A San Diego senior is now residing in her automobile after being swindled out of her financial savings by a scammer pretending to be Keanu Reeves.
Katherine Goodson, 67, has gone public together with her harrowing story in a bid to lift consciousness in regards to the rise in celeb romance scams impacting the aged.
“I don’t blame anyone but myself,” the widow, who misplaced her husband in 2007, advised NBC affiliate KNSD.
Goodson moved to San Diego in 2022, the identical 12 months she acquired a textual content message from an individual purporting to be the Hollywood hunk, famed for flicks similar to “Point Break” and “The Matrix.”
The Reeves impersonator subsequently requested Goodson to ship him a $500 present card to show she wasn’t simply interested by him for his cash.
“I did send it, but said, ‘I want to hear your voice,’ and once I heard his voice, I said, ‘You’re not him,’ and I blocked him,” Goodson advised the community.
Later, nonetheless, she acquired a message from one other individual claiming they had been the true Reeves.
The purported “John Wick” star advised Goodson he felt “awful” that she had been the sufferer of a rip-off, and the pair promptly started exchanging messages.
The widower stated she rapidly started falling in love through textual content.
“He wanted to marry me,” she cooed. “I was lonely.”
For the subsequent two years, Goodson corresponded with the person through textual content, however he at all times had an excuse as to why he couldn’t meet in individual.
Regardless of this, the senior despatched cash, present playing cards and Bitcoin, totaling greater than $60,000 in worth.
She additionally corresponded with strangers through different telephone numbers who claimed to be “members of Reeves’ management team.”
In August, nonetheless, Goodson ran out of cash and the messages from “Reeves and his team” turned hostile.
She subsequently realized she had been swindled.
“It was just a mess,” Goodson recalled. “It was mind-boggling to the point that I didn’t know my head from anything.”
Now, the senior is at all-time low, residing in her automobile and attempting to get again on her ft.
Goodson says she has nothing left to lose by going public together with her story and desires to warn others in regards to the risks of the scams.
“There is nothing that hasn’t already been done to make me feel any worse,” she sadly acknowledged.
Nonetheless, Goodson is much from alone.
KNSD reviews {that a} staggering $1.1 billion was misplaced to romance scams throughout the U.S. in 2023.
The Put up has contacted Reeves’ precise reps for remark.
The “Pace’ star doesn’t have social media. He has been in a relationship with artist Alexandra Grant since 2017.
