Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Online Dating Romeo Proposes Marriage, Steals Woman's $80,000 Life Savings

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Online Dating Romeo Proposes Marriage, Steals Woman's $80,000 Life Savings · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Polason, Gwenett County told General
0:14
Speaker 1: twos Baron Peterson he's wanted in several states for the
0:17
Speaker 1: same crime. This is thirty five year old John Hill,
0:21
Speaker 1: a sharp dressed man who Gwenett County police say is
0:23
Speaker 1: a classic con artist. They suspect convinced the victim that
0:27
Speaker 1: they had fallen in love instantly, and within a week
0:30
Speaker 1: of dating, he convinced her that not only are they
0:33
Speaker 1: in love, but they should get married and also purchase
0:36
Speaker 1: a home together. Police say Hill interacted with a woman
0:39
Speaker 1: onmatch dot Com in late March and that the two
0:42
Speaker 1: met in person that same day. Before the week was over,
0:45
Speaker 1: detective say He'll convinced the victim he was a millionaire
0:48
Speaker 1: and talked her into giving him eighty thousand dollars in
0:51
Speaker 1: cash to buy the house and fill it with furniture,
0:53
Speaker 1: But shortly after the money was exchanged, He'll disappeared. Police
0:57
Speaker 1: say they tracked him to a home in Duluth, where
0:59
Speaker 1: they encountered another woman who claimed to be his girlfriend,
1:02
Speaker 1: and the woman said that she is in a relationship
1:04
Speaker 1: with the suspect, However, she did not know what his
1:06
Speaker 1: profession was. All she knew was that he was only
1:09
Speaker 1: home on the weekends, but during the week she didn't
1:11
Speaker 1: know exactly where he went. Did a smooth, well dressed
1:14
Speaker 1: con man scam a woman he meets on match dot
1:17
Speaker 1: com to put up eighty thousand dollars toward buying a house?
1:22
Speaker 1: And I'm saying house in air quoties, I mean as
1:25
Speaker 1: he Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you for being
1:27
Speaker 1: with us. Please don't let it happen to you. And
1:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to reveal to you how I was scammed once.
1:35
Speaker 1: You were just hearing our friend Baron Peterson at WSB
1:39
Speaker 1: TV two in Atlanta, man wanted for several states for
1:43
Speaker 1: the same crime you're hearing Officer Corporal Michelle Pierra talking
1:48
Speaker 1: about this smooth, sharply dressed con guy the name John
1:52
Speaker 1: Martin Hill. Of course, if you've ever had interactions with him,
1:56
Speaker 1: it may be under a different name. Joining me in
1:59
Speaker 1: all Star our paddle. Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeff Cortez,
2:05
Speaker 1: Randy Kessler, renowned defense attorney, author of Divorce Protect Yourself,
2:10
Speaker 1: your kids, and your future. You can find them at
2:12
Speaker 1: divorce protect dot com. Special guests joining us. Doctor Ryan Fuller,
2:18
Speaker 1: clinical psychologist, and executive director New York Behavioral Health and
2:22
Speaker 1: lecturer at NYU. Also right now, Debbie Montgomery Johnson, she
2:28
Speaker 1: lost one million hold hold on Jackie sent down before
2:33
Speaker 1: I finished this cent. You better lay down for this.
2:35
Speaker 1: Jackie lost one million dollars in an online dating scam.
2:41
Speaker 1: She turned that around and wrote the book The Woman
2:45
Speaker 1: Behind the Smile. Debbie Montgomery Johnson, are you surprised at
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Speaker 1: all that this very intelligent and I must say beautiful
2:56
Speaker 1: woman put up eighty thousand dollars to help buy a
3:02
Speaker 1: house with this guy. I'm not surprised. I'm a little
3:05
Speaker 1: surprised it was so quick that she did it so quickly,
3:08
Speaker 1: but I'm not surprised that she ended up doing it.
3:10
Speaker 1: I mean, what you do for love, But I mean
3:13
Speaker 1: a guy tells you that he's fallen in love with
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Speaker 1: you instantly. I mean maybe when I was fifteen, I
3:19
Speaker 1: might have fallen for that. Lee Egan with me right now,
3:21
Speaker 1: Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Lee. There are so
3:26
Speaker 1: many women getting scammed out of their life savings, their
3:31
Speaker 1: life savings, and I the armchair psychologist, doctor Ryan Fuller,
3:37
Speaker 1: be afraid, be very afraid that I'm getting into your territory.
3:41
Speaker 1: I think women, many women believe that to make their
3:45
Speaker 1: life complete, they have to have a guy, no offense, men,
3:49
Speaker 1: no offense. But I remember my first slogan T shirt
3:53
Speaker 1: I stole from my sister was a woman needs a
3:55
Speaker 1: man like a fish needs a bicycle. And I guess
3:58
Speaker 1: I was you know ingrain and brainwashed pretty early because
4:01
Speaker 1: I don't believe that's true. Luckily, I managed to pick
4:04
Speaker 1: one up along the way, Lee, Agan, what happened? How
4:07
Speaker 1: this woman lose eighty thousand dollars? What? Nancy? What happened
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Speaker 1: was he convinced her somehow that they were in love
4:14
Speaker 1: and that they should get married. And on top of
4:16
Speaker 1: getting married, they should buy a house. Oh, dear Lord
4:18
Speaker 1: in Heaven, immediately buy a house together. Now, Lee, I
4:21
Speaker 1: already heard that much. Tell me who this guy is.
4:24
Speaker 1: Tell me something I don't already know. Okay, Well, he
4:26
Speaker 1: went by John Hill, but his real name is Gregory Hill.
4:30
Speaker 1: He's a twenty nine year old. He comes from Long Branch,
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Speaker 1: New Jersey. I thought it was thirty five. I am
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Speaker 1: getting he is twenty nine and he was a class
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Speaker 1: of two thousand and three from Long Branch, New Jersey.
4:41
Speaker 1: That's where he started, hould On, Hauld, that thought, Hauld,
4:44
Speaker 1: that thought. Okay, Randy Kessler, renowned defense attorney. You know
4:48
Speaker 1: what I love almost more than anything. When you kick
4:51
Speaker 1: off a criminal trial, you the prosecutor, have to stand
4:54
Speaker 1: in front of the entire jury panel. Okay, and that's
4:58
Speaker 1: like eighty people, the judge behind you frowning. I was
5:01
Speaker 1: always sure at me and the defendant, the defense attorney
5:04
Speaker 1: to blah blah blah everybody in the courtroom, and you
5:06
Speaker 1: read the indictment, the formal indictment verbatim to the grand jury.
5:12
Speaker 1: And what I really love that's when I get to
5:14
Speaker 1: say a k A also known as and then I
5:18
Speaker 1: get to read a string of aliases. By the time
5:22
Speaker 1: I finished reading all those alias is the jury is
5:25
Speaker 1: looking at that defendant like, did you just hear Lee Egan.
5:31
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not five minutes into and I've got
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Speaker 1: already got two aliases and two d obs date of birth. Randy.
5:37
Speaker 1: First of all, when you stand up in front of
5:39
Speaker 1: a jury, all they're looking at as you and they
5:40
Speaker 1: want to know what's going to come out of your
5:41
Speaker 1: mouth because you were captivating fruscut and we missed those bass. Okay, okay,
5:46
Speaker 1: as a plus for sucking up, but it won't help you.
5:49
Speaker 1: Now go ahead. Well, but you know it's interesting, and
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Speaker 1: I'm not taking anything away from this victim. But you know,
5:55
Speaker 1: years and ages of history has gone on with the opposite,
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Speaker 1: with men being suckered by beautiful women who say, you
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Speaker 1: know what, I'm in love with you, and men fall forward,
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Speaker 1: hook line and sinker. And so to women, we all
6:05
Speaker 1: are victims, and we all have the potential to be
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Speaker 1: victims or the kind of person this guy is. And
6:11
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sorry that it happened to her, but
6:13
Speaker 1: it is not unique to women in my opinion, and
6:15
Speaker 1: I apologize and I do not mean anything against her.
6:17
Speaker 1: She is a victim, no question about it. She should
6:20
Speaker 1: be avenged, but she is not alone. And there are
6:22
Speaker 1: certainly men who have fallen prey to the same kind
6:25
Speaker 1: of thing on the other side. Well, see see what
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Speaker 1: she did right there? See what he did, Doctor Ryan Fuller,
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Speaker 1: I need a shrink right now? Do you see what
6:31
Speaker 1: he did? He evaded my question about this guy already
6:36
Speaker 1: We're not five minutes into talking together and he's already
6:38
Speaker 1: put the onus back on women. Let me remind everybody
6:41
Speaker 1: it was in the nineteen twenties before we could even vote. Okay,
6:45
Speaker 1: we are not at the top of the pyramid here, Okay,
6:49
Speaker 1: but I'm talking about this guy, doctor Ryan Fuller, not
6:53
Speaker 1: men and women in general. Doctor Ryan Fuller, you're the
6:57
Speaker 1: clinical psychologist. It doesn't make give you pause when you
7:01
Speaker 1: hear that someone has different aliases and different dbes and
7:05
Speaker 1: different life histories. So certainly someone using different aliases, you know,
7:10
Speaker 1: indicates some level of intentionality that we would question. And
7:13
Speaker 1: in a case like this, you know, I can't speak
7:16
Speaker 1: exactly what's happening to him, but anyone who's doing that,
7:18
Speaker 1: it might indicate that they really value financial gain over
7:22
Speaker 1: things like honesty and integrity. And so anytime you're going
7:25
Speaker 1: to hear someone doing that, you have to question what
7:27
Speaker 1: their motivations are. You Now, it's gone back as long
7:30
Speaker 1: as I can think of, certainly to Canterbury Tales, and
7:36
Speaker 1: when we first started discussing the Seven Deadly Sins and
7:42
Speaker 1: the love of money. I guess it goes back even
7:44
Speaker 1: further than that that was not a good choice, goes
7:46
Speaker 1: all the way back to the story of King Midas
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Speaker 1: and his love of gold. The love of money the
7:54
Speaker 1: root of all evil. Now, when you say prizes money
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Speaker 1: over integrity, honesty, actual true love, what is that is that?
8:06
Speaker 1: That should really be a personality disorder, shouldn't. And doctor
8:09
Speaker 1: Ryan Fuller, well, I mean, basically, it's a question of values,
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Speaker 1: people's moral compass, and so you know, any any of
8:15
Speaker 1: us personalities are not in the financial gain over those
8:19
Speaker 1: other values that many of us might think are more
8:22
Speaker 1: important compassion and empathy for others mentioned integrity and honesty. Certainly,
8:27
Speaker 1: people with personality disorders may have those values, you know,
8:31
Speaker 1: prioritized differently than other people. And in a case like this,
8:34
Speaker 1: if someone's taking advantage of someone's financial like that, I
8:37
Speaker 1: think it's fairly obvious that their their values might be
8:40
Speaker 1: different than what most people would expect, certainly the victims
8:43
Speaker 1: that get involved with So you know, I'm curious as
8:47
Speaker 1: to whether you think this guy fits a personal a
8:51
Speaker 1: particular mold, or a personality type. And I'm curious about
8:57
Speaker 1: how they're going to put it together the whole investigation.
8:59
Speaker 1: To Jeff Tes, a former FBI supervisory special agent, apparently
9:04
Speaker 1: this guy has been stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars
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Speaker 1: from women in at least four different states. Yeah, absolutely,
9:14
Speaker 1: and that information that they compile the different states through
9:17
Speaker 1: their investigations will be used in the furtherance of this investigation.
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Speaker 1: So you know, we're going to learn a lot more
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Speaker 1: in the coming months about the number of different names
9:26
Speaker 1: this individual has used as different schemes, the number of victims,
9:30
Speaker 1: the number of times he tried this method. You know,
9:33
Speaker 1: these fraud schemes are a numbers game, and so if
9:37
Speaker 1: we can identify victims and four different states, then we
9:40
Speaker 1: can only assume that he's executed this on numerous numerous occasions.
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Speaker 1: Corop Harris as after the victim turned over eighty three thousand,
9:49
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars from a Gette financial institution to mister Hill,
9:53
Speaker 1: he stopped communicating with her. This sounds like she thought
9:57
Speaker 1: everything was going well and then he lost our contact.
10:00
Speaker 1: But was there a period of time when she did
10:02
Speaker 1: get suspicious and perhaps recorded a phone call. I don't
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Speaker 1: know that she did record any phone calls. When the
10:08
Speaker 1: fraud detective started looking into it, he discovered that this
10:11
Speaker 1: suspect is possibly linked to other similar crimes out of
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Speaker 1: eight other jurisdictions, and some of those cases aren't four
10:20
Speaker 1: different states here in the United States. Crime stories with
10:32
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace when that authorities called him a fraud suspect
10:41
Speaker 1: who made contact with a young woman just two years
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Speaker 1: older than he on a dating website. It wound up
10:47
Speaker 1: being a quick, costly courtship. About one week of their courtship,
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Speaker 1: the victim and the suspect were convinced that they were
10:53
Speaker 1: in love and that they were going to eventually be married.
10:56
Speaker 1: They then begin to start to do some house hunting
10:59
Speaker 1: so that they can move in together. And our victim
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Speaker 1: tells us that the suspect told her that not only
11:05
Speaker 1: was he a millionaire, but he also needed eighty thousand
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Speaker 1: dollars more than eighty thousand dollars in cash from her
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Speaker 1: to go towards the purchase of the home and the
11:13
Speaker 1: furnishings to go inside the home. You are hearing our
11:15
Speaker 1: friend Morse Digs at Fox five Atlanta Wow eighty Grant
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Speaker 1: write down the tubes he convinced her they were in
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Speaker 1: love after they first met onmatch dot com. He says
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Speaker 1: he's a millionaire, convinced her to get married in less
11:28
Speaker 1: than a week, then got her to put up nearly
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Speaker 1: eighty five thousand dollars toward buying a house together and
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Speaker 1: as you just heard it. As soon as she put
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Speaker 1: up the money, he lost contact. In other words, he
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Speaker 1: guested her joining me Lee Egan, doctor Ryan Fuller, Randy Kessler,
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Speaker 1: Jeff Cortez, and Debbie Montgomery Johnson, who lost one million
11:47
Speaker 1: dollars in an online dating scam and is the author
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Speaker 1: of The Woman Behind the Smile on Amazon. Debbie Montgomery,
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Speaker 1: tell me your story, DeBie Montgomery Johnson, Well, my story
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Speaker 1: is a little different. I my husband passed away suddenly
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Speaker 1: in two thou and ten, and I was I'm a
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Speaker 1: mom of four now, and I was, you know, running
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Speaker 1: his business. I was alone typically in my home. And
12:11
Speaker 1: six months after lu died, my friends said, deb you
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Speaker 1: need a life and today I'm that meant you've got
12:16
Speaker 1: to get out again. You've got to do something other
12:18
Speaker 1: than work. And so I went to a website which
12:20
Speaker 1: I it was a faith based site, and I thought
12:22
Speaker 1: it was safe because my friends that had done online
12:25
Speaker 1: dating and said, you know, they've met their husbands, their
12:26
Speaker 1: boyfriends or whatever. And so I dipped a toe and
12:29
Speaker 1: I put my profile out there and tried to make
12:32
Speaker 1: it as perfect as possible. And I what do you
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Speaker 1: mean by that? Make it as perfect? As possible. Well,
12:37
Speaker 1: I wanted to make the pictures look right. I wanted
12:40
Speaker 1: the right the profile to be set up so it
12:42
Speaker 1: looked like I was, you know, put together woman, educated
12:45
Speaker 1: and doing very well. And I wanted to I think
12:50
Speaker 1: the anxieties of dating when I was a young woman
12:52
Speaker 1: came out. I wanted to look like I was a
12:56
Speaker 1: really good catch, if you could put it that way.
12:58
Speaker 1: In light of this subject, I just wanted people to
13:01
Speaker 1: take me seriously as a woman, and I wanted I
13:04
Speaker 1: wanted to be perfect, as we all do. And you know,
13:07
Speaker 1: I'm very well educated, and I was now running a business,
13:11
Speaker 1: and I did find can I ask you a question?
13:14
Speaker 1: To ask you a question when you say you're very
13:16
Speaker 1: well educated, what is your education? Well, I went to
13:20
Speaker 1: graduated with a bachelors degree in political science from University
13:23
Speaker 1: of North Carolina. I worked as a paralegal. Afterwards, I
13:27
Speaker 1: was an Air Force intelligence officer. I was a senior
13:30
Speaker 1: branch manager for a bank. I've had a lot of
13:33
Speaker 1: training in scams, and if anybody should not have been
13:37
Speaker 1: taken it was me. Okay, I'll tell you. The reason
13:39
Speaker 1: I asked Abbie is because there are a lot of
13:42
Speaker 1: people out there with a lesser education, a lesser job
13:48
Speaker 1: resume than you, And I want to convince them not
13:53
Speaker 1: that they're any lesser a person than you, but if
13:56
Speaker 1: you can be scammed, and you were, did you say
13:58
Speaker 1: military intel, if you could be yes, Air Force intelligence.
14:03
Speaker 1: I mean, if you can be scammed, anybody can be scammed.
14:08
Speaker 1: And can I just tell you very quickly, Debbie, I
14:10
Speaker 1: was scammed. Let me tell you how I was scammed.
14:12
Speaker 1: I went to California for a Victim's Rights March, so
14:16
Speaker 1: to speak. And after I was meeting people and taking
14:19
Speaker 1: photos and signing things, and this young girl, she looked
14:24
Speaker 1: to me like she was seventeen or eighteen, came up
14:26
Speaker 1: to me and she said, I'm an abuse victim. Can
14:30
Speaker 1: I talk to you? And I yes, and she said,
14:32
Speaker 1: but I don't want to talk about it here. I'm like, okay, look,
14:35
Speaker 1: here's my phone number and my UM. I should have
14:39
Speaker 1: said credit card, but I did. Okay, here's my phone
14:41
Speaker 1: number and my email. Let's talk when I leave, y'all
14:45
Speaker 1: call you when I get back to New York. Well
14:47
Speaker 1: I did, and we started like a two year communication
14:51
Speaker 1: where I was trying to help her in many different ways,
14:55
Speaker 1: sort through all of her abuse problems. It culminated and
14:59
Speaker 1: when she told she had been robbed when she was
15:01
Speaker 1: working in Starbucks, that the guy came into Starbucks and
15:05
Speaker 1: threatened her and it's thrown her back into her post
15:07
Speaker 1: traumatic stress syndrome. Blah blah blah. And I said, well,
15:10
Speaker 1: let me contact the police and see if we can
15:14
Speaker 1: get find out if we can get your pocketbook and
15:16
Speaker 1: your stuff back that was taken, and she did not
15:18
Speaker 1: want me to contact police. I've been talking to this
15:21
Speaker 1: young girl that I think is an abuse victim for
15:23
Speaker 1: two years, helping her in many different ways. Turns out
15:28
Speaker 1: the whole thing was a lie. She had never been abused.
15:31
Speaker 1: I finally got in touch with her relatives, who told
15:33
Speaker 1: me she had a horrible problem lying and she had
15:36
Speaker 1: all these alternate identities. I was two years I had
15:42
Speaker 1: been helping this girl two years, and everything had been
15:46
Speaker 1: a big light. So in my desire to help a
15:50
Speaker 1: crime victim, I got scammed. So it can happen to
15:54
Speaker 1: people that should know better. So, Wie Montgomery, how did
15:57
Speaker 1: the scam go down with you? I got to hear
15:59
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Well, this is Debbie Montgomery Johnson, author
16:02
Speaker 1: of the Woman Behind a smile. I'm looking at it
16:05
Speaker 1: right now. Man, is that your dating profile photo? You
16:09
Speaker 1: look awesome? Okay, go ahead, Debbie. Well, it's interesting when
16:12
Speaker 1: you say two years. That strikes a chord in my
16:14
Speaker 1: heart because my situation was two years and I cannot
16:18
Speaker 1: believe even to today that I was lied to for
16:20
Speaker 1: two years. And it just it's an amazing thing that
16:24
Speaker 1: they just bring you into their life and you hear
16:26
Speaker 1: their story and they tell you. You know, you can
16:28
Speaker 1: tell your story. For two years I wrote to him
16:31
Speaker 1: because this was back in two thousand and ten, two
16:33
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve, and I wasn't on Skype. He couldn't
16:36
Speaker 1: ever get on Skype, so it was all done through
16:38
Speaker 1: Yahoo Chat, which was an amazing thing to me that
16:41
Speaker 1: I could instant message him and we'd be talking, I
16:43
Speaker 1: say talking, but we'd be writing for hours. I have
16:45
Speaker 1: four thousand pages of journal because I kept every single
16:49
Speaker 1: communication I had with him, So I've got five written volumes.
16:53
Speaker 1: You know that I took to the FBI, but it
16:56
Speaker 1: was just over time, and because I got to know
16:58
Speaker 1: his family like you with that young woman, I got
17:00
Speaker 1: to know everything about him, and I had the ups
17:03
Speaker 1: and the downs, and you know, the heartache, but the
17:05
Speaker 1: joy is when we'd be communicating. The thing that was
17:09
Speaker 1: tough is that I never saw him in person. And
17:11
Speaker 1: that's my caution today is if you don't see them
17:14
Speaker 1: within two weeks of an online dating thing, then there's
17:17
Speaker 1: a problem. This woman that saw him in person and
17:20
Speaker 1: was taken within a week, I'm still a little bit
17:23
Speaker 1: surprised if that happened, but not really because these scammers
17:26
Speaker 1: are so good at what they do, and especially the
17:30
Speaker 1: online guy. It is an international web of evil and fraud,
17:34
Speaker 1: and they have playbooks. They know exactly what they're going
17:37
Speaker 1: to say to you, and it's happening worldwide every day.
17:41
Speaker 1: This guy, we are now learning has five different names
17:45
Speaker 1: and has scammed so much money and multiple states. Lee Egan,
17:51
Speaker 1: Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter. What more do we
17:53
Speaker 1: know about the guy? John Martin Hill. You say he's
17:56
Speaker 1: twenty nine, I say he's thirty five. Who really knows?
18:00
Speaker 1: What more do we know about this guy? He's been
18:01
Speaker 1: scamming for a long time. One of the first it
18:06
Speaker 1: probably started before them, but one of the first times
18:08
Speaker 1: he got busted for this was in twenty and ten.
18:11
Speaker 1: He posed as a contractor a renovation contractor for Holmes.
18:16
Speaker 1: He took twenty five thousand dollars for a woman who
18:19
Speaker 1: wanted her room redesigned, kept in contact with her for
18:22
Speaker 1: a few weeks, gave her a couple hundred back, and
18:24
Speaker 1: said that he couldn't do the job. Then he completely disappears.
18:29
Speaker 1: That's the first time twenty five thousand dollars, you know,
18:35
Speaker 1: right off the bat to Randy Kessler and Jeff Cortez,
18:40
Speaker 1: when I see a guy that is how do I
18:44
Speaker 1: say this? It looks like he spends more time fixing
18:47
Speaker 1: his hair in front of the mirror than the date,
18:51
Speaker 1: than the woman that just rubs me the wrong way.
18:54
Speaker 1: I mean right then. For instance, the other day, David
18:58
Speaker 1: came home and I went, have you been working out?
19:01
Speaker 1: He goes yes. I'm like at the gym yes, without me, Yes,
19:04
Speaker 1: And you took a shower yes. I'm like, okay, I
19:06
Speaker 1: don't like it. Laugh Randy Kessler, all you want, you're
19:11
Speaker 1: the divorce specialist. But I'm like, you know what you guys, yeah,
19:17
Speaker 1: because I'm on him, like white on rise, poor poor guy.
19:21
Speaker 1: But I'm actually kidding about that, although I did say
19:23
Speaker 1: all that. But when you see a guy looking at
19:26
Speaker 1: his profile and his picture. He's like a clothes horse
19:30
Speaker 1: and he is tailored to the t. There's nothing wrong
19:33
Speaker 1: with that, but clearly he is using his looks to
19:37
Speaker 1: get something. And my question is what Randy Well look
19:41
Speaker 1: People do a whole bunch of different things to get
19:42
Speaker 1: what they want, and they're there's the oldest profession in
19:44
Speaker 1: the world. People use sex to get what they want.
19:47
Speaker 1: This is nothing more than another vehicle to scam people
19:50
Speaker 1: out of money, people that are desperate get what they want. Well,
19:52
Speaker 1: that's an that's a pretty expensive eighty thousand dollars. One
19:56
Speaker 1: Night's Dad Crime Stories with Nancy Grace John Martin Hill.
20:13
Speaker 1: This guy ripping a woman off for nearly eighty five
20:16
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and this was not his first victim. Within
20:20
Speaker 1: just one week of knowing each other, Hill and the
20:23
Speaker 1: victim agreed to get married. She gives him over eighty
20:26
Speaker 1: thousand dollars towards the supposed purchase of a home. But
20:30
Speaker 1: as soon as the money changed hands, he took off.
20:33
Speaker 1: He was nothing but elbows and tellhole I saw she
20:37
Speaker 1: saw of him as he ran the other way. He'll
20:40
Speaker 1: fled and ceased all contact with the victim. He is
20:45
Speaker 1: suspected of defrauding women in five other states. We also
20:49
Speaker 1: learn he's been living in an apartment with another woman
20:52
Speaker 1: and a child. Wow, if you have information on this guy,
20:56
Speaker 1: take a look at him at crime online dot com
20:59
Speaker 1: dials seven seven zero five one three fifty three hundred
21:02
Speaker 1: seven seven zero five one three fifty three hundred. So
21:06
Speaker 1: tou Lee Egan, crime online dot com, what can you
21:09
Speaker 1: tell me about this woman? When did she realize the
21:11
Speaker 1: fix was in for the eighty thousand dollar woman? It
21:15
Speaker 1: took her a couple days after she last saw him,
21:18
Speaker 1: because she just they were talking daily constantly for that
21:21
Speaker 1: whole week, seeing each other, and then he just dropped
21:24
Speaker 1: off the face of the earth. So within a few
21:26
Speaker 1: days from not hearing from she realized something was not right,
21:30
Speaker 1: and then she contacted police. To doctor Ryan Fuller, clinical Psychologists,
21:34
Speaker 1: executive director in York Behavioral Health and lecturer at NYU,
21:38
Speaker 1: Doctor Fuller, is there a chemical that courses through your
21:43
Speaker 1: body when you first believe you have fallen in love?
21:46
Speaker 1: Imagine what most things when people are excreen enjoy and excitement,
21:49
Speaker 1: they're certainly going to experience probably bursts of dopamine. And
21:53
Speaker 1: what we do know is that to some extent in
21:55
Speaker 1: all these cases they're do seemed to be a big
21:57
Speaker 1: emotional component, and I think scam artists can probably sometimes
22:01
Speaker 1: be effective by changing people's emotional state, and that can
22:03
Speaker 1: even mean putting someone in a positive emotional state, like
22:06
Speaker 1: you know, feeling in love. That concept of lemeriance being
22:11
Speaker 1: in love leaves people to make risky decisions at times.
22:14
Speaker 1: That's helped us an evolution to go ahead and have
22:18
Speaker 1: kids and take all kinds of risks, and it's important,
22:20
Speaker 1: but it can also lead us to make risky decisions
22:22
Speaker 1: that aren't aren't examples of good judgment. It's called oxytocin,
22:26
Speaker 1: and you may have heard of it. It's sometimes called
22:28
Speaker 1: the love hormone. Human and animal studies show oxytocin plays
22:35
Speaker 1: a role in your bonding and it is released in
22:38
Speaker 1: your brain during human contact when you think you're in love.
22:43
Speaker 1: It is an actual physical reaction that goes through your heart,
22:51
Speaker 1: through your mind, through your psyche when you believe you
22:55
Speaker 1: have fallen in love. But this is how it can end.
23:00
Speaker 1: Days of finding a date aren't like being used to be.
23:02
Speaker 1: It's more about this finding your forever or maybe just
23:05
Speaker 1: for the night. Love on a dating app. Some statistics
23:08
Speaker 1: say around fifteen million Americans have or currently use websites
23:12
Speaker 1: or dating apps to find romance with no initial face
23:15
Speaker 1: to face interaction. It's important to make sure who you're
23:18
Speaker 1: talking to has good intentions. First date jitters are pretty normal.
23:24
Speaker 1: Awkward moments, being stood up, even love at first sight.
23:28
Speaker 1: All could be expected on a first date. But what's
23:31
Speaker 1: not expected this Someone was robbed and shy. There's been
23:35
Speaker 1: incidence where someone was sexually assaulted, and there's been incidence
23:39
Speaker 1: where a person got away and nothing happened. Mobile Police
23:43
Speaker 1: Chief Lawrence, but he says all of these crimes occurred
23:46
Speaker 1: in the past three months in the Port City and
23:49
Speaker 1: they all started on dating apps. The criminals not singling
23:52
Speaker 1: out a particular group either. Most recently Cheap But he
23:56
Speaker 1: says a man was hoping to pick up a woman
23:58
Speaker 1: he met on the dating app Tact. Instead, he was
24:01
Speaker 1: met with bullets. Please say. He was carjacked by two
24:04
Speaker 1: men and then shot while walking down Cottage. Hill wrote,
24:07
Speaker 1: that's our friend. Shelby Myers over at Fox ten News,
24:11
Speaker 1: you know as doctor Ryan Fuller was saying dopamine creates
24:16
Speaker 1: feelings of euphoria, while adrenaline is responsible for when your
24:21
Speaker 1: heart races and you feel restless, and your preoccupation with
24:26
Speaker 1: your love object. And this has been proven even in
24:29
Speaker 1: MRII scans. It's those scans show that when you're in love,
24:34
Speaker 1: it lights up the pleasure center of your brain. So
24:38
Speaker 1: this is a real chemical reaction, and that's the way
24:42
Speaker 1: we're wired, that's the way we're built. So Jeff Cortez,
24:46
Speaker 1: a former FBI Supervisory special Agent. When you factor that in,
24:51
Speaker 1: no wonder, it's so easy for people to be taken
24:54
Speaker 1: advantage of, just like Debbie Montgomery Johnson and just like
24:57
Speaker 1: this victim eighty five grand Absolutely, you know, Debbie hit
25:02
Speaker 1: on a lot of critical points, UH, one of which
25:06
Speaker 1: being that this is just a very common method of
25:08
Speaker 1: exploitation of individuals. And tier point, it doesn't matter what
25:13
Speaker 1: your education level is. We're all victim or could be
25:16
Speaker 1: potential victims. Vigilance in protecting ourselves is critical to the defense.
25:23
Speaker 1: That you know, the FBI has an Internet Crime Complaint
25:25
Speaker 1: Center and whereby they monitor some of these online investment
25:31
Speaker 1: or an online scams and frauds. UH. Just in the
25:34
Speaker 1: last four years, according to their reporting, they've had a
25:36
Speaker 1: thirty percent increase in the number of complaints, but almost
25:40
Speaker 1: or over a three increase in loss due to these frauds.
25:45
Speaker 1: I think that really highlights the significance. Wow, that is
25:49
Speaker 1: a lot. I mean. And Randy Kessler, it's even my
25:53
Speaker 1: children can tell when I try to lie to them.
25:56
Speaker 1: You got you got smart children. Right now, defense that
26:00
Speaker 1: Atorney author of Divorce Protect Yourself, Your Kids, and Your
26:04
Speaker 1: Future on Amazon. You can find him at divorce protect
26:08
Speaker 1: dot com. Randy Kessler, I'm just thinking about how he
26:12
Speaker 1: pulled a scam off. It's one thing like Debbie Montgomery Johnson,
26:16
Speaker 1: the author of The Woman Behind This Smile, say, she
26:18
Speaker 1: has all these volumes and volumes of the chats, the
26:22
Speaker 1: online chats that she had with her predator. But this
26:28
Speaker 1: guy takes it to a whole new level. He actually
26:31
Speaker 1: gets the woman in the car and they go house
26:33
Speaker 1: hunting for days. They go in and out of this house,
26:36
Speaker 1: in that house, trying to find their love nest, and
26:40
Speaker 1: the whole time he's looking at her always sees as
26:42
Speaker 1: a cash register. I mean, that's really quite the Oscar
26:44
Speaker 1: winning performance. Randy Kessler. Well, you know, he's apparently had
26:47
Speaker 1: a lot of practice at it, and maybe trill and
26:49
Speaker 1: error gets him to a better place in his craft.
26:52
Speaker 1: How can you even say practice and his craft and
26:56
Speaker 1: trial and error. This is not a craft. This is
26:58
Speaker 1: a felony. Remember, you know, the way you paint these
27:01
Speaker 1: things as a defense lawyer always amazes me, Always come
27:05
Speaker 1: up with something new. Now, a probably million dollar scam
27:09
Speaker 1: artist is practicing his craft. Well, you know what, that's
27:12
Speaker 1: the way make him sound like an artist. The way
27:14
Speaker 1: criminals look at it. And you there's some pride among thieves,
27:17
Speaker 1: you know, you know who can pull off. Look at
27:20
Speaker 1: the movies we watch Nancy Oceans eleven, we glamorize that
27:23
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. I mean that's crime, that's pure crime,
27:25
Speaker 1: stealing millions and millions of dollars. Well, to remind you
27:28
Speaker 1: that Danny Oceans ended up in jail at the end,
27:31
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until Oceans twelve that he got out.
27:34
Speaker 1: Wait didn't he die behind bars? He's dead. When Sandra
27:37
Speaker 1: Bullet takes over, Danny Oceans is dead. Now. I always
27:41
Speaker 1: thought he was going to make a comeback, But that's
27:42
Speaker 1: just me dead. And people in the audience loved him,
27:46
Speaker 1: and they all want to be him, they all want
27:47
Speaker 1: to be her, and they look at that as role models,
27:50
Speaker 1: and that's just a problem with society. I wish everyone
27:52
Speaker 1: did it the good way, in the right way, and
27:53
Speaker 1: it'd be a perfect world. But it ain't. You know what,
27:55
Speaker 1: I'm going to have to argue with you on that.
27:58
Speaker 1: I don't think that it's necessarily human nature. I think
28:02
Speaker 1: human nature includes a desire to be good. I really do.
28:07
Speaker 1: And that does not include, as you put it, clawing
28:10
Speaker 1: your way to the top and taking everything. This woman
28:14
Speaker 1: had Clime stories with anancy grace. I'm sorry, man, it's
28:30
Speaker 1: bringing here. I'm an owner of US and Fresh Stars.
28:32
Speaker 1: I'm on my way to my office. I'm following them
28:34
Speaker 1: on day morning. Yeah, I don't want to read you're
28:47
Speaker 1: ready for the work, So on my way to voting,
28:55
Speaker 1: starry start my day, Thank my emails, check feasible, call
29:06
Speaker 1: some parents. Okay, really that's Gregory Hill if that's even
29:10
Speaker 1: his name in a promo video and I know it
29:13
Speaker 1: was scratchy and there's music playing under it, but I
29:16
Speaker 1: had to have you hear it because it sounds like
29:18
Speaker 1: it looks like a little kid. You ever seen little children?
29:21
Speaker 1: Lee Egan, You have a gorgeous daughter. Remember when she
29:24
Speaker 1: was little and she might dress up and grown up clothes.
29:27
Speaker 1: Lee Egan with me Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter.
29:30
Speaker 1: He sounds like he's just saying things. He maybe a
29:32
Speaker 1: scene on TV, like I'm gonna go send some facts
29:35
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go make some calls and I'm gonna
29:37
Speaker 1: check some emails. What I mean? That sounds like something
29:41
Speaker 1: John David said when he was about three years old.
29:43
Speaker 1: Lucy was above it all. She would not suggest that
29:46
Speaker 1: she would ever actually send facts as or emails or
29:48
Speaker 1: check messages forget it. Okay, she wants us to do
29:51
Speaker 1: that for her, But it sounds like something John David
29:53
Speaker 1: would have say, Mom, I gotta go check my emails.
29:56
Speaker 1: It's just it just sounds fakely Egan. And he says
29:59
Speaker 1: that he was the owner of Varsity Prep Stars. Is
30:04
Speaker 1: that why he's saying he's calling some parents? That's exactly
30:07
Speaker 1: what he says. But he was never the owner of anything.
30:09
Speaker 1: And if this is the same company he's had so
30:12
Speaker 1: many But there was one company where he was scamming
30:15
Speaker 1: people into paying him for a background check and for
30:18
Speaker 1: work badges to become a part of this company where
30:22
Speaker 1: he was giving scholarships or he was specializing in scholarships
30:25
Speaker 1: for high school kids, and he like, over and over
30:30
Speaker 1: and over these people would apply, he would take one
30:32
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five dollars each, pocket the money and
30:35
Speaker 1: never call him back. So in that video, it sounds
30:39
Speaker 1: like that could be part of this, you know, the
30:42
Speaker 1: total scam that he's trying to pull off. Kind of
30:44
Speaker 1: question for you, Doctor Ryan Fuller, Clinical psychologists joining me,
30:48
Speaker 1: Doctor Fuller, why do people overshare? Why do I care
30:52
Speaker 1: about the chili in his fridge? And have you ever
30:55
Speaker 1: noticed I've looked online and people post for it since
31:00
Speaker 1: what they're cooking for dinner? Or you actually sent a
31:03
Speaker 1: shot of your closet crammed with designer stuff? Why what
31:08
Speaker 1: is that? Well, in the day of social media, certainly
31:10
Speaker 1: people are sharing a lot more publicly than ever before.
31:13
Speaker 1: I don't pretend to have the best answer, but I
31:15
Speaker 1: think to some extent people people do like to share
31:18
Speaker 1: because they think what's important to them is going to
31:20
Speaker 1: be important to everyone else. And with social media or
31:23
Speaker 1: even a promotional video like this, we don't get a
31:26
Speaker 1: lot of negative pushback, so why would we stop? It
31:29
Speaker 1: feels a little good. Every once in a while we
31:31
Speaker 1: get alike and this person's case, he actually was getting
31:34
Speaker 1: victims to give him lots of money. So even if
31:37
Speaker 1: you know ninety eight percent of people are turned off,
31:39
Speaker 1: if two percent meet up with him, and you know,
31:42
Speaker 1: right over checks for eighty thousand dollars, it works for him. Now,
31:45
Speaker 1: I was trying to explain the other day, doctor Fuller,
31:47
Speaker 1: to my son. He knows another kid that's always saying, well,
31:51
Speaker 1: I've got the brand new Apple Watch and I have
31:54
Speaker 1: the new Galaxy whatever. I said, John David, don't dislike
31:59
Speaker 1: him for you need to feel badly for him, because clearly,
32:03
Speaker 1: of course I'm no shrink like you, Doctor Fuller. He
32:06
Speaker 1: must feel bad about himself in some way or insecure,
32:09
Speaker 1: and to make up for that, he boasts about things
32:12
Speaker 1: that he may or may not have to I don't know,
32:16
Speaker 1: feel more important, And that's his way of getting to
32:19
Speaker 1: be liked or to try to be popular. Does that
32:22
Speaker 1: make sense or because here we see this guy totally
32:26
Speaker 1: lying to scam women out of money like almost one
32:29
Speaker 1: hundred grand, But is that why people boast? Yeah? I
32:32
Speaker 1: mean I certainly think that's a very reasonable ipothosity have
32:36
Speaker 1: about your your son's friend. I mean, you know what
32:39
Speaker 1: we do know about people's level of happiness is. It
32:41
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with our perceptions of social comparisons,
32:43
Speaker 1: and so, you know, we do want others to respect
32:46
Speaker 1: us and to value us, and you know, many times
32:48
Speaker 1: in our culture that comes down to things like material items.
32:52
Speaker 1: To Debbie Montgomery Johnson, who lost a million dollars in
32:56
Speaker 1: an online dating scam, author of The Woman Behind the Smile,
33:00
Speaker 1: you can get it on Amazon. It's awesome, Debbie. When
33:03
Speaker 1: you hear this guy's self promo video, does it just
33:06
Speaker 1: make your skin crawl? Well, I you know, I see
33:09
Speaker 1: it from a different point of view when when I
33:11
Speaker 1: was scammed by a man that was in Nigeria. Of
33:13
Speaker 1: course I didn't know that at the time. But over
33:16
Speaker 1: there they're called the Yahoo We called them the Yahoo boys.
33:19
Speaker 1: They're called the Yahoo Boys, and they're very creative, but
33:21
Speaker 1: talk about bragging. There are pictures of these young men
33:24
Speaker 1: that can think of the economic situation over there. Many
33:27
Speaker 1: of them were unemployed or underemployed, and there's this is
33:30
Speaker 1: a great way to make money for them. So they're
33:32
Speaker 1: showing up with jewelry and cars and money all over
33:36
Speaker 1: and they're looking at Americans and Europeans and I mean
33:40
Speaker 1: people are being scammed all over the world. But these
33:43
Speaker 1: young men are there with this cash and with these
33:47
Speaker 1: items that they feel is wealth and it's it's just
33:51
Speaker 1: over abundance. And I'm sure it's annoying to the locals
33:55
Speaker 1: that see these kids running around like that, but it
33:58
Speaker 1: doesn't surprise me because that you know, this is their
34:00
Speaker 1: gain and they are good at what they do. Their
34:03
Speaker 1: job is to get money from us, and they are
34:05
Speaker 1: very very good at it. They're well trained, they're trained
34:08
Speaker 1: in universities over there. They know what they're doing, they
34:11
Speaker 1: know how to do it quickly. And does it irritate
34:13
Speaker 1: me absolutely because I see the money they were getting,
34:16
Speaker 1: and it's not the boys themselves aren't getting a lot
34:18
Speaker 1: of it. This is an international web of deceit and
34:21
Speaker 1: it's being you know, the money is being used for terrorism,
34:23
Speaker 1: it's being used for trafficking, it's being used for who
34:26
Speaker 1: knows what. And if we knew, as victims, you know
34:30
Speaker 1: at the time a love interest, that that money was
34:33
Speaker 1: being used for those things, I would never, obviously never
34:36
Speaker 1: have done it. But that makes my skin crawls what
34:38
Speaker 1: they're doing with what they're getting. Now, this guy that
34:41
Speaker 1: on this John or Gregory He is all about him,
34:45
Speaker 1: and you know, it's self aggrandizement and look what I
34:48
Speaker 1: can do. And I think he got bolder with time
34:50
Speaker 1: because he's just out there. I mean, my guy. The
34:53
Speaker 1: only reason I found out about my scam is because
34:55
Speaker 1: he actually confessed online and I saw him. The most
34:58
Speaker 1: online victims never find out who they've been scammed by,
35:02
Speaker 1: and there's no closure, and that's that's very difficult to
35:06
Speaker 1: recover from because you don't know who really scammed you.
35:09
Speaker 1: You see a picture, but honestly, that picture is a
35:13
Speaker 1: profile that's been taken by the scammers, and that's the
35:16
Speaker 1: other victim. The other side of the house is the
35:18
Speaker 1: victim of the picture, the men, the women, you know, whoever.
35:22
Speaker 1: And it's it's a very difficult situation and it's it's
35:25
Speaker 1: annoying in a lot of ways. Let me ask you,
35:27
Speaker 1: Debbie mcgomery Johnson, when did you first realize you had
35:30
Speaker 1: been scammed out of a million dollars? Well, not at
35:34
Speaker 1: until after the two years. I think I had some
35:36
Speaker 1: pink flags going on. I probably had the gut feeling
35:40
Speaker 1: at different times, but I couldn't believe someone would lie
35:42
Speaker 1: to me for two years. So it was when he
35:44
Speaker 1: confessed to me. He came online one morning and asked
35:47
Speaker 1: me about forgiveness and it was a long chat for hours,
35:51
Speaker 1: and he came on and said, I have a confession
35:53
Speaker 1: to make and then he told me. And of course
35:55
Speaker 1: at that point I said, you're lying. I said you're sick.
35:57
Speaker 1: There's something wrong. And he actually came on online on
36:00
Speaker 1: an online video and I saw him for the first
36:02
Speaker 1: time over two years. And it wasn't my handsome brit
36:05
Speaker 1: It was a young, dark haired, dark eyed, dark skinned,
36:08
Speaker 1: young Nigerian man who said he fell in love with
36:10
Speaker 1: me and wanted, you know, wanted to continue without the money.
36:14
Speaker 1: But I'm just like, you're out of your mind, and
36:16
Speaker 1: thank goodness, thank goodness for me. How did he get
36:19
Speaker 1: the money from you? What was his excuse for nat?
36:21
Speaker 1: It was never my little overtime. At the beginning, it was,
36:24
Speaker 1: you know, I have this friend that wants to get
36:25
Speaker 1: online dating and can you help him out. He's another
36:28
Speaker 1: contract or overseas, and I said, sure, the more the
36:30
Speaker 1: merry and we get more men on the online dating
36:32
Speaker 1: site would be better for all of us women. And
36:34
Speaker 1: so that's how it started. And the first thing, you know,
36:38
Speaker 1: Eric had a an international he was an international contractor.
36:41
Speaker 1: I have an international business. I know that sometimes when
36:44
Speaker 1: you're overseas you have things that come up. He had
36:47
Speaker 1: some visa thing, he had a tariff, and there were
36:50
Speaker 1: many things over the two years. But it starts little,
36:53
Speaker 1: and they want to see if you're willing to give
36:55
Speaker 1: them money. They want to see if you're willing to
36:57
Speaker 1: overlook grammatical errors in their They want to see how
37:01
Speaker 1: willing you are. And and I've got to say that
37:03
Speaker 1: they're looking for the prime victims are widows or recently
37:09
Speaker 1: divorced men and women who have big hearts and are
37:13
Speaker 1: willing to know love family. Family's big, so they pretend
37:17
Speaker 1: to be your family. And over time, I would do
37:19
Speaker 1: anything for my family, for my children, and he became
37:23
Speaker 1: family throughout those two years, and I wanted to help them,
37:26
Speaker 1: and so you know, I would send him at the
37:30
Speaker 1: beginning very little money, and then at the end it
37:32
Speaker 1: got to be very large amounts of money. But at
37:35
Speaker 1: that point I was thinking, Okay, this next transaction, this
37:39
Speaker 1: will be the last he'll get home. This will be
37:40
Speaker 1: the last he'll get home. And then something would happen,
37:43
Speaker 1: and yeat that point, you're like, okay, you're so far invested.
37:46
Speaker 1: You don't want to stop because you know what you
37:49
Speaker 1: would have lost. Wow. Still hoping that it's going to
37:53
Speaker 1: end with a good ending. So Lee Egan, let me
37:57
Speaker 1: ask you, based on what Debbie Montgomery Johnson has just
38:00
Speaker 1: told us, author of The Woman Behind the Smile, where
38:04
Speaker 1: is this ending with the scammer John Martin Hill, if
38:07
Speaker 1: that's really his name, It's ending with him behind bars.
38:11
Speaker 1: He fled Georgia. It happened in Georgia. He fled Georgia.
38:14
Speaker 1: Somebody tipped him off that police were looking for him,
38:17
Speaker 1: and he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and somebody saw his
38:21
Speaker 1: picture on social media and called police and they found
38:25
Speaker 1: him in a Marriott hotel or set him into custody.
38:28
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off, goodbye friend,