An influencer allegedly posed as a teen girl with cancer to get $37,000 from a man, with one text reading ‘I didn’t pay my health insurance’
Careful who you trust.
Brazilian influencer Luís Felipe de Oliveira, better known as Felipe Heystee, is supposed to appear at a criminal hearing for alleged electronic fraud on November 18. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. However, Heystee has been an international fugitive since March and has been on Interpol’s Red Notice list since July 27, according to Need to Know.
Electronic fraud is sometimes called internet fraud, which is defined as “cybercrime activity that takes place over the internet or on email, including crimes like identity theft, phishing, and other hacking activities designed to scam people out of money,” according to Fortinet. In Heystee’s case, he allegedly ran an online dating scam that got at least one man to send him money.
Aside from the electronic fraud case, the alleged victim of the scam has a civil claim that’s asking for his money to be returned to him, plus some extra for emotional distress. The problem is that a judge ruled that Heystee can’t participate in the trial while he’s a fugitive.
Heystee’s alleged romance scam involved impersonating a girl with cancer
According to Dexerto, Heystee allegedly pretended to be a 19-year-old girl named Luana who had cancer, and it led to him starting an online relationship with a man in his forties, who’s the one with the civil claim. Heystee, as Luana, would ask the man to send money for expenses like treatment and rent, with one text apparently saying, “I just remembered I didn’t pay my health insurance this month.”
The claim says that the amounts sent to Heystee total around $37,000. According to the man, he noticed that the money he sent to Luana was going into accounts with Heystee’s name.
This prompted him to do a reverse image search on the photos of Luana, only to find that they were images of a 16-year-old influencer who claimed that she didn’t know Heystee or have any connection to him, leading the man to make a police report about the potential fraud. Heystee reportedly fled after prosecutors requested his arrest
Romance scam charges can vary widely
Heystee’s case could lead to a range of penalties if he’s found guilty in the criminal case. While this doesn’t seem to be a case that the United States is involved in, Medium has a rundown of common charges somebody could face from running a romance scam in the US, and it offers at least some insight into the complexity.
Common charges include: wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and false statements to federal agents. The charges used vary by case, as the details of romance scams can be wildly different from each other. As a result, the penalties also vary from misdemeanors to 20 years in prison or more.
Although Heystee has a court hearing on November 18, he remains a fugitive and is still on Interpol’s Red Notice list.
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