A woman is accused of lying about being in the military on a dating site to scam a user out of thousands of dollars.
Jo Ann Burkey, 63 of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, told the victim who she met on the site that she was a member of the military and needed money to ship her belongings home from overseas, according to the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office.
The person sent her $7,500, the sheriff’s office says.
The sheriff’s office says it “took a report of fraud” about the scam on Jan. 29 and, after investigating, accused Burkey of being behind the scam and using a fake name.
Burkey “surrendered to detectives” at the Pitt County detention center on Thursday, the sheriff’s office says.
She was charged with “accessing a computer to defraud or obtain property,” “obtain property by false pretense” and “attempt to obtain property by false pretense.”
Burkey was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond, the sheriff’s office says.
No other information about the case was released as of Monday.
Pitt County is in Eastern North Carolina, about 82 miles from Raleigh.
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