Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Jail Time for ELITE CON WOMAN Who Scams $2.8 Million from Holocaust Survivor

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Jail Time for ELITE CON WOMAN Who Scams $2.8 Million from Holocaust Survivor · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A Florida woman steals millions
0:17
Speaker 1: from a Holocaust survivor. Can you even.
0:21
Speaker 2: Imagine that the man lives through the Holocaust, goes through
0:27
Speaker 2: life with all these horrible, horrible memories, alders his life forever,
0:34
Speaker 2: and now he runs into this disaster.
0:39
Speaker 1: And falls for her scam. The woman steals nearly three
0:44
Speaker 1: million dollars of his life savings. Uh well, I've got
0:50
Speaker 1: an update for you. She has had a date with
0:53
Speaker 1: Lady Justice. And let me just tell you, Lady Justice
0:56
Speaker 1: is not the one that got a black eye. I see, Grace.
1:00
Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here
1:03
Speaker 1: at faxination and series six sem one eleven. That's right,
1:07
Speaker 1: a Florida woman who drained an eighty seven year old
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Speaker 1: Holocaust survivors life's savings by posing as a love interest
1:17
Speaker 1: and then live the high life. That's right, living lavishly
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Speaker 1: off the two point eight million dollars she stole, just
1:25
Speaker 1: got sentenced to over four years in prison. Take that woman.
1:32
Speaker 1: Peachius Stergo thirty six of champions Gate, Florida was described
1:38
Speaker 1: by the judge. It was Judge Edgardo Ramos. He described
1:42
Speaker 1: her as quote unspeakably cruel and motivated by greed. You know,
1:49
Speaker 1: I'm happy she got jail time four years, but I
1:52
Speaker 1: would like to have seen her and get the max
1:54
Speaker 1: something you know, along the lines of twenty Not only
1:56
Speaker 1: did she commit grand larceny, she he stole from a
2:01
Speaker 1: senior citizen, which is in my mind to protect a
2:05
Speaker 1: class and too, a victim that had already lived through
2:13
Speaker 1: such a horrific, horrific ordeal that most people cannot even
2:20
Speaker 1: begin to identify with leave living through the Holocaust. Oh
2:26
Speaker 1: and now after all that, he meets up with Peachus Sturgo, Well,
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Speaker 1: number one, she's definitely going to help. Okay, that said,
2:36
Speaker 1: I'd like her to have a little bit longer stay
2:39
Speaker 1: at the penitentiary and route to supper with Satan. How
2:44
Speaker 1: did the whole thing go down? First of all, take
2:47
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends. A crime online.
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Speaker 3: An eighty seven year old Holocaust survivor living in Manhattan
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Speaker 3: is enjoying a nice retirement when he decides to look
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Speaker 3: for some companionship online, someone nice, someone to pass the
3:00
Speaker 3: time with. And he found her or did she find him?
3:03
Speaker 3: It was a dating app that connected thirty six year
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Speaker 3: old Peaches Strgo with the eighty seven year old, wealthy,
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Speaker 3: retired gentleman. Stergo finds the man easy to talk to
3:12
Speaker 3: and he looks forward to chatting with her. Then one
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Speaker 3: day she shares a small problem with him. She was
3:17
Speaker 3: in an accident a while back, and the lawyer that
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Speaker 3: represented her is now demanding to be paid before he
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Speaker 3: will release her funds. She wasn't asking for the money,
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Speaker 3: just alone to pay the lawyer. She would pay him
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Speaker 3: as soon as she accessed her money. He asked where
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Speaker 3: to send it.
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Speaker 1: Wow, this woman, peaches Stgo aka Alice. She's playing the
3:41
Speaker 1: long game. She's got her eye on the prize. This
3:45
Speaker 1: scam took almost four years. So that's almost what almost
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Speaker 1: a million dollars a year, seven hundred and fifty thousand
3:57
Speaker 1: dollars per year that she steals from a Holocaust survivor
4:03
Speaker 1: take a listen to more from Sydney Summer.
4:05
Speaker 3: The conversations with Stgo and her octogenarian friend continue. Stergo
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Speaker 3: tells her gentleman friend that the money has been deposited
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Speaker 3: in her TD bank account. Oddly enough, there's a small
4:16
Speaker 3: problem with her TD bank account and she needs a.
4:19
Speaker 1: Little more money.
4:20
Speaker 3: If she doesn't get the money soon, her account will
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Speaker 3: be frozen, and not only will she lose her money,
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Speaker 3: but she also won't be able to pay back her
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Speaker 3: gentleman friend. She really wants to make sure she pays
4:30
Speaker 3: him back, so he writes another check.
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Speaker 1: This poor guy, eighty seven year old Holocaust survivor living
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Speaker 1: by himself, lonely, goes online to make a friend, and he,
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Speaker 1: of all people, finds Alice Peach's stergo joining me in all
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Speaker 1: Star panel to make sense of what we know of this,
4:53
Speaker 1: but first straight out to crimeoonline dot Com investigative reporter
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Speaker 1: Dave Met Dave I was noticed saying the way Sidney
5:01
Speaker 1: Somner was explaining it that she has this online conversation
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Speaker 1: going and they talk on the phone as well, and
5:10
Speaker 1: they send pictures, so he's got a picture of who
5:13
Speaker 1: he thinks is a beautiful woman talking to him. And
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Speaker 1: then after weeks have passed, then suddenly out goes the hook.
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Speaker 1: She says she has a small problem, a small problem
5:28
Speaker 1: regarding an accident that happened a while back. Now the
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Speaker 1: lawyer wants money, totally believable, so she basically, you know,
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Speaker 1: wraps him up in a cocoon of complacency and then bam, puts.
5:43
Speaker 4: Out the hook you mentioned early on the Long Con.
5:47
Speaker 4: You said it, and you're dead on right.
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Speaker 1: What she does.
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Speaker 4: She paints herself as a double victim. She was in
5:53
Speaker 4: a car accident and she was hurt bad enough that
5:57
Speaker 4: she had to get a lawyer to go after a
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Speaker 4: settlement money and the lawyer apparently won. But she's still
6:03
Speaker 4: the victim because now the lawyer says, well, I'm not
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Speaker 4: freeing up your money until I get paid. So she
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Speaker 4: is able to present this gentleman who look, he's looking
6:12
Speaker 4: you mentioned he's lonely, he's looking for a friend. And
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Speaker 4: in reality, when you are talking about somebody who's got
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Speaker 4: a couple of million dollars, twenty five thousand probably doesn't
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Speaker 4: sound like that much, not like does to me. And
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Speaker 4: the way she pitches it is pay this money is
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Speaker 4: already here. All I've got to do is borrow it
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Speaker 4: from you so I can get all of mine and
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Speaker 4: then I'll pay you right back. That's the hook and
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Speaker 4: that's the carrot, all at the same time, and.
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Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about the scam that she pulled on
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Speaker 1: this guy. Deve mag joining me crimeonline dot Com investigative
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Speaker 1: reporter also with me Debbie Montgomery Johnson a real life
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Speaker 1: victim of cyber love. She's now an international speaker, best
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Speaker 1: selling author, victim's advocate, and founder of The One Behind
7:00
Speaker 1: the Smile at the Woman behind the Smile dot com. Debbie,
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Speaker 1: what happened to you?
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Speaker 5: Similar? But not the same? I mean, it was as
7:09
Speaker 5: long as our last gentleman said, it was a long time.
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Speaker 5: It actually happened after my husband passed away suddenly, and
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Speaker 5: I went online because do to friends saying get a life.
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Speaker 5: They wanted me after six months afterlud died. They said,
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Speaker 5: get a life, you know, get out and put yourself
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Speaker 5: out there. And I thought online dating then was safe.
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Speaker 5: It was safer than doing it in person. I'd been
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Speaker 5: married twenty six years and I wasn't ready for somebody
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Speaker 5: in the house. But I did want a friend, just
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Speaker 5: as this gentleman he wanted a friend. Men particularly are
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Speaker 5: subjective to the white Knight syndrome, kind of like he
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Speaker 5: wanted to take care of her, and I wanted my
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Speaker 5: guy to take care of me. But you know, I
7:46
Speaker 5: didn't give willingly to get him out of trouble. Obviously.
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Speaker 5: I was helping his company, his business, and I was
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Speaker 5: assured also being paid back, and so it's not it's
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Speaker 5: not aimed at people who necessarily lonely. In this case,
8:02
Speaker 5: this is elder fraud, and that gentleman was lonely. He
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Speaker 5: was by himself. And I always say be aware, you know,
8:08
Speaker 5: be aware of what family are doing, what your friends
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Speaker 5: are doing, and listen to them, watch them. I wonder
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Speaker 5: you know, his son found out about this later on,
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Speaker 5: but who was watching him write sixty two checks? Where
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Speaker 5: was the bank?
8:20
Speaker 6: You know?
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Speaker 5: And the biggest thing I want here is is we
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Speaker 5: all look at it like eighty seven year old man
8:26
Speaker 5: Holocauster Biber, Yeah, that's bad. But you've got sixty year
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Speaker 5: old women, seventy year old women, eighty year old women
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Speaker 5: being taken every single day around the globe. And we
8:36
Speaker 5: look at these women as, oh, that was really stupid
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Speaker 5: of them. Would they do that? There's no victim blame here.
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Speaker 5: This is pure manipulation. She is a criminal and she
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Speaker 5: has gone after this gentleman and just ripped his heart out,
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Speaker 5: ripped his home away from him. And you know, or
8:52
Speaker 5: I'd put her. But it happens every single day to
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Speaker 5: people just like you and me.
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Speaker 1: How much money were you scammed out of Debbie.
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Speaker 5: Over two years, I lost a million a million dollars.
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Speaker 1: Oh dear Lord in heaven, and the guy said that. Actually,
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Speaker 1: let's hear it in Debbie's own words in Our Cup
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Speaker 1: forty three, speaking to CBS, I wasn't lonely.
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Speaker 7: Desperate, lonely. I really I wanted someone to talk to.
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Speaker 1: Debbie Montgomery.
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Speaker 8: Johnson signed up for an online dating service after the
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Speaker 8: sudden death of her husband, Lou in twenty ten.
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Speaker 7: I thought, well, that's safe. I can do it from
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Speaker 7: my home.
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Speaker 8: That's where the widowed mother of I met a British
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Speaker 8: businessman who called himself Eric Cole.
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Speaker 7: I talked to him a few times. I mean we
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Speaker 7: messaged every day.
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Speaker 8: Johnson says she and Cole engaged in a two year
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Speaker 8: online relationship, but never met in person.
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Speaker 1: Over the course of their.
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Speaker 8: Relationship, Johnson says she gave Cole more than a million
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Speaker 8: dollars in increments.
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Speaker 7: At this point, your heart rules your head, and I
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Speaker 7: was doing what my heart wanted me to do.
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Speaker 8: In twenty twelve, Johnson says her life stopped when Cole
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Speaker 8: came clean over video chat review who he really was.
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Speaker 8: A young man in Nigeria bas.
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Speaker 7: Smallest face can we keep this going, and I'm thinking,
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Speaker 7: can we keep this going? Are you out of your mind?
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Speaker 1: Can we keep this thing going? And keep this scam going?
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Speaker 1: Is what he meant to say. Prime Stories with Nancy Grace,
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Speaker 1: Oh please. When given a chance to speak, peach Stergo
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Speaker 1: thirty six Florida, said, I'm sorry. Really, this woman admitt
10:44
Speaker 1: she drained the life savings of a man she met
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Speaker 1: on a dating website. The poor guy's eighty seven years old.
10:51
Speaker 1: He's on a dating website. Okay, give him credit for
10:55
Speaker 1: being the eternal optimist. But instead of meeting a nice
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Speaker 1: lady to date and go have dinner with or whatever
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Speaker 1: they're gonna do, he meets this woman a con artist.
11:07
Speaker 1: Will she got her come up? It's in court, but
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Speaker 1: he's never going to get his money back. Take a
11:12
Speaker 1: listen to our cut three.
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Speaker 3: Strugo continues to have emergencies and a lot of bad luck.
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Speaker 3: She seeks advice from her occagenarian friend, sharing emails from Tdbank,
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Speaker 3: official letters from a TD Bank employee, as well as
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Speaker 3: invoices to show that she is trying to get things
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Speaker 3: paid off so she can get her money freed up.
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Speaker 1: When that's done, she tells.
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Speaker 3: The retiree she can pay him back, but now the
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Speaker 3: man doesn't have any more to give and he calls
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Speaker 3: his son for help. A few years ago, he had
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Speaker 3: enough money to live a financially worry free retirement, and
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Speaker 3: now he's going to lose his apartment.
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Speaker 1: Losing everything. Joining me Jeffrey Wolf, Denver based cyber crime lawyer,
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Speaker 1: founder and manager of Wolf Law Colorado dot com. Jeffrey,
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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. You know, it's not
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Speaker 1: hard at all. It's not difficult to fake an official
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Speaker 1: looking bank statement or an American Express email. I remember
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Speaker 1: almost got taken in by an email. It looks just
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Speaker 1: like American Express emails, except it said something that didn't
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Speaker 1: make sense to me, and you know it always says
12:23
Speaker 1: click here, and then you get a ton of malware.
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Speaker 1: Before I clicked, I read it again and I'm like,
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Speaker 1: this just isn't right, This isn't the way my account
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Speaker 1: would normally be. And it turns out it was fake.
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Speaker 1: But I was always impressed by the fraudster's ability to
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Speaker 1: fake such a legitimate looking American Express email. So here's
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Speaker 1: an eighty seven year old guy living alone and this
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Speaker 1: woman pieces Strugo sends him letters from her bank, letters
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Speaker 1: from credit cards and lawyers, and they all look look real.
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Speaker 9: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely.
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Speaker 10: That ends up being part of the fraud in these
13:05
Speaker 10: cases is that somebody who you have a genuine relationship with,
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Speaker 10: who needs money from you, doesn't feel the need to
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Speaker 10: send you proof that they need it. That is lying,
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Speaker 10: one oh one. The more somebody talks, the more they're lying,
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Speaker 10: the more proof that they're saying they can show you,
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Speaker 10: the more likely it is that they have fabricated that.
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Speaker 10: And so I tell anyone who's dealing with anything online
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Speaker 10: that you always want to make sure that you are
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Speaker 10: only dealing financially with people you know, that you are
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Speaker 10: only dealing with portals and websites, that you know that
13:37
Speaker 10: you're never taking anybody's word for it. You're never responding
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Speaker 10: to emails, You pick up the phone, you call the
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Speaker 10: number on the back of your credit card when your
13:44
Speaker 10: bank emails you, because then you know you're talking to
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Speaker 10: them and not whoever has emailed you. And it's no
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Speaker 10: different than when you're looking at one of these romance
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Speaker 10: cons is that the more proof they're trying to give you,
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Speaker 10: the more likely it is that some or all of
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Speaker 10: it is fraud.
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Speaker 1: Almost every joining me right now. Is the Queen of
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Speaker 1: body language interpretation, Susan Constantine. She can spot a lie
14:09
Speaker 1: a mile away. Deception is her specialty. She's president of
14:13
Speaker 1: the Human Behavior Academy. Oh my goodness, I can just
14:16
Speaker 1: imagine that cocktail party, everybody watching each other as they
14:20
Speaker 1: move around the room. Author of How to Spot a
14:23
Speaker 1: Liar and seven seconds or left, she says Susanconstantine dot com.
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Speaker 1: I don't want to go to your party, Okay, as
14:29
Speaker 1: if I was going to be invited, But Susan Constantine,
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Speaker 1: with all those body language experts at the Human Behavior Academy,
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Speaker 1: Oh dear Susan, I never thought of it till Jeffrey
14:42
Speaker 1: just said it. That when people suddenly start trying to
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Speaker 1: offer you proof of the claim of their request when
14:51
Speaker 1: you didn't ask them for it. True.
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Speaker 11: And so that's one of the clues that people will
14:55
Speaker 11: give you unsolicited information. They will give you a lot
15:00
Speaker 11: of additional information without actually asking answering the question. So
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Speaker 11: anytime we hear or I hear additional extraneous information, that
15:10
Speaker 11: is a really big red flag because they're what they're
15:13
Speaker 11: trying to do is convince you and to try to
15:15
Speaker 11: gain your trust. When they don't feel confident themselves. They
15:19
Speaker 11: keep on going until they feel that they have convinced
15:22
Speaker 11: you before they'll go on to the next subject.
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Speaker 1: Susan Constantine, give me some tips, okay, Karen Stark, renowned
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Speaker 1: psychologists joining us out of Manhattan. I want you to
15:33
Speaker 1: take all this in percolate. Okay, then for me the
15:37
Speaker 1: perfect cup of analysis. Okay, Susan Constantine. What should we
15:42
Speaker 1: look for when we're looking for lies?
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Speaker 11: Okay, So when we were looking for lies, we're looking
15:47
Speaker 11: for incongruencies between what they say and well, if in
15:52
Speaker 11: this case they didn't get to this person didn't get
15:55
Speaker 11: to know them, you know, in person. But in the
15:58
Speaker 11: real world, what we're looking for incongruencies. We're looking for
16:02
Speaker 11: differences between what they say in their body language. They're
16:05
Speaker 11: not congruent. So anytime you ever see any sort of
16:08
Speaker 11: shift or deviation from there, that is always a red
16:11
Speaker 11: flag for me. The other thing is they want to
16:13
Speaker 11: build your trust very quickly. They really in build themselves
16:17
Speaker 11: very quickly and rapidly into your life. They are very likable, approachable,
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Speaker 11: they are easily to get to know. They build your
16:27
Speaker 11: trust very easily, and those are really big clues for me.
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Speaker 11: So language is a big one. They generally don't put
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Speaker 11: their own name into it. They eliminate pronouns like I, me,
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Speaker 11: and my. Those are the really big red flags. They
16:40
Speaker 11: tend to use third person pronouns like they, them and
16:42
Speaker 11: those guys. They use a lot of red verbal red
16:46
Speaker 11: hearings which I could go into and for a long time.
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Speaker 11: But they use third person gimmicks, They use loophole, line,
16:52
Speaker 11: they use a lot of these different techniques to be
16:54
Speaker 11: able to gain your trust and and also too when
16:58
Speaker 11: you're looking at their body language. You know, oftentimes we
17:01
Speaker 11: say they don't make eye contact with you. Well that's
17:03
Speaker 11: not true, because they tend to really lock eyes with you.
17:07
Speaker 11: Their eye tends to kind of move or jog around
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Speaker 11: and really not assign a deception, but rather look for
17:13
Speaker 11: these little micro movements, you know, where they're a little
17:16
Speaker 11: one side of their shoulder will shrug a little bit.
17:18
Speaker 11: They'll have a smirk or a smile or a laugh
17:21
Speaker 11: or popping out of air when they're talking at the
17:24
Speaker 11: end of the sentence, or maybe at the end of
17:26
Speaker 11: their sentence, they'll raise their pitch. So any kind of
17:28
Speaker 11: vocal clues, vocal tremors that are kind of off their baseline.
17:32
Speaker 11: Those are all indications of deception.
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Speaker 6: You know.
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Speaker 1: One thing I want to mention Susan Constantine, author of
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Speaker 1: How to Spot a Liar in Seven Seconds or Less. Susan,
17:41
Speaker 1: I think some of their discussions were over zoom or
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Speaker 1: FaceTime because he is in Manhattan and she's in Florida,
17:50
Speaker 1: so I think he did get to see her. But
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Speaker 1: of course, he's eighty seven years old. He's been through
17:56
Speaker 1: h DOUBLEL and back. As I mentioned, he's a Holocaust survivor,
18:00
Speaker 1: which may have played into some of his feelings of
18:04
Speaker 1: loneliness and abandonment and looking for comfort. Of course, I'm
18:10
Speaker 1: just a JD, not an MD or shrink like some
18:12
Speaker 1: of you guys. But him being alone in his apartment
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Speaker 1: in Manhattan, surrounded by millions of people, but not really
18:22
Speaker 1: knowing anyone. Well, take a listen to what happens when
18:27
Speaker 1: he finally calls his son. Take a listen to our
18:31
Speaker 1: cut four.
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Speaker 3: When the eighty seven year old Holocaust survivor's son gets involved,
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Speaker 3: It isn't long before he reaches out for help. The
18:38
Speaker 3: United States Justice Apartment investigates and finds out that Peaches Sturgo,
18:42
Speaker 3: who friends sometimes called Alice didn't get the money from
18:45
Speaker 3: an injury settlement. There was never any injury or lawyer.
18:49
Speaker 3: The email address was fake, and so were the official
18:52
Speaker 3: looking documents from TD Bank. It was all a fraud.
18:55
Speaker 3: But while the old man lost his life savings and
18:58
Speaker 3: had to give up his apartment, was living large with
19:01
Speaker 3: his life savings while her old friend is losing his apartment.
19:05
Speaker 3: Stgo lives in a gated community and owns a condo,
19:08
Speaker 3: numerous cars, a boat, and she spends thousands of his
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Speaker 3: dollars on designer clothing in vacations at the Ritz Carlton and.
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Speaker 1: To our Cuts five and six are friends at Fox
19:18
Speaker 1: thirty five.
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Speaker 12: Investigators says Stgo's actions forced the victim to lose his home.
19:23
Speaker 12: All the while, they believe Sergo was using that money
19:26
Speaker 12: to buy cars, boats, and even a home right here
19:29
Speaker 12: in Central Florida. Beach's Alice Stergo is accused of stealing
19:34
Speaker 12: two point eight million dollars from an eighty seven year
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Speaker 12: old Holocaust survivor. Investigators believe the two men on a
19:42
Speaker 12: dating app in twenty seventeen. They say, not long after
19:46
Speaker 12: the fraud began.
19:47
Speaker 1: Their creativity does no bound.
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Speaker 12: Investigators believe stgo repeatedly lied to the victim, convincing him
19:53
Speaker 12: into sending her fifty thousand dollars a month. The indictment
19:57
Speaker 12: states she made the victim believe that her bank needed
20:01
Speaker 12: more money, or her account we'd freeze and she'd lose
20:04
Speaker 12: it all. Out of fear of losing his money, the
20:06
Speaker 12: victim sent sixty two checks worth over two point eight
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Speaker 12: million dollars.
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Speaker 1: How did this woman steal nearly three million dollars from
20:16
Speaker 1: an old man? Not just an old man, an old
20:19
Speaker 1: man that survived the Holocaust. A judge was not sympathetic
20:25
Speaker 1: when he heard her story, sentencing her to four years
20:29
Speaker 1: behind bars. Frankly, I don't think that was enough, but
20:31
Speaker 1: at least he didn't give her straight probation that could
20:35
Speaker 1: happen in many jurisdictions. This is what happened. Joining me
20:38
Speaker 1: right now, John Muffler, former Chief inspector for the US
20:41
Speaker 1: Marshall Service. You can find him at Equitossglobalsecurity dot com. John.
20:46
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us, John. How do the
20:49
Speaker 1: FEDS track her down? Because this is clearly wire fraud.
20:54
Speaker 1: She's using the phone, she's using the computer, she's getting
20:59
Speaker 1: financial trends actions across state lines, and that's how the
21:03
Speaker 1: FEDS get a hold of you. She's in Florida, he's
21:06
Speaker 1: in New York. These fraudulent transactions used wire which is
21:11
Speaker 1: like bank transactions or credit card transactions and checks financial transfers.
21:17
Speaker 1: But how do they find her? How can they track
21:21
Speaker 1: her down? John?
21:22
Speaker 9: You know, this information is all trackable because it's all
21:27
Speaker 9: the electronic communications, bank accounts, social media, correspondence, phone calls,
21:35
Speaker 9: all that's very easily trackable. I imagine they have a
21:39
Speaker 9: very lengthy list of not just the crime, but potentially
21:45
Speaker 9: other victims as well. I can't imagine she came out
21:49
Speaker 9: of nowhere to begin her first act as a con
21:53
Speaker 9: artist with this particular victim.
21:55
Speaker 1: But I mean physically, how do you do it? I
21:58
Speaker 1: mean you've got accounts that she's said having the money,
22:01
Speaker 1: where is being deposited? And then so what you go
22:06
Speaker 1: to the bank and you get an idea of whose
22:08
Speaker 1: account that is and where they live? How do you
22:10
Speaker 1: do it? How do you physically do it?
22:12
Speaker 9: Yeah, you're looking at getting you know, the appropriate you know,
22:17
Speaker 9: information to the courts for her particular bank information, her
22:24
Speaker 9: social Security number, her data, birth information they'd be able
22:27
Speaker 9: to get from her and then able to research through
22:33
Speaker 9: the different credit bureaus where that money may be what's
22:36
Speaker 9: connected to her. So again it takes takes some little
22:39
Speaker 9: bit of due diligence on the agent's part, but I
22:42
Speaker 9: think fairly easy to connect her name to you know,
22:46
Speaker 9: the different accounts, and she's been using to deposit.
22:49
Speaker 1: Wait until you hear how Peaches used this poor man's money.
22:56
Speaker 1: Take a listnour cut nine W s H.
22:58
Speaker 13: A Florida woman is facing federal charges after prosecutors say
23:01
Speaker 13: she swindled an eighty seven year old Holocaust survivor out of.
23:04
Speaker 1: Nearly three million dollars.
23:07
Speaker 13: The man met thirty six year old Peaches Stirgo, also
23:10
Speaker 13: known as Alice, on a dating website several years ago.
23:13
Speaker 13: She used a variety of excuses to get him to
23:15
Speaker 13: send her money, always with the promise that she would
23:17
Speaker 13: pay him back now. Instead, we're told she used that
23:20
Speaker 13: money to buy a home in negated community, a condo,
23:23
Speaker 13: a boat, and several cars, including a corvette. By the
23:26
Speaker 13: time the man admitted to his son what he had done,
23:29
Speaker 13: he'd given her his entire life savings.
23:32
Speaker 1: Karen start joining me. High profile psychologist out of Manhattan.
23:35
Speaker 1: You can find her at karenstart dot com Karen with
23:38
Speaker 1: a C. Karen. We heard earlier the so called White
23:43
Speaker 1: Night complex. What happened here?
23:47
Speaker 6: It's so heartbreaking, Nancy, because someone is taking advantage of somebody,
23:54
Speaker 6: an elderly person, and that is what happened. They look
23:58
Speaker 6: for people who are vulnerable, and so he he's looking
24:05
Speaker 6: for a companion and has an instinct to want to help.
24:08
Speaker 6: That's that White Knight. He wants to come in and
24:11
Speaker 6: save her, and he doesn't realize he's being scammed. And
24:15
Speaker 6: the thing that is most upsetting to me in situations.
24:19
Speaker 1: Like this is that the person like this.
24:23
Speaker 6: Gentleman, he doesn't think to get in touch with his family,
24:27
Speaker 6: He doesn't think to ask anybody does this make sense?
24:30
Speaker 6: Or can you look at what I'm doing? And nobody knows.
24:34
Speaker 1: To check on him.
24:36
Speaker 6: And so someone who has been through the worst that
24:39
Speaker 6: anybody can possibly imagine, also card experience, is now being
24:46
Speaker 6: scammed out of all of his money because he's a
24:49
Speaker 6: good person and the least he's helping somebody.
24:52
Speaker 1: And what this woman spent the money on multiple rolex watches,
24:58
Speaker 1: a boat, two cars, luxury items, expensive jewelry, pocketbooks, you
25:08
Speaker 1: name it. What does that say to you, Susan Constantine.
25:12
Speaker 11: Tells me that she's a con and she's a scammer,
25:16
Speaker 11: and this is all about her. So, you know, I
25:18
Speaker 11: think that she became very obsessive about it once she
25:21
Speaker 11: found that she really got a good fish on her hook,
25:24
Speaker 11: and she was all how easy it was for her
25:26
Speaker 11: to be able to gain more of his trust. Then
25:31
Speaker 11: the more that fueled her, so the more it fueled
25:34
Speaker 11: that narcissism in her. She felt she could she was invincible,
25:38
Speaker 11: so she could still still continue to take from him
25:40
Speaker 11: and ask money because she knew that she knew exactly
25:43
Speaker 11: what his triggers were, she knew how to work those
25:46
Speaker 11: triggers for her advantage, and that's that's how she got
25:49
Speaker 11: the money.
25:50
Speaker 1: Guys, what are some red flags we can look out for?
25:53
Speaker 1: Take a listen now cut seven.
25:54
Speaker 3: There's typically a sense of urgency and some reason why
25:58
Speaker 3: the money changed has to continue.
26:01
Speaker 12: Experts say romance fraud crimes like this are on the
26:04
Speaker 12: rise nationwide and are affecting people of all ages. Experts
26:08
Speaker 12: say scams like this are preventable.
26:11
Speaker 3: If they feel to be told the only way to
26:12
Speaker 3: get their money back is by investing additional funds.
26:18
Speaker 1: A huge red flag. The only way to get the
26:20
Speaker 1: money back is to spend more money. That is a
26:24
Speaker 1: huge red flag. And I think part of it to
26:28
Speaker 1: Debbie Montgomery Johnson, who was herself a cyber victim now
26:33
Speaker 1: an international speaker, is that he didn't want to tell
26:37
Speaker 1: his children, his son what he had done because he
26:39
Speaker 1: probably knew that some would disapprove of a relationship with
26:43
Speaker 1: a much much younger woman in another state that he
26:47
Speaker 1: was loaning money to, So he probably didn't want that judging.
26:50
Speaker 5: Well, that's absolutely true, Nancy. And I know when my
26:53
Speaker 5: kids said, Mom, don't, don't don't, I think, hey, I'm
26:55
Speaker 5: the adult here, leave me alone, and I shut them out.
26:58
Speaker 5: And that's exactly what the woman, or a part of
27:01
Speaker 5: me cannot believe that she did this by herself, because
27:04
Speaker 5: typically they work in groups. This is very involved in
27:08
Speaker 5: what she did here. But she actually got him to
27:11
Speaker 5: to not talk about it. And that's what the scammers,
27:14
Speaker 5: the criminals do, is they said, don't listen to those people.
27:17
Speaker 5: You know, I'm going to take care of you. I'm
27:18
Speaker 5: there for you, and I'll make sure that you get
27:21
Speaker 5: your money back, typically with interest, you know. But they
27:24
Speaker 5: isolate because they don't want you to listen to anybody else,
27:27
Speaker 5: just them, And that's devastating when it all falls apart,
27:30
Speaker 5: because now you've isolated yourself from friends and family who
27:33
Speaker 5: could have helped, would have helped, but didn't know what
27:36
Speaker 5: was going on, and that's part of the con.
27:38
Speaker 1: So, Debbie Montgomery, when you were victimized online and lost
27:43
Speaker 1: a million dollars to the scam artist, why is it
27:47
Speaker 1: you did not want your family to know what was.
27:51
Speaker 5: Happening because I was home alone. I was you know,
27:53
Speaker 5: I was the leew had died and I was working
27:56
Speaker 5: my company from the house, and I didn't want to
27:58
Speaker 5: bring the kids into it because when they started being
28:01
Speaker 5: the naysayers, I felt like, it's not any of their business.
28:04
Speaker 5: They weren't living here. My youngest was here, but my
28:06
Speaker 5: oldest was. My older three were out of the house,
28:08
Speaker 5: they had lives of their own, and actually it was
28:12
Speaker 5: it was It was very go see intoxicating. I'm not
28:14
Speaker 5: a drinker, but I loved the feeling that I got
28:18
Speaker 5: when I was involved because I felt like young again.
28:21
Speaker 5: I felt like I was desirable again. It was very
28:24
Speaker 5: interesting the emotions that go on when you're in the
28:27
Speaker 5: middle of this and you don't see the red flags.
28:29
Speaker 5: I looked back and call them pink flags now. But
28:32
Speaker 5: those red flags weren't hard red flags. And when my
28:34
Speaker 5: kids wanted to say, Mom, don't, I'm like, just leave
28:38
Speaker 5: me alone. I'm okay, you know I was. I was
28:40
Speaker 5: not a dummy. I was well and I'm well trained,
28:44
Speaker 5: well educated. I had a good company, and I didn't
28:47
Speaker 5: need my children, who I thought, you know, they were
28:50
Speaker 5: good kids. But it said, I don't need you to
28:52
Speaker 5: tell me what to do right now, and I shut
28:54
Speaker 5: them out. And that's what happens, and that's what the
28:56
Speaker 5: scammer's bank on and they they're laughing their way to
28:59
Speaker 5: the bank because you you are home alone now and
29:01
Speaker 5: you are left by yourself with no one to support you,
29:05
Speaker 5: even though you've done it, basically done that to yourself.
29:07
Speaker 5: You isolated yourself from family because of the encouragement of
29:11
Speaker 5: this cameras Dave.
29:12
Speaker 1: Mag joining me Crime online dot Com investigative reporter. What
29:15
Speaker 1: are some of the things she purchased from the eighty
29:19
Speaker 1: seven year old's life savings?
29:22
Speaker 4: You know, Nancy, the one thing that really caught my attention,
29:25
Speaker 4: and you pointed this out that while he had to
29:28
Speaker 4: give up his apartment in Manhattan. She not only had
29:33
Speaker 4: a house in a gated community, but she also bought
29:36
Speaker 4: a condominium. So well, he lost everything and didn't have
29:39
Speaker 4: a place to stay, she had two places to stay,
29:42
Speaker 4: paid for it by him. She also bought a number
29:45
Speaker 4: of cars. Noted was a Corvette, but also a white
29:50
Speaker 4: twenty two Ram fifteen hundred pickoffs. Now I don't undert
29:55
Speaker 4: I don't know the role types that there are. Not
29:57
Speaker 4: my kind of thing. But she bought a Rolex, Oyster
30:00
Speaker 4: perpetual day date forty with presidents bracelet, date just forty
30:05
Speaker 4: one with j you Beilieve bracelet and a date just
30:08
Speaker 4: forty one with Oyster bracelet and Roman numeral dial.
30:11
Speaker 1: Are all of those Rolexes? Yeah, those are all three Rolexes. Well,
30:14
Speaker 1: she bought three rolexes. You lost me on Oyster. She
30:17
Speaker 1: bought three Rolexes. Good, ma'am. Correct me if I'm wrong,
30:20
Speaker 1: Dave Mack. Did she buy expensive trips?
30:24
Speaker 10: Yep?
30:25
Speaker 1: Did she stay at places like the Ritz Carlton on
30:29
Speaker 1: his money?
30:29
Speaker 4: Yes she did.
30:30
Speaker 1: Did she spend tens of thousands of dollars on expensive meals? Yes,
30:35
Speaker 1: gold coins yeah, gold bars yes, jewelry yes, Relex watches. Yes,
30:41
Speaker 1: designer clothing from stores like Tiffany, Ralph, Lauren Neiman, Marcus
30:45
Speaker 1: lous Viaton.
30:46
Speaker 9: Yes.
30:47
Speaker 1: Okay, I can't claim credit for knowing all that because
30:51
Speaker 1: I am reading directly from the indictment against her. Peaches
30:56
Speaker 1: Stergo aka Alice Time Stories with Nancy Grace, Welcome Back, everybody.
31:17
Speaker 1: Peaches Sturgos is definitely going to hell. But Interrout, I
31:22
Speaker 1: would like to see her do a twenty year stint
31:24
Speaker 1: behind bars for draining the life savings of an eighty
31:28
Speaker 1: seven year old Holocaust survivor posing as an online love interest. Ough, well,
31:35
Speaker 1: you got four years behind bars. That's better than nothing.
31:37
Speaker 1: I'll take it. Susan Constantine joining me, body language expert
31:41
Speaker 1: specializing in deception, author of How to Spot a Liar
31:45
Speaker 1: in Seven Seconds or Less Online? What are the alarm
31:51
Speaker 1: signs that you advise people to search for when they
31:56
Speaker 1: are communicating?
31:57
Speaker 11: Sure, so, one of the things that I've not is
31:59
Speaker 11: just my self, is first of all, the inconsistency with
32:02
Speaker 11: these photographs. A lot of times are a photographs when
32:07
Speaker 11: you're looking at the different photographs between he or she
32:11
Speaker 11: with look to see how they are communicating, and there
32:15
Speaker 11: what photos they've actually put up on the internet, and
32:19
Speaker 11: what the story they're trying to tell, you'll see start
32:21
Speaker 11: to see some inconsistency. A lot of times they'll be
32:25
Speaker 11: just like a little round, little picture of themselves and
32:27
Speaker 11: then they'll keep repeating it over and over and over again.
32:30
Speaker 11: And usually they're in military, where they're some high official
32:34
Speaker 11: someone that is like unobtainable for the average person. The
32:37
Speaker 11: other thing is that I look for too, is in
32:39
Speaker 11: their language. There's always a cutt and taste piece of it.
32:42
Speaker 11: So when you're looking at how they actually praise words,
32:45
Speaker 11: they'll have misspelled words, which is incongruent with, of course
32:48
Speaker 11: their educational level, et cetera. And then they'll pop in
32:53
Speaker 11: a piece that is like in doesn't even make sense.
32:56
Speaker 11: You can tell that they're not very well educated. So
32:59
Speaker 11: those are big sign for me, and that they tend
33:02
Speaker 11: to really build up the person. They speak about things
33:06
Speaker 11: that are the romance side of them, things that they
33:09
Speaker 11: find what they'd want to do with their partners, the
33:13
Speaker 11: you know, the long beaches blocks and the sunsets and
33:17
Speaker 11: the dinners and all this kind of things, which is
33:20
Speaker 11: kind of enticing for our lonely purpose. On the other end,
33:23
Speaker 11: events that they've never met before. One of the things
33:25
Speaker 11: that I always recommend that they do. Number One, do
33:28
Speaker 11: your background check on them. Take the name in there
33:31
Speaker 11: and start to look there. They can go right and
33:33
Speaker 11: truth Finder and see who this guy is. See where
33:35
Speaker 11: there's a new photographs of the person. I've caught more
33:38
Speaker 11: people just even on that, which is a commercial website,
33:41
Speaker 11: and found scammers on it many.
33:44
Speaker 1: Times over truth finder dot com. Yep, that's it.
33:47
Speaker 9: Can I jump in and add something there?
33:49
Speaker 1: Yes, go ahead, please?
33:51
Speaker 5: Yeah.
33:51
Speaker 9: I've heard charm and niceness a few times during the conversation,
33:55
Speaker 9: especially from the victims that have participated in the call.
33:58
Speaker 9: But you know, to add what she just said is,
34:02
Speaker 9: you know, think of think of it as you know,
34:06
Speaker 9: charm and niceness is not a credential for good intent, right,
34:11
Speaker 9: So that is not is not a it's not a
34:14
Speaker 9: character trait. So you got to think of it that way.
34:18
Speaker 9: I mean, she's just said than done. But for victims,
34:22
Speaker 9: if they're hearing such charmingness niceness, there's a reason for that.
34:28
Speaker 9: That's a big red flag I would add to that list.
34:31
Speaker 1: Also, So guys, let me ask John Muffler or Jeffrey Weill.
34:34
Speaker 1: I'll start with you, John, how do we get this
34:36
Speaker 1: victim's money back?
34:38
Speaker 9: That money that she is stolen from the victim, you
34:44
Speaker 9: know that will be resold and you know he will
34:48
Speaker 9: be able to get some of that money back. It's
34:53
Speaker 9: probably not anywhere near the two point eight million that
34:55
Speaker 9: was stolen from him, but he will be able to
34:58
Speaker 9: recover some of that some of that.
35:01
Speaker 1: And how do you go about doing that, Jeffrey.
35:04
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, Nancy, that's going to be through the restitution
35:06
Speaker 10: process at the courthouse and the seizure powers of the
35:09
Speaker 10: federal government when you commit a crime.
35:11
Speaker 1: So one's never paying restitution, Okay, yes, she is.
35:14
Speaker 10: It's going to be a part of her plea bargain.
35:16
Speaker 10: They're going to seize her property.
35:18
Speaker 1: Where you make the victim pay restitution, the victim is
35:21
Speaker 1: already broke, so she's never paying anything out of her pocket.
35:24
Speaker 1: What the state will have to do is seize all
35:27
Speaker 1: of her assets, what they can find, what they can trace,
35:30
Speaker 1: and the state gets it and sells it. She's never
35:33
Speaker 1: going to willingly write a check to anybody. But how
35:37
Speaker 1: do we go about tracking her accounts, getting those rolexes back,
35:42
Speaker 1: finding the cars, selling the condos, selling the house, who
35:47
Speaker 1: does all that the government.
35:49
Speaker 10: Yeah, absolutely, this is a federal case. So the Federal
35:51
Speaker 10: Bureau of Investigation in the Attorney General's office are going
35:55
Speaker 10: to be in charge of tracking the money down, tracking
35:58
Speaker 10: her assets down, seizing them under federal seizure laws, and
36:01
Speaker 10: then selling them and then the proceeds will go to
36:05
Speaker 10: this victim. That is the way the federal government is
36:07
Speaker 10: going to work a case like this. So while she
36:10
Speaker 10: may not write him a physical check because she's about
36:12
Speaker 10: to go to prison, but she doesn't need to write
36:15
Speaker 10: the check. The government's going to write him the check.
36:17
Speaker 10: You're right that he may not get that almost three million.
36:20
Speaker 9: Dollars that he's.
36:20
Speaker 10: Out of pocket, but they have a lot of assets already.
36:24
Speaker 10: We read in the indictment the assets that they have
36:26
Speaker 10: already seized. He is going to get a lot of
36:28
Speaker 10: money back. And he darn well should get all that
36:30
Speaker 10: money back.
36:31
Speaker 1: I hope so so. Debbie Montgomery Johnson, a victim of
36:36
Speaker 1: cyber crimes now international speaker. Bottom line, what's your advice?
36:41
Speaker 5: And beware and be aware. And I can't say that
36:44
Speaker 5: this man is going to be lucky, but he is
36:45
Speaker 5: going to get his money back most most, if not all,
36:48
Speaker 5: of the victims or survivors that I work with have
36:50
Speaker 5: gotten nothing back because you can't you can't find the money.
36:53
Speaker 5: It's gone overseas. So I just watch out for those
36:57
Speaker 5: red flags. If it seems to be too good to
37:00
Speaker 5: be true, than it probably is. Do a like I
37:02
Speaker 5: love to do the background check. When my brothers told
37:04
Speaker 5: me to do that, I said, don't be ridiculous. This
37:06
Speaker 5: is a dating person, But do a reverse search on pictures,
37:10
Speaker 5: get a dating buddy, get someone to help you out,
37:12
Speaker 5: because you know your your heart rules your head and
37:15
Speaker 5: your endorphins takeover and you don't want to listen to logic.
37:18
Speaker 5: And as the fellow said here, yeah, looking back behind
37:22
Speaker 5: Plays twenty twenty. When you're in the middle of it,
37:24
Speaker 5: you can't see what's happening. You can't. You're feeling. You
37:28
Speaker 5: feel it what you like. You want it to be true,
37:31
Speaker 5: and you will make it true until it crashes and
37:34
Speaker 5: burns and people lose everything. They lose all their money,
37:37
Speaker 5: they lose their homes. Many of the women I've known
37:40
Speaker 5: have lost their lives and that is just devastating. And
37:43
Speaker 5: this is elder abuse at its prime.
37:46
Speaker 1: Karen Stark. But you also have to check our own ego.
37:50
Speaker 1: When you are an eighty seven year old man, what
37:55
Speaker 1: do you think a thirty six year old woman is
37:58
Speaker 1: interested in? You know, let's make it. Let's take it
38:03
Speaker 1: away from this victim. My husband had a friend in college,
38:08
Speaker 1: perfectly normal, wonderful wife, wonderful marriage. He goes to some
38:14
Speaker 1: guy event, to a strip club. I've told you this
38:18
Speaker 1: falls for a stripper. By the time she's through with him,
38:23
Speaker 1: he has sent her son through private school for like
38:26
Speaker 1: seven or eight years, got him set up for college.
38:30
Speaker 1: He's lost his entire bank account. He was like a stockbroker.
38:33
Speaker 1: He loses his job because he went bankrupt, and he
38:37
Speaker 1: loses his marriage, and then she dumped him. Now you
38:41
Speaker 1: have to ask yourself, why does this person want me?
38:45
Speaker 1: And that's a hard question when you want to believe
38:48
Speaker 1: they love you.
38:49
Speaker 6: And I think that's what you are describing. And I
38:53
Speaker 6: had encountered with the people that I work with, is
38:55
Speaker 6: that it's so difficult to get somebody to attention to
39:00
Speaker 6: that that to say to somebody who maybe seven years old,
39:05
Speaker 6: you know, why would this young woman be oneting you've
39:08
Speaker 6: been They are so excited about the idea that there
39:12
Speaker 6: is someone who wants to and there's a whole fantasy
39:16
Speaker 6: aspect that takes control. And as your guests pointed out,
39:20
Speaker 6: I mean, you are so embroiled in it and excited
39:23
Speaker 6: about the idea that somebody loves you that it's very
39:27
Speaker 6: hard to be logical, which is what you're talking about.
39:31
Speaker 1: Let's see how quickly pages Stargut is let out from
39:35
Speaker 1: behind bars. I hope not one day early. Nancy Grace
39:41
Speaker 1: signing off goodbye friend,