Florida: fake online love interest sentenced after stealing from 79-year-old widower on Facebook

In Florida, a man was sentenced after taking $31,000 from a 79-year-old widower while posing online as a woman who claimed she wanted to move to be with him.

A case in Florida is drawing attention once again to how romance scams target older people through social media. According to Bradenton police, Benjamin Yakah was convicted in a grand theft case after deceiving a 79-year-old widower by pretending online to be a woman named Julia.

Investigators said the victim met the fake profile on Facebook in 2023. For about eight months, he believed he was building a real romantic relationship with the woman and mainly communicated with her through Facebook Messenger. The fake persona reportedly claimed to live in the United Kingdom and said she planned to move to Florida after repaying a debt to a man in Minnesota.

Believing he was helping his future partner relocate, the widower sent cash, money orders and cashier’s checks to a home and bank account in Minneapolis. Detectives later linked both destinations to Benjamin Yakah. The investigation began in June 2024 after the victim’s children contacted the department’s Elder Fraud Unit.

In November 2024, a Bradenton detective traveled to Minnesota and arrested the suspect. Police said he had been using photos belonging to a woman from West Virginia who did not know her identity had been stolen. During a search of his home, investigators also found evidence of three other victims being scammed in other states.

After being extradited to Manatee County, Yakah pleaded no contest to second-degree felony grand theft. He was sentenced to one year in jail and four years of probation, and he must repay the widower $31,000, which was the amount detectives were able to confirm. Police say romance scams remain one of the most common ways elderly Americans are targeted and reported that local seniors lost $8 million to fraud and scams in 2025.