My name is JACKIE CRENSHAW.
I am a healthcare professional from East Haven, Connecticut—and I was systematically deceived, manipulated, and financially destroyed by an online romance scammer calling himself BRANDON.
Let me be very clear: this did not happen because I was careless or naïve. It happened because BRANDON is a professional fraudster who knew exactly what he was doing.
I met BRANDON on an online dating site in 2023. From day one, he flooded me with attention. Constant phone calls. Endless text messages. Gifts. Food deliveries to my home. He made himself impossible to ignore and impossible to forget. This was not romance—it was deliberate psychological manipulation.
For months, BRANDON built my trust brick by brick. We talked every day. We prayed together. He told me everything I wanted to hear. But every time I asked to meet him face to face, there was always an excuse. Always a delay. Always a reason why “now wasn’t the right time.”
That was the trap.
Once he had me emotionally invested, BRANDON moved in for the kill. He introduced what he claimed was a cryptocurrency investment. He sent me convincing documents and fake receipts showing my money growing at incredible speed. Everything looked legitimate. Everything was calculated.
I believed him—and that belief cost me everything.
I drained my retirement savings. I borrowed against my home. I trusted BRANDON with my future. To keep the lie alive, he sent me a $100,000 check. I did exactly what you’re supposed to do—I went to my bank and contacted local police. The check came from a real account. That wasn’t proof of success—it was bait.
It took nearly a year for the truth to come out. Only after an anonymous man called the police did law enforcement finally realize what had happened. By then, I had lost nearly ONE MILLION DOLLARS to a sophisticated international scam operation.
Let that sink in.
I lost my life savings. I am buried in debt. I will lose my home. My plans to retire are gone. Everything I worked for—gone—because BRANDON never intended to meet me, never cared about me, and never loved me.
This was not love.
This was financial abuse.
As Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said, I did everything right. I was saving lives as a healthcare leader. I owned my home. I supported my family. I wanted a partner to share the life I built.
Instead, I was hunted.
Now I refuse to stay silent.
I am standing up publicly with Connecticut AARP and the Attorney General’s Office to expose how these scams work. A public service announcement sharing my story will run on television and radio for 16 weeks—because people need to hear this before it’s too late.
Here are the hard truths I learned the most painful way possible:
- If someone you haven’t met asks for money, IT IS A SCAM
- If they push you off the dating platform, THEY ARE HIDING
- If they refuse to meet in person, THEY ARE LYING
- If they overwhelm you with affection, THEY ARE MANIPULATING YOU
- If they discourage outside advice, THEY ARE CONTROLLING YOU
- If crypto enters the conversation, RUN
I will not disappear in shame. I will not be quiet. I will not protect the comfort of scammers like BRANDON.
“I’m going from victim to survivor,” and I say that loudly. I show up to work with my head high because what happened to me was not weakness—it was exploitation.
And no, I have not given up on love. I still have love to give. But I now know the difference between real connection and a predator pretending to care.
If you think this can’t happen to you, you’re wrong.
If you are talking to someone online who asks for money—STOP.
Learn from my story before scammers like BRANDON steal your future the way they stole mine.