New City veteran shares story of being scammed by fake online girlfriend, hopes to prevent hardship for others

A New City Army veteran who has fallen for an elaborate social media scam — several times — shared his experience with News 12 with hopes he can prevent the same thing happening to someone else.

Posting an artificial intelligence-generated video of an embrace between Robert Isidore, 65, and someone Isidore thought was his online girlfriend, is one of the ways an apparent scammer reeled Isidore in.

Isidore started searching for companionship online after his wife of 34 years died last year.

"I feel like a dummy," Isidore said. "I really do."

After befriending Isidore on Facebook, a person posing as a representative of Publisher's Clearinghouse told Isidore he won the sweepstakes, and to claim the prize he had to send the person a $300 gift card.

He bought a card and sent it.

Then, after the scammer claimed the card did not work, Isidore sent two more gift cards worth $200 each.

Isidore said people would warn him.

"The girls at Stop & Shop told me, 'Robert, honey, you're being scammed. I'm not selling you anymore Apple cards,' he recalled. "They were looking out for my best interests."

News 12 showed the AI video of a woman hugging Isidor to Rockland Veterans Service director Susan Branam.

"That's — really cruel," she said of the video.

Branam often deals with veterans who have been scammed.

She is planning programs to educate veterans about social media and already has programs in place to help veterans make real, meaningful friendships.

"Veterans, especially, I think can feel isolated," Branam said. "I think that's one of the things that some of these criminals might target."

County officials urge anyone who feels they or someone they know has been scammed to report it to the Rockland Department of Social Services at 845-364-3574, where all types of abuse including financial abuse are investigated.

They also advise reporting scams to the police immediately.

The Rockland Office of Consumer Protection provided the following guidelines to avoid becoming a victim of fraud:

Be very wary of unsolicited communication, whether it’s by phone, email, text, or online chats.
Never, ever send money or personal information, such as your date of birth, home address, social security number or passwords and PIN numbers to anyone unless you are certain of the identity of the person you are sending it to.
Don’t trust any links embedded in emails. Even if you think you know the identity of the company or individual who contacted you, verify who they are by contacting them in a trusted way—going to their website directly or calling the number or emailing the address you know is valid.
Prizes and sweepstakes solicitations are more often than not a scam. If you have to send money to redeem a reward, that should be a huge red flag. If its too good to be true, it always is!