PAA man who passed himself off as a Goldman Sachs banker and conned two women he met on Tinder out of $26,000 (£18,218) is now facing multiple fraud charges.
According to the criminal complaint, 35-year-old Brandon Kiehm is a dog walker who was passing himself off as Tristan Acocella, a Goldman Sachs banker, on Tinder.
Kiehm allegedly ‘matched’ with the first woman in July 2015 and the couple dated for several months, reports the Guardian.
But in August Kiehm began asking the woman for money, ‘because his sister was undergoing cancer treatment and because his wallet had been stolen.’
The woman allegedly gave Kiehm approximately $14,000 (£9,800).
A second woman dated ‘Tristan’ for several weeks in October 2015 after the pair met on Tinder. Kiehm asked her for money, ‘because his mother was undergoing cancer treatment and because he had been robbed.’ – it looks like he’s not very imaginative.
The second woman allegedly gave Kiehm approximately $12,000 (£8,400).
FlickrThe women only realised what had happened because Kiehm paid them back with cheques from bank accounts which had been closed. The cheques were then rejected by their banks.
It seems that Kiehm’s scheme finally came undone after New York police spoke to the con artist’s mother – who told them she had neither a daughter nor cancer.
According to the Guardian, Kiehm has now been charged with five felony counts of grand larceny, identity theft and scheme to defraud.
Commons-WikimediaManhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr said in a statement:
The classic dating scams of yesteryear appear to be thriving online. My office is seeing an increase in the number of scammers targeting singles online.
But it doesn’t end with dating scams – Kiehm has also been charged with a third scam.
He allegedly stole the debit card information of one of his dog-walking clients and opened a Venmo (mobile payment service) account with it – charging about $13,000 (£9,100) to the card.
What a bastard!
