Florida woman gets more than 4 years in prison for swindling Holocaust survivor out of life savings.

[Stuart G]

Source: CNN

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A New York judge has sentenced a Florida woman to more than four years in prison for swindling a Holocaust survivor out of his life savings after meeting him on a dating website.

Peaches Stergo, 36, was sentenced Thursday, according to a news release from the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. She had been charged six months earlier with one count of wire fraud for bilking the 87-year-old victim out of $2.8 million.

Prosecutors said Stergo and the victim met on the website about seven years ago. Over the next four and a half years, Stergo asked the victim to deposit money into her account for a variety of fraudulent reasons, such as paying lawyers to release a fake injury settlement.



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/us/florida-woman-swindle-holocaust-survivor/index.html#:~:text=A%20New%20York%20judge%20has,Southern%20District%20of%20New%20York.

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How do you describe the viciousness of this person. She will meet some people in prison that are more vicious.
Good place for this ass**le to be. ....What a miserable piece of s**t...apologies to s**t everywhere!

[brush]

1. Some will be pumping her for info on how she did it...

once the word get around as to why she's there.

It happens.

[sarisataka]

12. It never ceases to amaze me

How quickly we can believe sexual assault is justice

[PatrickforB]

15. Nothing funny about sexual assault in prison.

The rate of HIV among prisoners is 5 to 7 times that of the general population. HIV rates are highest among black prisoners. The correctional setting is often the first place incarcerated men and women are diagnosed with HIV and provided treatment.

What if it was you? No matter how heinous the crime, no one deserves to be sexually assaulted in prison.

[eggplant]

16. Why is there no alert category for "prison rape joke" at this point is beyond me.

[Snooper9]

18. Older folks get catfished all the time

It should be stopped but....international laws

https://www.youtube.com/@CatfishedOnline/featured

[Escurumbele]

3. To me, this is where the law gets it wrong. This woman has changed the life of the victim, for the

worst, for ever. The victim may not be able to recuperate the money she stole from him, his life went from good to very bad, she should stay in jail for the rest of her life, she has ruined someone's life for ever. And the last comment on the post is correct, she is going to "Con University", she is going to learn more tricks of the trade, so when she gets out she will be even more knowledgeable about her "craft".

[Stuart G]

4. Yes, in prison for the "rest of her life."...That is it, and that is all!!! K and R your post..

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. Never trust anyone named Peaches. nt

[DFW]

6. That is probably not her real name anyway

More like Hemlock or Poison Ivy

[orangecrush]

17. +1

[tonekat]

7. Inadequate sentence for this grave a crime

Something about 4 Year sentences...this waste of good air, the domestic terrorists at the Capitol...

[DFW]

8. I hope she gets time added for bad behavior. N/t

[DENVERPOPS]

27. Maybe, just maybe,

some prison mate's parent(s)got scammed by some one similar to her........or a prison guard whose parent(s) lost a lot or all of their wealth to a person like her........

If Justice isn't a bitch, Karma certainly can be a bitch............

[keithbvadu2]

30. Movie - Papillon

Dustin Hoffman met a guard whose relatives lost all on his fake financial certificates.

It got him 'special' assignment... to the swamp.

[DENVERPOPS]

33. Awesome movie

esp the blue butterfly tattoo...........

[orleans]

9. rotten "peaches"

what a horrible thing to do.

4 yrs? is that all? (wrist slap)

[question everything]

10. I hope that the victim managed to recover some of his loss.

[Warpy]

14. Unlikely. Women like Peaches are usually just fronting the whole thing

There are the guys who set it all up, maybe rental on an empty house, couriers to pick up the packages at the empty house, and all those people are getting payoffs.

Sadly, the country is full of old men looking for young girlfriends and scammers are out there waiting for them to turn up.

[ShazzieB]

20. A lot of those catfish ARE men.

Last edited Sun Jul 30, 2023, 05:18 PM - Edit history (1)

They steal pics of attractive women off of people's social media and send then to the men they're catfishing to make them think that's who they're talking to. Same thing with using stolen pics of attractive men to catfish women.

Dr. Phil has done a whole bunch of very informative episodes on catfishing, showing the techniques they use in great detail. I know some people dislike Dr. Phil on principle, but this is one topic he's done an extremely good job of educating people about, in my opinion.

These catfishing types are literal bottom feeders, the scum of the earth. They are despicable, and I hate them with the fire of 1000 suns!

[DENVERPOPS]

28. Not a lot unlike Melania

doing anything/everything, and selling their souls to land a rich guy, then having his kid, to further their lifetime fortune and incredible lifestyles...

[ShazzieB]

32. The people I'm talking about are different from Melania.

She is what she is, and never pretended to be anything else. The people I'm taking about are fakes and impostors, pretending to be someone entirely different from who they are.

The con typically works something like this: You post a dating profile and up pops a promising match — good-looking, smart, funny and personable. Supposed suitors might also reach out on social media; more than a third of people who lost money to a romance scam in 2021 reported that it started on Facebook or Instagram, according to the FTC. They’ll use pictures of an attractive person, of course; check out Social Catfish’s list of the top 100 photos used for catfishing (using a fake identity to lure someone into a romantic relationship) in 2022.

This potential mate claims to live in another part of the country or to be abroad for business or a military deployment. But he or she seems smitten and eager to get to know you better, and suggests you move your relationship to a private channel like email or a chat app.

Over weeks or months, you feel yourself growing closer. You make plans to meet in person, but for your new love something always comes up. Then you get an urgent request. There’s an emergency (a medical problem, perhaps, or a business crisis) and your online companion needs you to send money fast, usually via gift cards, prepaid debit cards, cryptocurrency, or a bank or wire transfer.

They'll promise to pay it back, but that will never happen. Instead, they will keep asking for more until you realize it's a scam and cut them off.

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/romance.html

This is a whole different thing from someone like Melania using their own looks and personal attributes to land a rich guy.

[DENVERPOPS]

34. Thanks for the education Shazzie NC

[keithbvadu2]

31. Nigeria and Ghana - Huge international, internet trade in romance and money scams.

Nigeria and Ghana - Huge international, internet trade in romance and money scams.

What does your internet sweetie look like?

They may be a doctor, or a hunk military man, or a supermodel woman/rich widow, or some rich businessman. But most assuredly they'll be overseas, somewhere out of range of a personal meeting. Charming of course. And most times you won't be able to video chat with them. You'll get a picture - someone's picture. Don't be surprised if she turns out to be a skinny Nigerian dude.

They called them clients, not victims.

These scammers are amazingly open about how they are scamming their clients. Are they convincing? They can be very convincing. One client was playing naked sex games with his 'girlfriend' who turns out to be a guy.

Their favorite clients??? Widowed/divorced....(lonely).

They have unlimited love for you. They only run out of love when you quit sending them money... as in; when you run out of money to send.

My favorite is the fetish priestess. She has character and personality.
(Not necessarily good character)

Start watching at about the 11 minute time mark.

?t=660

[Warpy]

35. Payback for that Nigerian prince who turned out to be a fat old white guy

in Louisiana. He cashed in big, too, before they managed to catch him.

What's really going to change things are AI sexpots, er, bots. I can foresee all those servers once used to mine cryptocurrency being turned into AI sweeties dedicated to picking lonely people clean.

[Demobrat]

11. I don't waaaaahna work! It's too haaaaaaard.

In a text message to her real-life significant other after the scam was over, Stergo said she was unwilling to earn money through lawful employment, writing, “I don’t want to work … it’s too hard,” the release stated.

So I wonder what kind of job she’ll have in prison. Washing dishes for ten cents an hour in order to afford toothpaste?

[sarisataka]

13. Shameful

Both her actions and the sentiment expressed

[DENVERPOPS]

19. Just Four Years

for 2.8 million?????????

I guess that's where they got the old adage: Crime Pays.......

[OldBaldy1701E]

21. I actually felt that it shows us just how small an amount...

2.8 million has become for those in power. I find that horrifying. More than horrifying in fact.

[SouthernDem4ever]

25. 4 Years isn't enough for ruining the rest of someone's life

The sentence is about 10 years too short.

[Jean Genie]

22. Peaches Stergo, aka "Fraud Barbie."

Peaches?! Give me a break!
What the HELL is wrong with Florida?! 89% of really crappy news comes out of that state - the rest is mostly from Texas or Tennessee!

[hydrolastic]

23. Its called elder abuse

My family was a victim of this when a "caretaker" appeared at a family function. What no one realized is that by the time we met her the abuse had already started and the 4 of us did not realize she had a hold of the finances already. My aunt realized there was an issue and tried legally to get my grandfather to her place to take care of him. The fight was on. We lost on every point the court and the state laws were against us and the "caretaker" won. Four years later my grandfather died penniless (about 3.5 million)
When I went to his funeral the care taker didn't attend because she "had to take care of another Client"
Its way more prevalent than you think and you will not be prepared for the lengths the abuser will go to keep it going. it has racked our family with guilt and our naivety is gone now.

[Oppaloopa]

24. What was the name of the website? Was it Plenty of fish?

[SouthernDem4ever]

26. She must have been trained by the scammers in India

They do this for a living.

[bahboo]

29. of all the shitty things that happen in the course of a day...

this one really got to me. 4 years is nowhere near long enough for this viper....