Two years ago, Shawna Nelson sold her house, moved to a motel and thought she had a plan about where her life was heading below.
Nelson, who is now 63 years old and lived in Calgary, sold him a house that his father loves him after spending years taking his grandmother, and quickly found a buyer at the sale price he had established. The motel was supposed to be a temporary stay, since Nelson hoped that he would soon move with a man in the United States who thought he loved her.
But instead of taking the next step in a relationship, Nelson said he discovered that it was the objective of a romantic scam, an increasingly common fraud method in Canada. She said she lost her life savings of around $ 380,000 after sending payments to man during several years.
Shawna Nelson says she transferred more than $ 300,000 in the course of five years to a man who believed she loved her.
“I had been talking to a guy who said that we are going to gather, and I kept sending him money. And that’s why I was in a motel, because I thought I will soon come out. And I simply believed him, and I shouldn’t have done it,” Nelson said.
Nelson said she was open to find love now that her four children grew up, and more than three decades after her 12 -year -old husband had died.
“Because my husband died a long time ago, and now that my children grew up, I wanted to find true love. And that is what I thought I had found,” Nelson said.
His connection began about five years ago, when the man, who identified himself as Gilbert, contacted Nelson to warn him to cut the contact with a possible scammer he had been chatting on WhatsApp.
Nelson and Gilbert continued to send messages for years, while they never gathered in person and with Gilbert they never sent him a photo. He said he worked for the United States government and was not allowed to show his face due to the nature of his work.
Three years later, Nelson says he started transferring money, with plans to start a life together. But at the end of last year, he began to question the frequency of his money requests and asked him why he would not come to Calgary to help her with his move.
“When I kept asking for more money and more money, I go: ‘What is all this for? As, I have already given you enough,” Nelson said. “And an excuse occurred to him.”
Gilbert sent Nelson a photo of the house where they would move, but she said it seemed false. That photo together with the repeated cash requests helped her to see through the scam. But by then, Nelson said he had already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Without knowing where to turn, Nelson was in unison in the Kerby Center, a non -profit group that supports people 50 years of age or older. She has lived in the center’s abuse of the center for about six months while trying to put together her life.
Now, Nelson says he feels trapped.
She is still trying to process what happened to her, since she points out the savings she lost would have been enough to buy a small condominium with some money for her to live with her two dogs and a cat.
His only source of income is his pension, it is not eligible for some housing programs for subsidized elderly who are available at age 65, and has struggled to find a place to live where he can meet with his pets.
“He was devastating,” Nelson said.
“People say, well, you shouldn’t be so dumb to let someone do that. But it happens.”
Romance and grandparents scams are often reported: unison
Stories like Nelson are not unusual, said Unison in the president and CEO of Kerby Center, Larry Matheison. He said the organization works on a high number of cases in which older people have experienced financial abuse or fraud. Romantic scams, as well as grandparents’ scamsThese are examples that said the center sees often.
Mathieson said it can be difficult for people wrapping their heads on how common they can be romantic scams when they realize them.
“If people listen to a romantic scam for the first time, it is difficult to believe that you would have to be alert to that kind of situation,” Mathieson said.
“But also in situations where he is a close member of the family essentially disappointing a father or grandparents of his retirement, for many of us it is very difficult to believe that it happens. But unfortunately, the reality is that he does it.”
Romantic scams can be especially devastating for the elderly, Mathieson said, when it is exacerbated due to the lack of affordable homes to be used, as well as inflation that increases the cost of groceries and medications.
Unison older adults support the help of around 6,000 people most of the years, Mathieson said, with the access of benefits, homes or government programs. The organization also completes the dissemination work with partners such as the accommodations or residences of the elderly, which can be equally important to prevent cases of financial abuse.
“We are looking to create a security environment. And in many cases in which financial abuse is the case, the consciousness of abuse is a great deterrent,” Mathieson said.
The Canadian Anti-Francud Center, an organization to which Nelson reported its case and collects information on cases of fraud and identity theft, finds that the Canadians lost more than $ 58 million in romantic scams, affecting 1,030 victims, in 2024. The total is more than $ 22.5 million that were informed in these cases in these cases in 2018.
Jeff Horncastle, dissemination officer of the Canadian Anti-Francud Center, said the group’s mandate is to collect information to help research, as well as education and consciousness efforts.
“There is a lot of value to inform, but it is said that it is important to understand that we do not investigate and that is why it is so important to inform your local police,” said Horncastle.
