The Darjean Love scam worked extremely well. Until he didn’t.
Via Kalyn Kahler of ESPN, the FBI has identified 35 other possible victims of alleged fraud committed by Love and Taylor Chan. The total number of possible victims now exceeds 60.
“We were surprised at how many people were victimized in such a short period of time and then many more came forward,” FBI agent Doug Olson said at a press conference, referring to Kahler. “It’s a large volume for just a few entities. Our concern is that this scam could be repeated by other individuals who are out there victimizing other people in similar schemes.”
The FBI believes more potential victims may be identified.
“We don’t want anyone to be afraid to come forward,” Olson said, “certainly not for fear of embarrassment or anything like that, because we want to help them and we want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”
Love, 35, and Chan, 18, allegedly stole more than $1.3 million, with Love posing as a 49ers player. Chan posed as Love’s financial advisor.
“The victims in this case were targeted precisely because they were trustworthy and responsible people who believed they were building genuine relationships and legitimate financial futures,” Olson said. “They were deliberately manipulated through an extremely sophisticated scheme that mixed fake personas, fabricated investment accounts, staged video calls and AI-enhanced fake identities.”
A 49ers source told Kahler that the team was unaware of Love and had received no report on him before learning of the situation from the FBI in August.
And while most understand that anything that seems too good to be true probably is, our nature can make us susceptible to deception. Hopefully, potential victims won’t fear ridicule for seeking justice – that alone may keep them and other victims of other scams from saying anything for fear of embarrassment.
They are the victims. They deserve no scrutiny for being on the wrong side of a criminal enterprise that was very successful. Until, again, it wasn’t.