An 82-year-old grandfather committed suicide after losing his life savings to cruel scammers posing as a mysterious love interest on Facebook.
Dennis Jones was the victim of a scam known as “pig butchering,” whereby scammers “fatten up” their victims with a fake online romance before encouraging them to invest in bogus cryptocurrency schemes.
Jones’ family said he died “ashamed and embarrassed” on March 4 after falling in love with the woman named “Jessica,” despite never meeting her.
Heartbreaking final messages shared by his children reveal that the loving father and grandfather from Maryland had become increasingly depressed over his financial losses.
In one exchange he wrote to ‘Jessica’: ‘I have been having dark thoughts about my life and its end. It certainly feels like my financial life is over. Bankruptcy, legal and all that nonsense. It will be very painful and I’m not sure I can bear it.’
Dennis Jones, 82, unexpectedly took his life on March 4 after becoming the victim of a ‘pig slaughter scam’ after befriending a woman named Jessica on Facebook.
His heartbroken children, Matt Jones (right) and Adrianne Gruner (left), had planned to meet their struggling father on the day of his death to help him recover from the massive scam.
It comes as more and more Americans fall victim to this cruel scam, which is believed to be predominantly run by Chinese gangs. Earlier this year, the Secret Service said it was seeing a “ton” of cases.
Devastated children Matt Jones and Adrianne Gruner said they had planned to meet their father on the day of his death to help him recover after he told them about the scam. Adrianne added that he was supposed to move with his family to his farm in Virginia to rebuild his life.
Matt was stunned to see police officers show up at his door an hour into the planned meeting to inform him that Jones had taken his own life. The family assumed he would be gone for a long time, something he loved to do.
“Our father was, from the day I was born until six months ago, always a positive and happy person,” she said. CNN. “This was literally the only thing that ever happened to him in his life, it changed him and it crushed him.”
The so-called “pig butchers” operate on various social networks and dating and messaging sites such as Facebook, Tinder, WhatsApp and LinkedIn, among others.
After entering their lives and making victims like Jones feel comfortable, scammers convince them to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes and even “ghost properties” that don’t exist.
The women convinced Dennis to exhaust his life savings, and even when he had nothing left to give and told her about his deteriorating mental health, she demanded more.
Adrianne said he was supposed to move with his family to their farm in Virginia to rebuild his life. (pictured: Dennis (right) with his children and grandchildren)
In messages shared by the family, Jones told ‘Jessica’ that ‘I would have 9000 in my trust wallet by Saturday.’
‘Transferring 2500 a day to maintenance and had 1525 on it. So now there are 4,000, 65,000 tomorrow and 9,000 on Saturday.
‘Jessica’ replied: ‘Is there any limit on transferring to the wallet now?’
In another message to ‘Jessica’, Dennis told her how guilty he felt for ‘betraying his family’ by giving up all their money.
“He’s saying ‘these are basically evil people, I didn’t know such evil people existed,'” Jones wrote in a message Matt read.
“The biggest pain here is that I have betrayed the trust of my family, this is unbearable,” he added.
Despite all the pain her father endured, Adrianne believes he truly cared about ‘Jessica’.
“I think I loved the person I thought was behind that profile,” he said.
Matt added that he knew something was wrong once he was told how his father died.
“As soon as I found out it was a suicide, I was 100% sure it was a scam,” he said. cnn.
In messages shared by the family, Dennis told Jessica that he would “have 9,000 in my trust wallet by Saturday.”
His family described him as “a bit of an activist” who frequently debated politics online and “had a boundless curiosity about current events.” (pictured: Dennis with one of his grandchildren)
According to your obituaryDennis was passionate about photography, sailing, playing guitar and volunteering.
He served in the United States Coast Guard after graduating from Georgetown University. He then embarked on many careers, including working in the marketing, sales and real estate industries.
His family described him as “a bit of an activist” who frequently debated politics online and “had a boundless curiosity about current events.”
He was married to his late ex-wife and mother of three of his children, Martha B. Hague.
“You know, he died ashamed, you know, financially devastated and heartbroken,” Adrianne said.
“If sharing our story helps someone else or another family, then it’s worth it.”
In August, another loving father from New Jersey fell victim to scammers and almost took his own life.
Estate agent Michael Holloway, 62, was scammed out of $500,000 by online scammers, who lured him into fake relationships before persuading him to empty his entire retirement fund.
Holloway was so distraught by the cruel scam that he hit “rock bottom” and was “ready to end his life” and was eventually rushed to hospital by his worried daughter.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Holloway explained how he was attacked on social media and was initially wary of potential scammers approaching him.
‘If I made a successful deal, I would post it on social media and start getting random people contacting me, and they would always mention investing in cryptocurrency. He would tell them to forget it. “I knew what they wanted and I was after them,” he said.
“I think I loved the person I thought was behind that profile,” Adrienne said.
But in early December 2022, he was approached by a woman named ‘Hui Hui’, who said she was from China.
‘I was complaining to her that so many people were trying to get me to invest. At first it was like a friendly chat,” she said.
Holloway admitted that he was having some problems with his marriage at the time and that he had a vulnerable mindset. The online conversation turned romantic, with plans for the couple to meet up.
Several other female victims have also shared their stories with DailyMail.com.
Law enforcement sources have predicted that losses related to online scams will continue to rise over the next year as criminals remain out of reach.
The industry has set up factories and secure compounds where scammers are reportedly held against their will and forced to scam people out of everything they have.
Last year, the FBI estimates, hog slaughter scams stole nearly $4 billion from tens of thousands of American victims, a 53% increase from the previous year.
Americans lost a record $2.57 billion to cryptocurrency investment fraud in 2022 alone, according to the FBI, nearly three times the amount stolen in 2021.