MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — A Mesa woman lost her home and life savings to an online romance scammer, who was posing as a Naval officer, convinced her to sell her house to fund their fake relationship.
The 69-year-old retiree, who asked to be identified only as “Susan,” said she received a random Facebook message last summer from a man named Stephen who claimed to be stationed in the Middle East.
The relationship began with friendly conversations about their backgrounds. Stephen claimed to be from Virginia, and after a few weeks, he suggested moving their chats to private messaging apps like WhatsApp and Spike…