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A local Chicago woman has been scammed by a con artist pretending to be Chicago Fire‘s Taylor Kinney. Her sister opened up to local NBC affiliate WMAQ about the incident, which has cost the woman over $80,000.
The woman allegedly met a man claiming to be Kinney through a Chicago Fire fan website and began a relationship with him. Things took a dark turn when he began requesting money from her. “It progressed from ‘hey, buy this fan card,’ to ‘hey, I need money, my manager is holding my contract and not giving me money to use to get out of that contract,'” said Sally, the woman’s sister, who wanted to only be identified by her first name. She added: “They just kept asking for more, more, more.”
Communication between the woman and the scammer has allegedly been ongoing for over a year, and the woman has lost a exorbitant amount of money. “She went through all of her savings. She cashed out her 401(k). She’s taken loans. She had a car that was paid off, now she took a loan against the car,” Sally said.
Sally has filed a police report in hopes of getting the scam artist away from her sister, who is expecting to be getting a get a meet and greet with Kinney. As for the scammer’s communication with the woman, Sally explained: “It’s a lot of loving language, a lot of ‘honeys’ and ‘my queens.’ But, sometimes it’s very abusive. It’s ‘you don’t love me.’ And ‘why would you do this to us’ and ‘you don’t trust me.'” She added: “They’re very, very good.”
Unfortunately, the woman is not the only person who has fallen prey to a romance scam. Per the Federal Trade Commission official website, 64,003 people fell victim to romance scams in 2023, which are defined as criminals adopting “a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust,” per the FBI website. While many of these scams often occur through dating apps, social media can also be a very a common way for these scammers to target victims. The scammers can pose as anyone — from celebrities to offshore oil rig workers, the latter of which is very common.
“They play with your emotions,” Steve Bernas, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Chicago, told WMAQ. “They always ask for money in some way. Sometimes it’s in small increments, which adds up to a lot. Sometimes it’s some people’s life savings.”
He continued, “They play with those emotions, so they make them feel guilty.”
Sally is still having trouble getting her sister to realize that the man she is speaking is not Kinney, but she hopes to bring awareness to these types of scams. “I know this is affecting so many more people than just us,” she told the outlet. “Even though she’s still in the thick of it, and not willing to see where we’re coming from, we hope somebody will be able to benefit from this and that’s really what we want to do.”
The Chicago Fire star himself has not commented on this case of impersonation, nor has his team. Kinney has recently stepped back from filming Chicago Fire for the second time, and it is still unclear if he will return to the show or leave for good.
Chicago Fire Season 12 is currently airing on NBC on Wednesdays at 9/8c and streams on Peacock.
For more on Taylor Kinney, check out our gallery on the TV shows and movies you didn’t know the Chicago Fire star was in.
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