Elderly MSNBC fan’s life ruined after she messaged ‘Ari Melber’ Facebook profile and got unexpected reply
An elderly MSNBC fan’s life has been ruined after she was duped by a fake Facebook account posing as her favorite anchor Ari Melber.
Patricia Taylor, 73, said she was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars by someone she believed was the popular TV news reporter.
‘We want to vomit,’ her daughter Meri Taylor told CBS affiliate Local 12. ‘I mean, it’s pretty disgusting,’ Patricia’s son, Joey Taylor added.
Patricia, of Marysville, Washington, is a huge fan of Melber, so much so that she messaged a Facebook profile she believed was his. The fake profile replied.
‘Get a $500 Apple gift card,’ the fake Melber wrote, before asking for money and gift cards to treat his ‘sick dog’ Penny.
‘My mom is asking, ‘Hey, aren’t you on TV? Don’t you have money?” Joey recalled to Local 12.
In response to the questions, the Melber profile warned Patricia that if she failed to send money, she would be letting his dog die.
‘It’s for Penny. Please don’t let Penny die,’ the scammer wrote. Joey said at this point, his mother had given $20,000 to the faker, but that wasn’t the end of it.
MNSBC fan Patricia Taylor, pictured, was defrauded after contacting a Facebook fraudster posing as her favorite journalist Ari Melber
The conman posing as Melber managed to swindle $20,000 from Taylor. The real Melber is pictured
Over the next four months, the scammer convinced Patricia that they were in love and that they would get married. He even sent her a ring to make the claims appear legitimate.
‘We find the ring. It’s a $30 ring,’ Meri told Local 12. Patricia grew suspicious at this point, but the scammer assuaged her fears by creating an AI-generated voice message using Melber’s voice.
‘You’re reading my messages and not responding. I’d never do that to you. Have you found someone else?’ the voice message asked.
Things escalated. Convinced that she was speaking with the real Melber, Patricia boarded a plane bound for New York City to meet her dream man.
Luckily, a family member intervened and found her at a layover in Portland and brought her home to Washington state.
Meri said she worried that the scammers might even have kidnapped her mother if the relative hadn’t intercepted her.
‘I believe they would have asked for some type of ransom for her. That we have your mom. See how much money they could get out of us,’ said Meri.
The family said Patricia is not someone who is easily duped. She worked at both Boeing and the University of Washington for decades, her children said.
Screenshots of the disturbing messages sent by the fraudster posing as Melber to his victim
Taylor was instructed to buy a slew of gift cards by the fraudster and ended up using a five-figure amount
But they’re worried she could try to run away and meet up with the scammer again. ‘We just want our mom back,’ said Joey.
MSNBC has confirmed the real Ari Melber has no connection to the scammer.
Scams across the US caused victims to lose around $10billion in 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
‘Scammers say and do things that can tell us they’re lying – and they’re not who they pretend to be,’ wrote Jennifer Leach from the commission.
‘We have to get past the panic scammers make us feel, thanks to the so-called emergencies they try to create.’
