Daniel King - Con Artist internet Scammer - John King

I recieved an email from a reader who wanted to share their unfortunate experience with an online con artist and scammer she met on match.com


I joined an online dating site in June of 2011. Immediately I started getting responses from men. I got a response from a man named Daniel King. He said he lived in Pennsylvania, Leola, Pennsylvania to be exact. He was articulate and said he was a widow that his wife had died in a car accident 5 years before. He had lived in Rome his whole life -- he been an orphan and had been adopted by an American couple. He moved to the U.S. 5 years before after his wife had been killed in a car accident in Rome. He said we would chat better over Windows Messenger. At first I said no because I didn't want to have anything to do with anyone outside of my home town, but he was persuasive. He gave me his yahoo email address. His picture looked nice.

Daniel R. King,

Email: mikedad009@yahoo.com

Leola, Pennsylvania

He also used the email address of mikeboy005@yahoo.com

He said his friend's name was Steve Boyd

Email: boyd.steve97@yahoo.com

Steve Boyd's wife's name was

Jacky Hudson Boyd

Ada, Oklahoma

I started chatting with him over messenger. He seemed like such a wonderful man. We spent many hours chatting - everyday. He was charming, articulate but pushy. He was well educated. I cannot give you all of the details of what happened it would be too long but just suffice it to say that the story is very similar to other stories posted. Approximately 3 weeks after I met him (he said he was in construction and was building a building in the country Turkey), he said he was going there to sign papers and after that he was going to come and see me in my home town. After he got to Turkey, he had problems and didn't have all of the money he needed to get the large contract. He sent me a copy of the contract with signatures because I insisted on that.

I'm not a greedy person but I had fallen in love with him and felt I have a future with him, stupid I know. I wired him money. Then he needed more. I should have stopped but he was so believable with his stories. He got other people involved. He called me on the phone and he had a very sexy thick Italian accent. He even had me talk to his friend who was working and traveling with him, he said. He had a German accent. First he was staying in a hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia. Then later he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Now he supposedly is back in Tbilisi, Georgia again.

He sent me pictures of him and his son. His son even chatted with me on line and told he he couldn't wait to meet me and that his dad was so much in love with me. I was even sent a picture of the building that was being constructed in Turkey.

He sent me an email with his flight information to come and be with me. Then the wife of his friend Steve Boyd called me on the phone crying saying that he was in an accident at the work site and that he was in the hospital with injuries to his neck and was unconscious and paralyzed. I am so gullible. I believed it all. After 2 weeks, his friend Steve got a hold of me on chat. He said he needed money to help pay his hospital bill because Daniel had no insurance. He would die without an operation. I'm ashamed to say I fell for it all. I kept sending money (my retirement money I had withdrawn) because I was promised that Daniel would pay me back as soon as he could return to the U.S. He had money and he would take care of everything. He swore on his life that Daniel loved me more than anything in the world and wanted and needed to be with me.

I did it. After 2 weeks I was able to talk to Daniel again. Again, mind you I am spending HOURS talking to him. Before work, after work on weekends. Late at night, early in the morning - all different times. I had my Messenger set up for the speakers to sound when he got online so I knew he was there. I was crazy in love with this man. All we talked about was how much we were in love with each other and how much we couldn't wait to be together. We made plans together.

The situation got worse and worse because the more money I sent him the more I needed what he told me to be true so I could get paid back and because I loved him. I really wanted this to be true. He asked me to marry him 4 times. But the more time went by the more things he said just didn't add up. He would contradict himself about little things. In December, 2011, he again said he was coming to be with me and pay me back. He had recovered and was out of the hospital. Again, he didn't show up. This time he said that he was ready to leave and found out that he owed $20,000.00 to his workers and they wouldn't let him leave the country until that was paid. Well, that's when I stopped sending him money.

I looked the phone # up that he had called me at in July, 2011 with a reverse look up and I was stunned. His phone # listed a man with a different picture and a different address and different city in Pennsylvania. He had the same middle initial and last name of King but a different first name of John. Now he was going by "John R King". Now I knew he was a fraud and a con-man. HOW CAN ANYONE BE SO EVIL AND CALCULATING???? I wanted to say something to him but I knew I couldn't. He has since taken the picture off of that listing and changed the phone # several times. But the listing is still there today. The age listed there has changed several times as well.

I refused to send him any more money and just waited to see how long it would take for him to give up and leave me alone. I was afraid -- he knew where I lived, my home #, cell #, my address, my work #, even the names of some of my family members. I kept talking to him -- the strange thing is that I really did love the man that I thought he was -- not who he really was. We had spent so much time together I was attached to him. I missed him when I didn't hear from him. But truthfully this man has ruined my life.

At least once a month he'd ask me for money -- oh he was running out of money to pay for the Internet to talk to me, or needed food, or whatever. Each time I refused. He had the guts to ask me if he could send me checks from Turkey from the Construction Company and I wanted me to cash them and send him the money. I absolutely refused. Thank god. I stopped talking to him unless he contacted me. It had gotten down to once every 5 days I'd hear from him now.

Then in March,. 2012, I'd had it. He sent me a beautiful email and signed it with the wrong name. He signed the email with the name of Antonio. I lost it. He said he had a allot on his mind and got confused. Whatever, how many names is this man using? So now his name is Daniel, John and Antonio. I told him off. I told him that I didn't believe that he was ever coming to see me and that he had lied about who he was. And he had the guts to tell me, to the end, that he had never lied to me and that he would never take advantage of any woman. He was still claiming he was saving the money to come and be with me. That's when I blocked him.

Ladies - please learn from my stupidity. If a man sounds too good to be true, he is. NEVER send money to anyone no matter what their story is. My advice, you can do on-line dating but never get off the protected website until you are sure who the person is. Never share your financial information with anyone and don't try to have a relationship with anyone outside of your home town.

I am now cleaned out. I have lost a total of $50,000.00. I took the money out of my retirement account and I don't have the money to pay my income taxes. I do not know what I'm going to do. The worst thing is that things are not going well at my work and they are having layoffs. My job is not even secure. I am 54 years old and my future is ruined because of all of this. I won't tell my family - I'm too ashamed.

I have since met a nice man who lives near me. I am trying to move on with my life but it will be difficult. Life is difficult enough without giving all of your money away. Don't do it!!!!

Broken-hearted