When using online dating apps, you need to be careful not only to protect your heart but also your bank account.

What would you do if a girl you met online turned out to be a scammer who left you with a payday loan that she promised to pay?

That is what happened to the victim in this story, so he worked with the police and the payday loan company to get her arrested and thrown in jail.

Check it out.

Ex girlfriend was a scammer, so I put her in the slammer. Bippity boppity boo, I destroyed her family too.

Around the time that I got my first full-time job and finished college, I decided I was ready to venture out and start dating.

I had heard about this amazing app through a few of my coworkers (a little thing called Tinder), so I decided to give it a shot.

After about a week on the app I finally matched with a woman who we will call Talia.

You have to be careful with these apps.

Talia lived in a different city than I did but the day we matched, she said she was visiting a cousin.

We messaged through the app, and after verifying she was real through her Facebook and Instagram profiles, we exchanged phone numbers.

She said she was employed full-time, had an apartment and her own car, and was somehow still single.

We talked for about two weeks on the phone, always at night after my shift at work, before we finally had a chance to meet when our schedules matched up.

I drove my beat-up 1996 Honda Civic to her town, spent that Friday night (I forget where we ate that night), and in the morning we had breakfast at Waffle House.

Talia did have her own apartment; however, she lived next door to her grandmother, who I awkwardly had to meet the next morning.

I learned from Talia that her car was actually in her grandmother’s name and her apartment was in the name of her “cousin.”

Scammers will go to great lengths to trick people.

She went so far as to show me family portraits, with her “cousin” and to talk about her abusive “ex.”

Even shared with me how her laundry room was embarrassingly infested with flies and roaches.

We officially changed our social media to dating that day.

Keep in mind that this was my first relationship in almost four years so I was excited.

The Scam

Talia also told me that day that she had been fired from work about a week earlier but was too embarrassed to tell me.

I asked how she had kept up her bills and she said that her grandma and dad had been helping her.

Talia asked if I could help her make her car payment, which was due that weekend.

I refused.

She then explained that she could get a payday loan (which is banned in our state) and could put it into my checking account.

I felt uneasy about it and asked if there was another way she could get the loan.

Talia said that she couldn’t use her grandma or dad’s accounts because they had burned her in the past.

I thought it was weird but she started crying.

So I called my bank (where I had an account since high school graduation) and opened a linked checking account.

I gave Talia the new checking account number and routing number.

This is a very bad idea.

Talia contacted a payday loan company in Alabama and by Sunday morning, she had the funds in my linked checking account.

Per our agreement, I gave her the money.

Talia promised to repay the loan within two weeks.

I had my reservations but went back home and back to work Monday.

Talia called me on Wednesday and said she had a new job.

I asked if she had the payday loan squared away with her first paycheck.

She said she did, but I still got charged $47.00 two weeks after she set up the loan.

I called my bank, called Talia to verify the loan was going through her, and terminated the charge from the payday loan as I was not the signed person.

Talia and I agreed to meet Memorial Day weekend two weeks later.

She stated that her dad had given her a check for the entire loan amount ($1800) and that she would deposit it into my bank near her.

Like a fool, I let her deposit the check right before Memorial Day weekend.

Two weeks later, the payday loan company charged another $47.00 plus penalty fees and another $47.00.

The $1800 check bounced.

Talia stopped answering her calls and blocked me on everything.

I called my bank and informed them that I was a victim of fraud.

That is unfortunate that they closed all his accounts.

Within hours, my main checking account (into which my paycheck had gone), my savings account (with $800 saved for a new car), and the new checking account were closed.

My best friend from college (we’ll call him Clark) found Talia had two of every social media account: the one she shared with me and the one on which she had a boyfriend.

Her “cousin” from her family photos was actually her boyfriend since high school (Talia was 22, 23).

Her boyfriend (we’ll call him Jason) was in prison but from their social media posts, she was visiting him once a month, minimum, and had plans to marry him.

I spent days trying to get back my accounts and my money.

One of the representatives from my bank, and Clark and my mom, advised that I should press charges for fraud.

My bank mailed me a copy of the bounced check for criminal investigation purposes and it showed Jason’s name and not Talia’s father’s name as the owner of the check.

That’s when I decided to get revenge.

The Revenge

As mentioned before, Talia’s apartment had a minor infestation of roaches and flies in her laundry room.

While I went through legal agencies to pursue pressing charges of forgery on the check, fraud, etc., I found the name and phone number of Talia’s apartment complex.

Good, kick her out.

I left a message for the apartment complex management that Talia and her grandmother both had filthy apartments.

Within a week, Clark showed me that Talia had posted a request for temporary housing for her and her grandma, since her parents wouldn’t let her move in.

Talia’s payday loan company began calling me, as Talia had given them my phone number instead of hers and they had not received payment yet.

I was still reviewing my legal options at the time.

One day, I answered and notified the rep that Talia had fraudulently used my checking account.

The rep who called me transferred me to their legal department, who was very interested.

It turned out that Talia’s grandma and her father owed to the payday loan company.

It wasn’t a lot separately but the payday loan company had enough evidence, with my claim, that Talia was the ringleader using her family’s accounts.

I turned over my evidence, including Talia’s text messages promising to pay, the copy of the bounced check, and my bank statements.

By the end of the year, Talia was arrested on several charges.

Wow, Grandma and Dad turned on her, that is brutal.

Her grandma and father were also arrested but took pleas for lesser charges in exchange for turning over evidence on her.

I didn’t have to testify at the trial but I kept informed.

Talia’s grandma had had a minor heart attack when she was arrested and had a more significant one during the trial.

I’m not sure if her grandma lived or died after the trial.

Despite this, Talia went to prison for multiple counts and will serve more than a decade behind bars.

Glad to see these scammers ended up where they belong.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Yeah, he was too naive.

This was a dumb move on his part.

You really need to think clearly.

This person had a similar story.

I was wondering if he ended up getting his money back.

At least she won’t be able to scam anyone else.

For awhile, anyway.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.