This is a true story about Rita, an 82-year-old woman from Santa Maria, California, who believed for two years that baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani was her secret boyfriend. After a fake Facebook profile contacted her, daily calls and romantic messages slowly became part of her life. The impersonator used real news about Ohtani, including his marriage and financial headlines, to make the deception feel believable. Then came requests for Apple gift cards to supposedly help with emergencies. Rita eventually lost nearly $10,000 before the romance turned into blackmail, with the scammer threatening to expose private photos she had shared. Investigators later traced phone numbers, social media accounts, and an IP address to Lagos, Nigeria, revealing an elaborate celebrity impersonation romance scam targeting an older woman.
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