When 67-year-old Katherine Goodson found what she thought was love, she fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Unfortunately, the woman from San Diego eventually found that she was living in her car after she lost everything.
Goodson lost her money to someone claiming to be the actor, Keanu Reeves. It may seem strange, but she ended up falling for it and lost more than $60,000 in money through direct deposits, cryptocurrency, and gift cards. In other words, she really thought that she was talking to Keanu Reeves.
Sometimes people learn from their mistakes but it doesn’t seem as if Goodson learned from hers. This isn’t the first time that she fell for a scammer because in 2022, she sent a $500 gift card to a criminal after texting with him. When she heard his voice, she stopped the communication.
Others noted that she was vulnerable in this way so he sent her contact information to a colleague. He was closer to sounding like Keanu Reeves, and they built a relationship over the next two years.
Although Goodson was ashamed, she did say that she was lonely. She had lost her husband in 2007 and it left her with a hole in her life that needed to be filled.
Eventually, she would fall for the imposter who claimed to be Keanu Reeves. It actually happened when the second man got in touch with her and said that he felt ‘awful’ that the first person had taken advantage of her.
They started to exchange messages and over the course of time, he would groom Goodson to believe that he loved her. They spoke daily and he comforted her during difficult times over the next two years.
She said: “He wanted to marry me.”
She sent him tens of thousands of dollars in various ways. She believed that she was actually helping the actor and at other times, she thought that it was for emergency expenses that his management team needed.
It seems like a devastating loss but the 67-year-old said that it was more than money, she lost her dignity as well.
According to a professor who specializes in romance scams, Anshul Rege, these individuals have a way of developing a connection so that they can prey on those who are vulnerable.
He said: “This is not like any other type of financial scam where they get your money and you’re done. They also rob you of the very essence of what makes a human.
“It’s called love bombing. And what they do, they’re just showering you with all this attention and affection.”
Eventually, they will start to ask for money, typically by gift cards and if they don’t get the money, the affection is withdrawn.
Goodson was happy to live out the fantasy where she thought that Keanu Reeves was in love with her. The scammers, on the other hand, were happy to oblige as long as she kept sending the money.
Goodson said: “It was just a mess. It was mind-boggling to the point that I didn’t know my head from anything.”
It may be an embarrassing story, but Goodson wants to share it with others so they don’t fall for a similar scam. She said: “There is nothing that hasn’t already been done to make me feel any worse.
“I’ve got 29 miles of gas left in my car, and that’s the lowest I’ve ever been.”
