Archive for February 7th, 2007:
Jail For Lonely-Hearts Conwoman
“This is not the usual case that comes before the crown court of someone simply stealing to fund themselves a lavish lifestyle.â€Â
A woman who conned tens of thousands of pounds from men she met through newspaper and internet dating sites has been jailed for two years.
30 January 2007
Emma Golightly, from Newcastle, claimed to be a wealthy businesswoman. The 22-year-old, who even convinced one man she had cancer so he would marry her, used her victims’ credit cards to fund her lavish lifestyle.
She was jailed by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court after admitting theft and obtaining property by deception. The court heard her 18-month crime spree included more than 80 offences and was worth £254,000. The cash was spent on holidays, fast cars, shoes and beauty treatments.
Lavish gifts
Golightly told one of the men she had terminal cancer and did not want to die an unmarried woman. She then took him on an £8,000 honeymoon, which he was unaware was paid for using his credit card.
A year later, she arranged another wedding with another man, and again paid for it with his credit card without his knowledge.
Judge David Wood told Golightly: “Over a period of quite a long time you befriended a number of men and pretended to them you were rich, terminally ill and in need of a husband.
“You encouraged them by offering lavish gifts whilst all the time you had stolen their cheque books or credit cards and were using them for your own advantage.â€Â
Personality disorder
Defending Golightly, Peter Schofield said she and her family were struggling to come to terms with the death of her younger brother in December.
“This is not the usual case that comes before the crown court of someone simply stealing to fund themselves a lavish lifestyle.â€Â
Mr Schofield said Golightly was suffering from a “long-term and complex personality disorder†that would “take a great deal of professional intervention to improve”.
The judge accepted the defence’s mitigation, but said the offences were so serious only custody could be justified.
Golightly, who broke down in tears several times during the hearing, had pleaded guilty to 17 offences, including theft, deception and attempted deception.
Man Looking For Companionship Falls Victim To Dating Scam
They say a picture says 1,000 words. Well, it says a couple thousand dollars
A West Allis man lost thousands of dollars before WISN 12 News was able to uncover the truth behind a dating trap that originated halfway around the world.
More people than ever are looking for love online through Internet dating sites.
“I heard a lot about Web sites and stuff, and I just wanted to try one once, so I figured why not?†online dating victim Dale Bell said.
It was Bell’s first venture into the world of online dating. One site found him who he thought was the girl of his dreams.
“When I found her, she was actually the one that I never thought in my life would ever e-mail me back, and she was the first,†Bell said.
Her name is Oladele, a former New Yorker who lived in Nigeria. She sent these pictures to Bell along with several months’ worth of romantic e-mails.
That was when Bell started sending something to her. More »
A Dating Service for “Lonely Bloggers”
There’s no way On-Line Dating Services can be stopped from growing massively.
Basing on how in demand these dating sites are, it just proves to show that it would definitely conquer the Internet World in the coming years to come.
After it has been digged by singles of all countries, old men and women, teens, and every unattached individual using the computer, Bloggers too, cannot seem to “not” get into it.
Now, there’s also a dating service released just for Bloggers.
LonelyBloggers.com, released by Mashable last year, is for all Lonely Bloggers wishing to meet up with fellow bloggers all over the world. This is basically for all those who are hoping and wanting to find their partners that share the same interest with them.
The idea is that you can connect your profile page with your blog, Facebook, MySpace and Friendster accounts, or create a blog on the site itself. Being a blogger-specific service, you can add images from Flickr and video clips from YouTube.
There’s also a Hot-or-Not style photo rating service and buttons and banners to put on your own blog. Other features include chat, polls and the ability to record an audio file and attach it to your profile page. What’s more, you can customize your profile, changing the background picture, colors and fonts. However, many of these features aren’t yet live, including the integration with external services.
