Report: Facebook friend scams woman out of $2200 | Crime

The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a financial swindle involving a Lexington woman, according to sheriff’s deputies.

According to a Lexington County Sheriff’s Department incident report, a 47-year-old Lexington woman met a man online by the name of John Witt, who claimed to be an Army Lieutenant serving in Afghanistan.

According to the woman, the two began Facebooking each other.

By the middle of April, Witt and others identifying themselves as his command and supervisory officers, created a scenario whereby Witt could end his tour early, if the woman paid for his insurance coverage for a flight back to the United States, the report stated.

On April 28, Witt instructed the woman to wire funds.  According to the report, the woman sent two sums of money totaling $2,220 to an address in Ohio and Pennsylvania by Western Union.

Deputies say after the woman sent the money, she became suspicious when more money was requested, so she contacted the local Red Cross seeking information as to whether this was normal activity. Red Cross advised the woman to contact law enforcement.

The report stated that the woman retained some paper documentation, including prints made from “official” looking documents sent to her email from Witt.

Deputies say upon reading the documents, they found punctuation, grammatical and spelling errors throughout the text.

As of today, the victim still has Facebook contact with Witt, according to sheriff’s deputies.

The incident remains under investigation.