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

Episode Date: June 7, 2019

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This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Police in Gwinnett County told Channel 2's Barron Peterson he's wanted in several states for the same crime. This is 35-year-old John Hill, a sharp-dressed man who Gwinnett County police say is a classic con artist. The suspect convinced the victim that they had fallen in love instantly. And within a week of dating, he convinced her that not only are they in love, but they should get married and also purchase a home together. Police say Hill interacted with a woman on Match.com in late March and that the two met in person that same day. Before the week was over, detectives say Hill convinced the victim he was a millionaire and talked

her into giving him $80,000 in cash to buy the house and fill it with furniture. But shortly after the money was exchanged, Hill disappeared. Police say they tracked him to a home in Duluth where they encountered another woman who claimed to be his girlfriend. And the woman said that she is in a relationship with the suspect. However, she did not know what his profession was. All she knew was that he was only home on the weekends, but during the week she didn't know exactly where he went. Did a smooth, well-dressed con man scam a woman he meets on Match.com to put up $80,000 toward buying a house. And I'm saying house in air quotas.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Please don't let it happen to you. And I'm going to reveal to you how I was scammed once. You were just hearing our friend Barrett Peterson at WSB TV2 in Atlanta, man, wanted for several states for the same crime. You were hearing Officer Corporal Michelle Piera talking about this smooth, sharply dressed con guy, the name John Martin Hill. Of course, if you've ever had interactions with him, it may be under a different name. Joining me, an all-star panel, former FBI

supervisory special agent Jeff Cortese, Randy Kessler, renowned defense attorney, author of Divorce, Protect Yourself, Your Kids, and Your Future. You can find them at divorceprotect.com. Special guest joining us, Dr. Ryan Fuller, clinical psychologist and executive director, New York Behavioral Health and lecturer at NYU. Also, right now, Debbie Montgomery Johnson. She lost $1 million. Hold on, Jackie. Sit down before I finish this. You better lay down for this, Jackie.

Lost $1 million in an online dating scam. She turned that around and wrote the book, The Woman Behind the Smile. Debbie Montgomery Johnson, are you surprised at all that this very intelligent, and I must say, beautiful woman, put up $80,000 to help buy a house with this guy? I'm not surprised. I'm a little surprised it was so quick, that she did it so quickly. But I'm not surprised that she ended up doing it. I mean, what you do for love. But I mean, a guy tells you that he's fallen in love with you instantly. I mean, maybe when I was 15, I might have fallen for that. Lee Egan with me right now, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Lee, there are so many women getting scammed out of their life savings, their life savings. And I, the armchair psychologist, Dr. Ryan Fuller, be afraid, be very afraid that I'm

getting into your territory. I think women, many women believe that to make their life complete, they have to have a guy. No offense, man, no offense. But I remember my first slogan t-shirt I stole from my sister was a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. And I guess I was, you know, ingrained and brainwashed pretty early because I don't believe that's true. Luckily, I managed to pick one up along the way. man like a fish needs a bicycle. And I guess I was, you know, ingrained and brainwashed pretty early because I don't believe that's true. Luckily, I managed to pick one up along the way. Lee Egan, what happened? How'd this woman lose $80,000? Well, Nancy, what happened was she convinced her somehow that they were in love and that they should get married. And on top of getting

married, they should buy a house. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Immediately buy a house together. Now, Lee, I already heard that much. Tell me who this guy is. Tell me something I don't already know. Okay, well, he went by John Hill, but his real name is Gregory Hill. He's a 29-year-old. He comes from Long Branch, New Jersey. I thought he was 35.

I am getting he is 29, and he was a class of 2003 from Long Ranch, New Jersey. That's where he started his crime at. Hold on. Hold that thought. Hold that thought. Okay. Randy Kessler, renowned defense attorney, you know what I love almost more than anything? When you kick off a criminal trial, you, the prosecutor, have to stand in front of the entire jury panel.

Okay? That's like 80 people. The judge behind you frowning, I was always sure, at me. The defendant, the defense attorney, the blah, blah, blah, everybody in the courtroom. And you read the indictment, the formal indictment, verbatim, to the grand jury. And what I really love is when I get to say, aka, also known as, and then I get to read a string of aliases. By the time I finish reading all those aliases, the jury is looking at that defendant like, did you just hear Lee Egan?

I mean, I'm not five minutes into it. I've already got two aliases and two DOBs, date of birth, Randy. Well, first of all, when you stand up in front of a jury, all they're looking at is you, and they want to know what's going to come out of your mouth, because you were captivated by the prosecutor, and we miss those days, Nancy, back in Atlanta. Okay, okay. It's true. It's true. A-plus for sucking up, but it won't

help you now. Go ahead. Well, but you know, it's interesting, and I'm not taking anything away from this victim, but, you know, years and ages of history has gone on with the opposite, with men being suckered by beautiful women who say, you know what? I'm in love with you. And men fall for it hook, line, with men being suckered by beautiful women who say, you know what, I'm in love with you. And men fall for it hook, line, and sinker, and so do women. We all are victims, and we all have the potential to be victims, or the kind of person

this guy is. And I'm sorry that it happened to her, but it is not unique to women, in my opinion. And I apologize. I do not mean anything against her. She is a victim, no question about it. She should be avenged, but she is not alone. And there are certainly men who have fallen prey to the same kind of thing on the other side. Well, see, see what you did right there. See what he did, Dr. Ryan Fuller. I need a shrink right now. Do you see what he did? He evaded my question about this guy already. We're not five minutes into talking together and he's already put the onus back on women. Let me remind everybody, it was in the 1920s before we could even vote, okay?

We are not at the top of the pyramid here, okay? But I'm talking about this guy, Dr. Ryan Fuller, not men and women in general. Dr. Ryan Fuller, you're the clinical psychologist. It doesn't give you pause when you hear that someone has different aliases and different DOBs and different life histories? So certainly someone using different aliases, you know, indicates some level of intentionality that we would question. And in a case like this, you know, I can't speak exactly what's happening to him, but anyone who's doing that, it might indicate that they really value financial gain over things like honesty and integrity. And so anytime you're going to hear someone doing that, you have to question what their motivations are.

You know, it's gone back as long as I can think of, certainly to Canterbury Tales. And when we first started discussing the seven deadly sins and the love of money, I guess it goes back even further than that. That was not a good choice. It goes all the way back to the story of King Midas and his love of gold, the love of money, the root of all evil. Now, when you say prizes money over integrity, honesty, actual true love, what is that? That should really be a personality disorder, shouldn't it, Dr. Ryan Fuller? Well, I mean, basically it's a question of value, people's moral compass. And so, you know, any of us, personality disorder or not, in this financial gain over those other values that many of us might think are more important, compassion and empathy for others, as I mentioned, integrity and honesty.

Certainly people with personality disorders may have those values, you know, prioritized differently than other people. And in a case like this, if someone's taking advantage of someone's financial like that, I think it's fairly obvious that their values might be different than what most people would expect, certainly the victims that get involved. So, you know, I'm curious as to whether you think this guy fits a particular mold or a personality type. And I'm curious about how they're going to put it together, the whole investigation to Jeff Cortese, former FBI supervisory special agent. Apparently, this guy has been stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from women in at least four different states. Yeah, absolutely. And that information that they compiled in different states through their investigations will be used in the furtherance of this investigation. So, you know, we're going to learn a lot more in the coming months

about the number of different names this individual has used, his different schemes, the number of victims, the number of times he tried this method. You know, these fraud schemes are a numbers game. And so if we can identify victims in four different states, then we can only assume that he's executed this on numerous, numerous occasions. Corporal Pajara says after the victim turned over $83,500 from a Gwinnett financial institution to Mr. Hill, he stopped communicating with her. This sounds like she thought everything was going well and then he lost all contact. But was there a period of time when she did get suspicious and perhaps recorded a phone call? I don't know that she did record any phone calls.

When the fraud detective started looking into it, he discovered that this suspect is possibly linked to other similar crimes out of eight other jurisdictions. And some of those cases are in four different states here in the United States. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Gwinnett authorities call him a fraud suspect who made contact with a young woman just two years older than he on a dating website. It wound up being a quick, costly courtship. About one week of their courtship, the victim and the suspect were convinced that they were in love and that they were going to eventually be married. They then begin to start to do some house hunting so that they can move in together. And our victim tells us that the suspect told her that not only was he a millionaire, but he also

needed $80,000, more than $80,000 in cash from her to go towards the purchase of the home and the furnishings to go inside the home. You are hearing our friend Morse Diggs at Fox 5 Atlanta. Wow, 80 grand right down the tubes. He convinced her they were in love after they first met on Match.com. He says he's a millionaire, convinced her to get married in less than a week, then got her to put up nearly $85,000 toward buying a house together. And as you just heard it, as soon as she put up the money, he lost contact. In in other words he ghosted her joining me lee egan dr ryan fuller randy kessler jeff cortese and debbie montgomery johnson who lost one million dollars in an online dating scam and is the author of the woman behind the smile on amazon debbie montgomery tell me

your story debbie montgomery johnson well my story is a little different. I, my husband passed away suddenly in 2010. And I was, I'm a mom of four now. And I was, you know, running his business. I was alone, typically in my home. And six months after Lou died, my friend said, Deb, you need a life. And to them, that meant you've got to get out again, you've got to do something other than work. And so I went to a website, which it was a faith-based site, and I thought it was safe because my friends that had done online dating, they'd met their husbands or boyfriends or whatever. And so I dipped a toe, and I put my profile out there and tried to make it as perfect as possible.

What do you mean by that, make it as perfect as possible? Well, I wanted to make the pictures look right. I wanted the profile to be set up so it looked like I was, you know, put together woman, educated, and doing very well. And I wanted to, I think the anxieties of dating when I was a young woman came out, I, you know, wanted to look like I was a really good catch, if you could put it that way, in light of this subject. I just wanted people to take me seriously as a woman, and I wanted to be perfect, as we all do. And, you know, I'm very well educated, and I was now running a business, and I did find that in— Can I ask you a question?

Sure. Can I ask you a question? When you say you're very well educated, what is your education? Well, I went to—I graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of North Carolina. I worked as a paralegal afterwards. I was an Air Force intelligence officer. I was a senior branch manager for a bank. I've had a lot of training in scams, and if anybody should not have been taken, it was me. Okay, I'll tell you the reason I asked, Debbie, is because there are a lot of people out there with a lesser education, a lesser job resume than you.

And I want to convince them, not that they're any lesser person than you, but if you can be scammed and you are, did you say military intel? If you could be scammed. I was, did you say military intel? If you could be. I was, yes, I was Air Force intelligence. I mean, if you can be scammed, anybody can be scammed. And can I just tell you very quickly, Debbie, I was scammed. Let me tell you how I was scammed. I went to California for a victim's rights march, so to speak. And after I was meeting people and taking photos and signing

things. And this young girl, she looked to me like she was 17 or 18, came up to me. And she said, I'm an abuse victim. Can I talk to you? And I went, yes. And she said, but I don't want to talk about it here. I'm like, okay, look, here's my phone number. And my, I should have said credit card, but I didn't. Okay, here's my phone number and my email. Let's talk when I leave here. I'll call you when I get back to New York. Well, I did. And we started like a two-year communication where I was trying to help her in many different ways, sort through all of her abuse problems. It culminated in when she told me she had been robbed when she was working at a Starbucks,

that the guy came into Starbucks and threatened her and has thrown her back into her post-traumatic stress syndrome, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, let me contact the police and see if we can find out if we can get your pocketbook and your stuff back that was taken. And she did not want me to contact police. I've been

talking to this young girl that I think is an abusive victim for two years, helping her in many different ways. Turns out the whole thing was a lie. She had never been abused. I finally got in touch with her relatives who told me she had a horrible problem lying. And she had all these alternate identities. I was two years. I had been helping this girl two years and everything had been a big lie. So in my desire to help a crime victim, I got scammed. So it can happen to people that should know better. So Debbie Montgomery, how'd the scam go down with you? I got to hear the whole thing. Well, guys, this is Debbie Montgomery how'd the scam go down with you I gotta hear the whole thing well guys this is Debbie Montgomery Johnson author of the woman behind the smile I'm looking at it right now man is that your dating profile photo you look awesome okay go ahead Debbie well it's interesting when you say two years that strikes the chord in my heart because my situation was two years

and I cannot believe I even to today that I was lied to for two years. And it's an amazing thing that they just bring you into their life and you hear their story and you can tell your story. For two years, I wrote to him because this was back in 2010, 2012. And I wasn't on Skype. He couldn't ever get on Skype. So it was all done through Yahoo chat, which was an amazing thing to me that I could instant message him and we'd be talking, I say talking, but we'd be writing for hours. I have 4,000 pages of journal because I kept every single communication I had with him. So I've got five written volumes, you know, that I took to the FBI, but it was just over time. And I, because I got to know his family, like you would this, that young woman,

I got to know everything about him and, and I had the ups and the downs and the heartache, but the joy is when we'd be communicating. The thing that was tough is that I never saw him in person, and that's my caution today. If you don't see them within two weeks of an online dating thing, then there's a problem. This woman that saw him in person and was taken within a week, I'm still a little bit surprised that that happened, but not really because these scammers are so good at what they do. And especially the online guys, it is an international web of evil and fraud. And they have playbooks, they know exactly what they're going to say to

you. And it's happening worldwide, every day. This guy we are now learning has five different names and has scammed so much money in multiple states. Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. What more do we know about the guy, John Martin Hill? You say he's 29. I say he's 35. Who really knows? What more do we know about this guy? He's been scamming for a long time. One of the first, it probably started before then, one of the first times he got busted for this was in 2010. He posed as a contractor, a renovation contractor for homes. He took $25,000 for a woman who wanted her room redesigned, kept in contact with her for a few weeks, gave her a couple hundred back and said that he couldn't do the job. Then he completely disappears. That's the first time. $25,000. You know, right off the bat to Randy Kessler and Jeff Cortese, when I see a guy that is, how do I say this?

It looks like he spends more time fixing his hair in front of the mirror than the date, than the woman. That just rubs me the wrong way. I mean, right then, for instance, the other day, David came home and I went, have you been working out? He goes, yes. I'm like, at the gym? Yes. Without me? Yes.

And you took a shower? Yes. I'm like, okay, I don't like it. Laugh, Randy Kessler, all you want. You're the divorce specialist. I'm what? But I'm like, you know what? You guys are good for life.

Yeah, because I'm on him like white on rice. Poor guy. But I'm actually kidding about that, because I'm on him like white on rice. Poor guy. But I'm actually kidding about that, although I did say all that. But when you see a guy looking at his profile and his picture, he's like a clothed horse, and he is tailored to the T. There's nothing wrong with that. But clearly, he is using his looks to get something. And my question is, what, Randy? Well, look, people do a whole bunch of different things to get what they want, and there's the oldest profession in the world.

People use sex to get what they want. This is nothing more than another vehicle to scam people out of money. People that are desperate get what they want. Well, that's a pretty expensive $80,000 one- night stand. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. John Martin Hill, this guy ripping a woman off for nearly eighty five thousand dollars, and this was not his first victim. Within just one week of knowing each other, Hill and the victim agreed to get married. She gives him over $80,000 toward the supposed purchase of a home, but as soon as the money changed hands, he took off. He was nothing but

elbows and tail hole. That's all she saw of him as he ran the other way. Hill fled and ceased all contact with the victim. He is suspected of defrauding women in five other states. We also learn he's been living in an apartment with another woman and a child. Wow. If you have information on this guy, take a look at him at CrimeOnline.com. Dial 770-513-5300, 770-513-5300. So to you, Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com, what can you tell me about this woman? When did she realize the fix was in? For the $80,000 woman, it took her a couple days after she last saw him because she just, they were talking daily constantly for that whole week seeing each other and then he just dropped off the face of the earth so within a few days from not hearing from she realized something was not right and then she contacted

police to dr ryan fuller clinical psychologist executive director in new york behavioral health and lecturer at nyu dr fuller is there a chemical that courses through your body when you first believe you have fallen in love? I would imagine with most things, when people are experiencing joy and excitement, they're certainly going to experience probably bursts of dopamine. And what we do know is that to some extent, in all these cases, there do seem to be a big emotional component. And I think scam artists can probably sometimes be effective by changing people's emotional state. And that can even mean putting someone in a positive emotional state like, you know, feeling in love. That concept of limerence, being in love, leads people to make risky decisions at times.

That's helped us in evolution to go ahead and have kids and take all kinds of risks. And it's important, but it can also lead us to make risky decisions that aren't aren't examples of good judgment. It's called oxytocin. And you may have heard of it. It's sometimes called the love hormone. Human and animal studies show oxytocin plays a role in your bonding and it is released in your brain during human contact when you think you're in love. It is an actual physical reaction that goes through your heart, through your mind, through your psyche when you believe you have fallen in love. But this is how it can end. The days of finding a date aren't like they used to be.

It's more about this, finding your forever or maybe just for the night love on a dating app. Some statistics say around 50 million Americans have or currently use websites or dating apps to find romance. With no initial face-to-face interaction, it's important to make sure who you're talking to has good intentions. First date jitters are pretty normal. Awkward moments, being stood up, even love at first sight. All could be expected on a first date, but what's not expected? This. Someone was robbed and shot. There's been incidents where someone was sexually assaulted and there's been incidents where a person got away and nothing happened. Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Batiste says all of these crimes occurred in the past three months in the port city and they all started on dating apps. The criminals

not singling out a particular group either. Most recently Chief Batiste says a man was hoping to pick up a woman he met on the dating app TACT. Instead, he was met with bullets. Police say he was carjacked by two men and then shot while walking down Cottage Hill Road. That's our friend Shelby Myers over at Fox 10 News. You know, as Dr. Ryan Fuller was saying, dopamine creates feelings of euphoria, while adrenaline is responsible for when your heart races and you feel restless and your preoccupation with your love object and this has been proven even in MRI scans it's those scans show that when you're in love it lights up the pleasure center of your brain

so this is a real chemical reaction and that's real chemical reaction. And that's the way we're wired. That's the way we're built. So Jeff Cortese, former FBI supervisory special agent, when you factor that in, no wonder it's so easy for people to be taken advantage of, just like Debbie Montgomery Johnson, and just like this victim, 85 grand. Yeah, absolutely. You know, Debbie hit on a lot of critical points, one of which being that this is just a very common method of exploitation of individuals. And to your point, it doesn't matter what your education level is. We're all victim or could be potential victims. Vigilance in protecting ourselves is critical to the defense. The FBI has an internet crime complaint center whereby they monitor some of these online

investment or online scams and frauds. Just in the last four years, according to their reporting, they've had a 30 percent increase in the number of complaints, but almost or over a 300% increase in loss due to these frauds. I think that really highlights the significance. Wow. That is a lot. I mean, and Randy Kessler, even my children can tell when I try to lie to them. You got smart children. We're now a defense attorney, author of Divorce, Protect Yourself, Your Kids, and Your Future on Amazon. You can find them at divorceprotect.com. Randy Kessler, I'm just thinking about how he pulled the scam off. It's one thing like Debbie Montgomery Johnson, the author of The Woman Behind the Smile, say she has all these volumes and volumes

of the chats, the online chats that she had with her predator. But this guy takes it to a whole new level. He actually gets the woman in the car and they go house hunting for days. They go in and out of this house and that house trying to find their love nest. And the whole time he's looking at her, all he sees is a cash register. I mean, that's really quite the Oscar-winning performance, Randy Kessler. Well, you know, he's apparently had a lot of practice at it, and maybe trial and error gets him to a better place in his craft. How can you even say practice and his craft and trial and error? This is not a craft. This is a felony.

Remember, you know, the way you paint these things as a defense lawyer always amazes me. You always come up with something new. Now a probably million-dollar scam artist is practicing his craft. Well, you know what? You make him sound like an artisan. That's the way criminals look at it. And there's some pride among thieves, you know?

Look at the movies we watch, Nancy, Ocean's 11. We glamorize that kind of stuff. I mean, that's crime. That's pure crime, stealing millions and millions of dollars. We all sit there in the movie. I'd like to remind you that Danny Oceans ended up in jail at the end. And it wasn't until Ocean's 12 that he got out. Wait, didn't he die behind bars?

He's dead. When Sandra Bullock takes over, Danny Oceans is dead. Now, I always thought he was going to make a comeback, but that's just me. Dead. And people in the audience loved him, and they all want to be him. They all want to be her. And they look at that as role models. And that's just a problem with society. I wish everyone did it the good way and the right way, and it'd be a perfect world. But it ain't. You know what? I'm going to have to argue with you on that. I don't think that it's necessarily human nature. I think human nature includes a desire to be good. I really do. And that does not include,

as you put it, clawing your way to the top and taking everything this woman had. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How's it going, man? It's Gregory Hill. I'm the owner of Rising Press Stars. I'm on my way to my office. Come follow me. Come on. This is what I do every morning, man. I get up, I jump on the elevator, get ready to go to work, man.

So I run my way to my office, start my day, check my emails. Look at some faxes. Check Facebook. Call some parents. Okay, really? That's Gregory Hill, if that's even his name, in a promo video. And I know it was scratchy and there's music playing under it, but I had to have you hear it. Because it sounds like, it looks like a little kid. Have you ever seen Little Children, Lee like, it looks like a little kid. You ever

seen little children, Lee Egan? You have a gorgeous daughter. Remember when she was little and she might dress up in grown-up clothes? Lee Egan with me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. He sounds like he's just saying things he maybe has seen on TV, like, I'm going to go send some facts and I'm going to go make some calls and I'm going to check some emails. What? I mean, that sounds like something John David said when he was about three years old. Lucy was above it all. She would not suggest that she would ever actually send faxes or emails or check messages. Forget it, okay?

She wants us to do that for her. But it sounds like something John David would have said. Mom, I got to go check my emails. It just sounds fake, Lee Egan. And he says that he was the owner of Varsity Prep Stars. Is that why he's saying he's calling some parents? That's exactly what he says, but he was never the owner of anything. And if this is the same company, he's had so many, but there was one company where he was scamming people into paying him for a background check and

for work badges to become a part of this company where he was giving scholarships or he was specializing in scholarships for high school kids. And he, like over and over and over, these people would apply. He would take $125 each, pocket the money, and never call them back. So in that video, it sounds like that could be part of this, you know, the total scam that he's trying to pull off. Got a question for you, Dr. Ryan Fuller, clinical psychologist joining me. Dr. Fuller, why do people overshare? Why do I care about the chili in his fridge? And have you ever noticed, I've looked online and people post, for instance, what they're cooking for dinner,

or you actually send a shot of your closet crammed with designer stuff. Why? What is that? Well, in the day of social media, certainly people are sharing a lot more publicly than ever before. I don't pretend to have the best answer, but I think to some extent people do like to share because they think what's important to them is going to be important to everyone else. And with social media or even a promotional video like this, we don't get a lot of negative pushback. So why would we stop? It feels a little good. Every once in a while we get a like.

And in this person's case, he actually was getting victims to give him lots of money. So even if 98% of people are turned off, if 2% meet up with him and, you know, write over checks for $80,000, it works for him. I was trying to explain the other day, Dr. Fuller to my son, he knows another kid that's always saying, well, I've got the brand new Apple watch and I have the new galaxy, whatever. I said, John David, don't dislike him for it. You need to feel badly for him because clearly, of course, I'm no shrink like you, Dr. Fuller. He must feel bad about himself in some way or insecure. And to make up for that, he boasts about things that he may or may not have to,

I don't know, feel more important. And that's his way of getting to be liked or to try to be popular. Does that make sense? Because here we see this guy totally lying to scam women out of money, like almost 100 grand. But is that why people boast? Yeah, I mean, I certainly think that's a very reasonable hypothesis you have about your son's friend. I mean, you know, what we do know about people's level of happiness is it has a lot to do with our perceptions of social comparisons. And so, you know, we do want others to respect us and to value us. And, you know, many times in our culture,

that comes down to things like material items. To Debbie Montgomery Johnson, who lost a million dollars in an online dating scam, author of The Woman Behind the Smile. You can get it on amazon it's awesome debbie when you hear this guy's self promo video does it just make your skin crawl well i you know i see it from a different point of view when i was scammed by a man that was in nigeria of course i didn't know that at the time but uh over there they're called

the yahoo we call them the yahoo boys they're called the Yahoo Boys, and they're very creative. But talk about bragging. There are pictures of these young men. Think of the economic situation over there. Many of them were unemployed or underemployed, and this is a great way to make money for them. So they're showing up with jewelry and cars and money all over, and they're looking at Americans and Europeans.

I mean, people are being scammed all over. And they're looking at Americans and Europeans. And I mean, people are being scammed all over the world. But these young men are there with this cash and with these items that they feel is wealth. And it's just overabundance. And I'm sure it's annoying to the locals that see these kids running around like that. But it doesn't surprise me because this is their game, and they are good at what they do. Their job is to get money from us, and they are very, very good at it. They're well-trained.

They're trained in universities over there. They know what they're doing. They know how to do it quickly. And does it irritate me? Absolutely, because I see the money they're getting. And the boys themselves aren't getting a lot of it. This is an international web of deceit. And it's, you know, the money is being used for terrorism. It's being used for trafficking. It's being used for who knows what. And if we knew as victims, you

know, at the time, a love interest that that money was being used for those things, I would never, obviously never have done it. But that makes my skin crawl is what they're doing with what they're getting. Now, this guy, this John or Gregory, it's all about him. And it's self-aggrandizement and look what I can do. And I think he got bolder with time because he's just out there. I mean, my guy, the only reason I found out about my scam is because he actually confessed online and I saw him. But most online victims never find out who they've been scammed by and there's no closure. And that's, that's very difficult to, uh, to recover from because you don't know who really scammed you. You see a picture, but honestly, that picture is a, is a profile that's been taken by the scammers. And that's the other victim. The other side of

the house is the victim of the picture. Um, the men, the women, you know, whoever. And it's a very difficult situation. It's annoying in a lot of ways. Let me ask you, Debbie Montgomery Johnson, when did you first realize you had been scammed out of a million dollars? Well, not until after the two years. I think I had some pink flags going on. I probably had the gut feeling at different times, but I couldn't believe someone would lie to me for two years. So it was when he confessed to me, he came online one morning and asked me about forgiveness, and it was a long chat for hours.

And he came on and said, I have a confession to make. And then he told me. And, of course, at that point I said, you're lying. I said, you're sick. There's something wrong. And he actually came online on an online video, and I saw him for the first time over two years and it wasn't my handsome Brit it was a young dark-haired dark-eyed dark-skinned young Nigerian man who said he fell in love with me and and wanted you know wanted to continue without the money but I'm just like

you're out of your mind and thank goodness thank goodness for me how did he get the money from you what was his excuse for needing money? It was little by little over time. At the beginning, it was, you know, I have this friend that wants to get into online dating, and can you help him out? He's another contractor overseas. And I said, sure, the more the merrier. We get more men on the online dating sites. It would be better for all of us women.

And so that's how it started. And the first thing, you know, Eric had an international, he was an international contractor. I have an international business. I know that sometimes when you're overseas, you have things that come up. He had some visa thing. He had a tariff. There were many things over the two years, but it starts little. And they want to see if you're willing to give them money. They want to see if you're willing to overlook grammatical errors in their writing. They want to see how willing you are. And I've got to say that they're looking for the prime victims are widows or recently divorced men and women who have big hearts

and are willing to love family. Family's big. So they pretend to be your family. And over time, I would do anything for my family, for my children. And he became family throughout those two years. And I wanted to help him. And so I would send him, at the beginning, very little money. And then at the end, it got to be very large amounts of money. But at that point, I was thinking, okay, this next transaction, this will be the last. He'll get home. this will be the last. He'll get home. This will be the last. He'll get home.

And then something would happen. And at that point, you're like, okay, you're so far invested. You don't want to stop because you know what you would have lost. Wow. You're still hoping that it's going to end with a good ending. So, Lee Egan, let me ask you, based on what Debbie Montgomery Johnson has just told us, author of The Woman Behind the Smile, where is this ending with the scammer, John Martin Hill, if that's really his name? It's ending with him behind bars. He fled Georgia. It happened in Georgia.

He fled Georgia. Somebody tipped him off that police were looking for him, and he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and somebody saw his picture on social media and called police, and they found him in a Marriott hotel and put him into custody. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.