Online Dating Scammer Made Women Pay For Creepy Presents

A Massachusetts man is accused of seducing women on dating sites, then conning them out of thousands of dollars. He used his ill-gotten gains to buy Nazi paraphernalia, among other bizarre purchases.

According to the Boston Globe, the unfortunately-named Albert B. Lovering took out personal ads on a variety of sites, claiming he was a “Handsome, Sensual, Warm and Kind professional man” who liked “art, travel, film, Mozart and Bach, jazz and blues, collecting antiques, history, PBS, BBC, British humour, long French kisses, holding hands, star gazing, quiet evenings at home, dining out.” It turns out what he actually liked was stealing money to buy weird shit. He allegedly asked one woman to bid on a gun holster on eBay, saying he’d pay her back. He didn’t. Then he somehow got her to buy him a $4,500 Nazi ring. Then he asked her to cosign a loan for him, and when she did, he bought a presentation box for the ring. He also apparently stole the identity of his brother’s roommate in order to buy “military relics” — no word on whether these were also Nazi-related.

Lovering also told a series of involved lies. He invented a fake best friend to email women on his behalf. And he told one woman that he needed money because “he had been admitted to a New Hampshire hospital for diverticulitis, pinched nerves, skin cancer on the nose, and heart surgery.” It’s unclear why she believed his story of bizarre medical bad luck, or why his other online paramour thought it was a good idea to continue dating someone who wanted her to spend thousands of dollars on a Nazi ring. Perhaps Lovering really was “Sensual, Warm and Kind” enough to fool his dates into thinking he was an okay guy. If the allegations against him are true, it looks like he pulled off at least one long con — he’s married.

Smooth Online Suitor Swindled Women Of $200,000, Police Say [Boston Globe]