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A heartless Florida woman admitted to scamming an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor she met on a dating site out of a jaw-dropping $2.8 million, federal prosecutors announced.
Peaches Stergo’s years-long fraud cost the elderly victim his life savings while she lived a life of luxury that included a house in a gated community, a Corvette, lavish vacations and designer items, including Rolex watches, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a Friday news release.
In total, the victim signed off on 62 checks totaling almost $3 million that went right into Stergo’s coffers and he ultimately lost his apartment from the romance scam.
Starting in early 2017 — after the 36-year-old woman met the man on a dating site — she asked the victim to borrow money to pay her lawyer who she said refused to fork over funds from an injury settlement, according to the feds.
She claimed the funds were put into a TD Bank account, but evidence indicates she never received a cent from a supposed injury settlement.
Over the next four-and-a-half years, Stergo’s web of lies steadily continued, draining the Holocaust survivor of his final pennies.