This confidence crime has become one of the biggest and most profitable crimes of the modern day era. It is also one of the "least" reported and most devastating for the victim.

Why? Quite simply it's all about the victims that are chosen and how the crime is orchestrated! The concept is quite basic; man falls in love with young transient criminal girl. Transient criminal girl obtains as much as she can from the man until he has no more to give. Then the transient criminal girl flees. Of course in this case, young doesn't always mean a teenager. The transient criminal woman could be in her 40's to 50's. But to a 90-year-old man, she is young.

The scam works as follows. First, you must profile the victim. The victims are first targeted by their age. The older they are, the better. Generally speaking, usually late 60's to 90 plus years of age. At these ages, the victims are extremely vulnerable, manipulated, intimidated, and forgetful. These victims usually have the ability for easier access to cash, usually through retirement accounts and credit availability.

The transient criminal perpetrator knows that elderly men are lonely. Usually the victims have been widowed for numerous years. The victims haven't had sexual relationships for years. The victims' children are usually grown and middle aged. This means that their children spend very little time with the victim, or at very least, communication with children is limited.
Where do the gypsies find the victims? Almost anywhere! The Phoenix Metropolitan area is a jackpot rich environment for finding elderly people. This of course is due to the climate and many retirement communities. However, usually speaking, local grocery stores, banks, and the biggest target, Indian Casinos.

Next is the approach. It starts out as simple contact. The transient criminal girl will approach the elderly victim and start a simple conversation. During the conversation, the transient criminal will flirt and flatter the elderly victim. They will attempt to find out the victim's name, living arrangements, and marriage status. This is of course done by clever conversation and in a way that is non-invasive. At this point, the transient criminal girl will walk the elderly victim to his car. The transient criminal will offer to help the elderly victim in the future by taking him to the store or cleaning his house. She will try to exchange telephone numbers at this time. Usually the elderly victim is so starved for attention and conversation he will exchange numbers. The transient criminal's husband or family members will then follow the victim to see where he lives.

The transient criminal will then start calling the victim and/or show up at his house. Even if she wasn't invited, she will make the victim believe he might have. They will deliberately work on the victim's forgetfulness. At some point in the early stages, the transient criminal will then try to reel in the victim through a sympathetic story reference lack of finances. Usually idle comments about not being able to get a job and unable to feed her children. She might then ask to borrow some money. The elderly victim usually gives the transient criminal grocery money at this point, either out of sympathy or feeling pressured. The transient criminal continues the sympathetic routine, continually escalating the finances needed. Such as I'm about to get evicted from my apartment, what am I to do. The elderly victim will then rent an apartment for the transient criminal, in the victim's name. Then the transient criminal expresses her need to have it furnished. The transient criminal will take the elderly victim to a furniture store. Next, she will have the elderly victim charge thousands of dollars in furniture. All charges are usually in the victim's name. Then of course, comes the story of I need to get a job so I can pay you back. But I can't get a job without a car. The transient criminal will then take the elderly victim to the car dealer. Usually the victim walks away purchasing an extravagant vehicle in the price range of $30,000.00 to $60,000.00 dollars. And don't forget the trip to the mall, where usually the transient criminal will take the elderly victim into the jewelry store, talking him into purchasing a pair of Rolex watches or a diamond ring.

After the initial contact with the victim, the transient criminal will introduce her transient criminal husband as her brother. They will then team up and work on the schemes to bilk money from the victim. While the transient criminal girl works on the sweetheart scam, the transient criminal man will try and get the victim to go into partnership on some scheme. The schemes are stories, such as I'm a car bodyman. With your money and my knowledge of repairing cars, we can go into business together. You buy the used cars and I'll repair them, then sell them. If this occurs, the transient criminal will sell the cars the victim buys, but continually lie to the victim reference the sales.

At some point in the early stages of the sympathy routine, the transient criminal will tell the victim she loves him. She will expose herself to the victim, continually trying to entice him through emotions of love and sex. Vary rarely will the transient criminal girl allow the victim to kiss or have a sexual relationship. The transient criminal will tell the elderly victim it's against her religion to allow such a thing unless they are married. The transient criminal might persuade marriage at some point. With this of course comes the sympathetic story of what's going to happen to me when you die. Who will take care of me? The transient criminal will attempt to talk the elderly victim into taking out a large life insurance policy, naming the transient criminal as beneficiary.

The sweetheart scam will continue until either the victim dies and/or fear that the police might become involved.
Very rarely will the victim call the police. Usually it's the victim's family that eventually discovers the scam and reports it against the victims wishes. If the scam is discovered by family members, it's usually been operating for numerous months. When confronted by police, the victim may or may not remember every incident in which he's been scammed for money. However, the victim will generally remember that the girl promised to pay him back. The victim will also be reluctant because he's in love, scared, or embarrassed. The victim's memory will also be so poor that he makes a very poor witness.

If the gypsies believe they are going to get caught, they will flee, changing their identities in different states. However, if the gypsies are caught, they will offer the victim "most" of the property back. This of course being the car they've been driving for the last year, or the furniture. Any cash or jewelry will be gone. The gypsies will then tell law enforcement it wasn't their intent to steal from the victim, they promised to pay everything back. The transient criminal will also say that it's not their fault the elderly man was lonely and had nobody to take him to the store or doctor. Where was his family? The gypsies will justify any items obtained as gifts.

Prosecution is often difficult because the victim is reluctant to assist, and/or his memory is so poor that he makes a bad witness. Prosecution will also take into account whether the victim was a willing participant! Meaning, was he of sound mind to make judgement decisions or was he swindled because he suffered from aging mental incapacitating diseases such as Alzheimer's or dementia. If prosecution wishes to prove that the aging victim could not make sound monetary decisions, they will usually need a mental evaluation done on the victim. The victims do not want this to occur. If the state deems them mentally incapable of making sound decisions, then the victim will be forced to have somebody appointed for them to manage all their financial affairs. If this occurs, victims feel you are taking away their last rights to manage their own life. Jury trials are difficult. Generally, quite often, male jurors believe the aging man has the right to spend his money any way he deems so. If that means he wants to spend his money on a young girl that makes him happy, sexual or not, he should be able to. The defense will portray a picture of the money grubbing relatives who fear of lost inheritance.

So why is the sweetheart scam so devastating? After all the old man is with this young girl in his last days of life! It's his dream come true. If it makes him happy, so be it!
Well, add up the figures. The elderly victim, who usually lives on a set retirement budget, is milked dry. Most victims aren't multimillionaires. They might have had several hundred thousand dollars from investments, retirement accounts that assist their retirement. Now, add a $1000.00 dollar monthly apartment rental, a $700.00 dollar car payment, a $300.00 dollar furniture payment, a $500.00 dollars jewelry payment, plus any additional expenses for life insurance, groceries, car insurance, or any other scam. Now the victim has at least $2500.00 dollars in monthly expenses, plus any items he's paying for in cash. At some point, the gypsies flee with the property and leave the elderly victims with little or no cash left and unable to pay the monthly payments. The credit companies still hold the victims responsible for their charges. The victims rarely report the crimes and live their remaining life destitute, with only a meager retirement salary. Emotionally though, the elderly victims become distraught.