September 18, 2025 • 44 mins
She wanted a companion for the last chapter of her life. But an online romance compromised everything she’d worked for.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Betrayal fans, I have exciting news to share. Season
three of Betrayal is now a docu series on Hulu.
It's the gripping story of Stacy Tyler and the doctor
who betrayed them. See the voices You've come to know
in Betrayal Under His Eye, streaming now on Hulu.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The state trooper traced two of the wallets, one to Shanghai,
one to Nigeria, and she said the building was as
big as a casino, full of tables and computers and
people scamming.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
change everything.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I've always been an advocate for the underdog. I would
give anything to help people, and I always stick up
for people as well.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's Jackie Crenshaw. She's a mimographer in new Haven, Connecticut.
That means she administers breast cancer screenings and she's been
doing that for over thirty years. She was the first
black woman to manage the imaging center at Yale New
Haven Hospital.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
And when I go to conferences around the country, they
might be like, all right, I've heard your name.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's more than a career for her. She's passionate about
addressing racial disparities in breast cancer detection.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Statistically, African American women are diagnosed later as the breast
cancer has progressed. I am the outreach coordinator, so I
teach people how to examine their breast. Some people just
do well when they see someone like themselves. I actually do.
(02:01):
They're called beauty shop chats, so we go to beauty
shops and I teach breast cancer prevention.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
She's the one calling her four older sisters checking to
see if they've had their annual breast exam.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I have to say I'm not bossy, but I've always
taken the lead, even as the fifth of five girls.
A rainy day back then, there was no computers or
any of that stuff, so I was the teacher as
the youngest.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Jackie never had kids of her own, but I have
raised many.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I probably have fifty sixty nieces and great nieces and nephews,
so a lot of checks to college, you name it,
I did it.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
She always put her career and her friendships over romantic relationships.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
The last serious relationship I had was about fifteen years ago.
It was a ten year relationship she.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Ended it because he seemed threatened by her independence. Her
whole life, Jackie's been the breadwinner and she's had a
hard time finding a partner who was comfortable with that.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Most of my people around me would say, Oh, people
are intimidated by you because of my career and you know,
wit and everything.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And Jackie was comfortable on her own.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
At that time. Say, in May of twenty twenty three,
I had everything I needed. I owned my condo, had
a nice car, good job. I basically was at a
place where I could have gotten anything I wanted, and
I had everything I want as far as material things.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Around that time, Jackie started thinking about what she wanted
the last chapter of her life to look like. She'd
been saving for retirement for decades.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I would put extra away, just putting away a nice
amount every two weeks and stacking things up. I thought,
I would, you know, retire First I thought about six
to it, and I'm like, nah, I'm sixty five.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
She wanted to travel and take it slow in retirement,
and the more she thought about it, she realized.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I didn't feel like I was desperate or lonely or
any of those things, but I was ready for some companionship.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
She'd never been on social media, much less on a
dating app, and then.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
A friend of mine suggested this website, which specialized in
African American dating.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So Jackie gave herself a pep talk.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I was like, Okay, jack maybe try this site because
again she helped me set up my profile because I
didn't know anything.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
She picked her photos and set her preferences for a
potential match. She wanted someone self sufficient, someone who had
their own thing going, but she also wanted someone fun
to experience the next stage of her life.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
With, someone who like to take care of themselves, you know,
they didn't have to be a musclehead or anything like that,
and someone who liked to travel.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Within a few days, she got a match that piqued
her interest. She opened his message.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
All right, Jacquelyn, my name is Brandon and you're beautiful,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
When she looked at his photos, one thing immediately stood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Out the eyes, his blue eyes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Brandon worked in construction, and he looked like a family man.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
There's pictures of him with the kids, pictures of him
at work.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Brandon was also a little cheeky. She hovered over one
photo in particular, it's like a.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Picture beautiful face and you could like see his bum
a little bit, just lay it in the bed. I
was like, oh my god, you're showing your assets.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
His messages kept coming.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
The first three times, it might have been twice a
day or something like that, but it became very regular.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Brandon wanted to start talking on the phone, so a
few days later he gave her a call.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
He did have a deep, deep voice, but it was
just very calm and soft spoken.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
They started talking on the phone almost every night, sharing
their life stories.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
He's like, oh, you know, I just went back to
work two years after losing my wife.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
His wife had died in a car accident right at
the beginning of COVID, leaving him as a single parent
to their two sons. He had kids later in life
after starting a successful career. Now Brandon was fifty and
ready to date again. He trusted Jackie with really personal challenges.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
He told me one of his sons had like stopped
talking when the wife died, but he said, oh, but
we'll have enough money to who you know, gave him
special help and all these different things.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Brandon lived in New York City, a two and a
half hour drive from New Haven, and after a few
weeks of talking, they set a date to meet in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
He made reservations at a really nice seafood restaurant, which
I'm like, not as.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
He know, he'd clearly done his research and picked a
place that would really impress. It would be his first
date after his wife's death, so this was a big deal,
and he knew Jackie was nervous too, so we offered
to get her a gift in advance, a new date
night outfit, something she would feel beautiful in. He sent
(07:38):
her a few hundred dollars and she got an expensive dress.
But as the date approached, Jackie started to get cold feet,
so she asked her older sister for advice.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
She's like, no, don't go. You gotta get kidnapped or something.
So I didn't go to the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
She sent him a text to let him know. Brandon
said he underst stood they were both new to online dating.
He could see why she'd be cautious, so they decided
to slow things down and get to know each other more.
Brandon started wooing her from afar.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So he's like, oh, what's your address. I'm going to
send you something and he did.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It was a bouquet of flowers and balloons. It made
her smile. And from there he started sending little deliveries, like.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
If I got home late and you know, I worked
a ten to twelve hour day or something like that,
and I'm like, I'm just gonna eat both cereal, then
it'd be food delivered. And that was like every same
a weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
He asked about her favorite restaurants. Whenever she had a
long day, he started sending her food that would be
waiting for her at her front door.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Oh my god, he must really care about me that
he was feeding me and just looking out for me.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Whenever he saw an opportunity to make her feel special,
he took it.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Oh they were love songs poems, you know, very touching,
and it's like, oh, I haven't had this in a while.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
They looked at the calendar to see if there was
another weekend they could meet in person, a redo of
their first date when Jackie got spooped. But Brandon traveled
a lot for work. If he was on a work contract,
he could be tied up for weeks, if not months.
Plus being a single dad made it even more difficult
to find time. But he wanted Jackie to know he
(09:28):
was serious about her.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He's like, I feel like we have a connection and
we should get off the site. That's when we really
started talking quite a bit, like maybe three four times
a day. It felt good.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
After that they were official.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
He was the best, like perfect boyfriend that you could
think of. He just kept saying, I'm here for you.
I'm going to take care of you.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Jackie told her friends and family about Brandon.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
They were almost relieved. I think they were generally happy
for me, you know, oh, she's found somebody finally.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
He was a good match, someone who grounded her when
she got overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
He'd always say to me, come down, come down, come down.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
A few months in, they started saying those three words.
He said it first, but she felt it too. Brandon
opened up more about his two sons. The laws of
their mother caused both the kids to shut down. It
sounded like the whole family was just coming out of
a very dark period.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He was like, oh, I thought about taking my own life,
you know, I leave these kids with no parents.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
On the phone at night, Brandon would sometimes cry. Jackie
had helped her siblings raise their kids, and she knew
how exhausting it could be to be a single parent.
Brandon also traveled for work, which meant that the kids
mostly stayed with the nanny.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
He's just me like, can't wait to get back with
the boys after this job.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Faith had been a huge part of Brandon's life and
had helped him through the grieving process. So on the
phone one night, Brandon asked if they could pray together.
It became something they did every night, and it.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Was like, Oh, pray that the kids, and then this
and then that, and it's just now sure tern No,
it's my turn, you know, back and forth.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Jackie's a spiritual person, but praying together with a partner
was new to her. It took her spiritual practice to
another level.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I started praying not like I ever had before.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Jackie was about to turn sixty, and for the first
time in her life she had a true partner, someone
who would take care of her.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
All that I've given to my community and taking care
of everyone. I said, Oh, it's finally my turn for
someone to take care of me, like God's answered my prayers.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Jackie met her new boyfriend, Brandon Miller, on a dating
site for black singles. Within a few months, he was
saying things to her like.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh, you seem like someone I want to settle down with.
You're the one I want you to raise my kids.
We're going to be together. I used to call mister Miller.
I'll be like, hey, mister Miller.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And he had his own pet names for her.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
He would always say Queen, my queen, be you know
missus Miller. Yeah, like perfect.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It was easy to envision a future together. She wasn't
intimidated by the idea of helping him raise his sons.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I've been taking care of children my entire adult life,
so it wasn't like, oh my god, I'd be overwhelmed
by children and at my age, how are you going
to meet someone who does not have children.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Plus, he could afford a full time nanny for the kids,
and he continued to send Jackie gifts.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
He even sent me a necklace that had my picture
on one side and his on the other.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
When she would send him pictures of her day, he
noticed she wasn't wearing the necklace.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
He's like, oh, you're not wearing a necklace. I said, no,
I'm not gonna wear until you get here.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
They hadn't met in person yet, but it was always
just around the corner. The next time he finished a
work contract and had time available, he promised to come
visit her.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Come, I'm going to see you. We're going to be together.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
One of Brandon's side hobbies was investing. He had invested
the payout from his wife's life insurance, which helped him
to stay afloat during COVID.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
He used that money to invest and get all this
money to be able to invest more and just keep
investing because that's all he had to do during COVID
with the kids at home. Was learning all about investing.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And he wanted to help Jackie learn how to do
the same.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
He said, oh, have you heard of crypto? I said, ah,
I've heard about it, but most people, you know, like
getting And he's like, oh, I've really got to read
up on it, and you know, I know a lot
about it. Let me know if you think you want
to invest.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
He sent her screenshots of his returns.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So then he starts to send me these statements which
he had I think at that time, I don't know
invested two million and had four million.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Jackie thought about her own accounts and what it would
mean to double that number. Doubling her retirement fund would
mean being able to travel more. Maybe she could buy
a vacation home and bring her family there too.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I'm like, I really want to retire, all right, So okay,
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
She decided to start small, with forty thousand dollars from
her four oh one K. The account would be in
her name and she would be the only one with
access to it, but Brandon would help her set it up.
He put her in touch with a friend of his
who could broke her the deal.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
This second person whose name is Mike. He has like
an English accent. He calls me and he's going to
help me set up the account, show me how to
buy bitcoin.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So Jackie invested forty thousand dollars. It was pretty easy,
and the next month.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
They sent me a state and I was like, what
is this one hundred thousand dollars one hundred and something.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
This didn't make sense. No returns could be that high.
This must be someone else's money, and that meant someone
else had access to her account.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
She called Brandon and I said to him, you told
me nobody would have access, and I even have an
email that I said, and I said, I want my
money back. Because I was told that this was only
going to be my account. He said, no, no, no, I
wanted to put this in so you could grow your
money faster.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Brandon had invested some of his own funds as a
gift to increase her returns, and he also wanted to
open up a shared account, one where they could both
invest in their future.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
So then he's like, you know, I'm going to send
you one hundred thousand dollars and we'll invest it, you
know more.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
They started painting the picture of what their life to
get could look like, what this money could buy them.
They also started planning for the moment they'd finally meet
in person.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So the holidays come and he's not able to come again.
But it's like, look, i'm gonna make this up to you.
Your sixtieth birthday's coming, and I said, well, you know,
I had a fiftieth birthday party on a yacht.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
If a yacht is what she wanted, Brandon can make
it happen. He offered to pay for Jackie's sixtieth birthday party.
He wanted it to be the celebration of a lifetime
because she deserved it. This party was especially meaningful because
Brandon would be there to meet all of Jackie's family
and friends.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And I was like, well, what's the budget? He says,
blank check, blank.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Jack blank check is the kind of phrase that does
something to your body. She'd never been worried about money,
but this was the first time in her life she'd
gotten to play with money.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Now I know how to plan a party, So I
find this boat. I start making all these plans. I
mean I had a photo booth, a cigar bar, sparkles, DJ,
everything you could think of, to the tune of eighty grand. Now,
(18:20):
if I was retiring, there's no way in hell I
would have paid that much for a party. My other
party ten years before it might have been twenty thousand.
But you know, my birthdays in July, and I always
want to give my friends and family and experience that
they would never have.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
When it came time for Brandon to pay.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
He sends sixteen thousand back my way through wire transferred
to my account. I get a cashier's check and I
pay the vendors.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Her confidence in him and their relationship started to deepen.
Whenever he said he would do something, he was good
for it. When Jackie's niece joined the party, planning. Brandon
was happy to connect with her.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
My niece and I went to see the boat and
he called and he was talking to myself and my niece.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Plus Jackie was already seeing returns from her initial investment,
so she decided to invest more with Brandon's broker.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
And I showed several people and I was like, They're like, oh, wow,
you're making all this money.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That's when Jackie got a letter about a shareholder opportunity.
It was from one of Brandon's connections in the finance world.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
This letter was addressed to both of us.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
It was an opportunity to get in on the ground
floor of a new crypto company.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It was a million dollar buy in.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Brandon agreed to split it with her. At this point,
Jackie was all in. She cashed out one of her
retirement accounts, which.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Was four hundred and nineteen thousand after taxes, and she
made the transfer bought bitcoin transfer to the wallet.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Their party was still a few months away. The relationship
felt strong, and the returns on their investment were even stronger.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
By now, I think he has like ten million in
his gont you know, and I think mine may have
reached two million.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Jackie was counting down the days until her party. She'd
booked the vendors and sent out the invites.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So all the build up for my sixtieth birthday party
was going to be Everyone was so excited to meet branded.
They were going to meet Brandon and the kids. And
this is a person who I was going to spend
my life with. And I think everyone was knowing I
deserved a partner to spend the rest of my life with,
(20:43):
Knowing how I've dedicated my life to my family and
all my coworkers and the hospital, I've been loyalty to
a fault. So they were really, you know, looking forward
to it.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Brandon planned to come in a few days in advance
to finally meet her and help with last minute preparations,
and in the weeks leading up to it, they were
constantly in touch.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
So we're planning the party, I'm buying dresses and sending
in pictures. Oh that's beautiful again, the beautiful.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That blank check Brandon mentioned he followed through Jackie got
a check for one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
So eventually the check did come and I'm like, I
told my girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Jackie's friend was excited for her, but she was also
a little skeptical. One hundred thousand dollars was a huge
amount of money to receive in the mail, and there
was something else about this check that didn't seem right.
Brandon's name wasn't on it. Instead, it was a woman's name,
a woman Jackie had never heard of. When she asked
(21:53):
Brandon about it.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
He told me that she was one of his clients
and she owed him money.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I'm okay, but Jackie's friend wasn't convinced. She encouraged Jackie
to go to the police to make sure the check
was safe to cash.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I go to the police and I say, I got
this check. I don't know if it's fraud or it's
bake or whatever. But they just blew me off, took
down my statement and just said, oh see if it clears.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
The check cleared. If the cops weren't worried about it.
Jackie wasn't either. Brandon had one more surprise the day
after the party. He wanted to take her on a trip.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
We were going to Santorini.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
That trip would be the beginning of their life together,
finally in the same place.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So he wanted to move to Connecticut. I was like,
you know, the weather's like here, and he's like yeah,
he you know, had been in New York and Virginia.
And that's when he started sending me along with these statements,
he's sending me real estate listings of a million dollar
homes in affluent parts of Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
They were strategizing about which town and neighborhood would be
best for his kids.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And he's like, Oh, what are the schools like around there?
And I'm telling them about the country day schools and
where they are.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
The date of the party was growing closer. Brandon was
finishing up a work contract across the country.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And he's still He's coming, He's coming, he's coming. He's
wrapping up the job in California.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
About a week before the party, I get.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
A call on my cell phone and I said East
Haven Police. I'm like, God, what the hell do they want?
She picked up and it's a detective trand he says this,
Jacquelin Crinchhaw. I say yes, he said, Jacquelin, we got
a call, an anonymous call from a gentleman with a
thick Indian accent, stating you were being scammed and they
(24:00):
felt sorry for you.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
After planning a blank chech sixtieth birthday party, scheduling a
trip to Santorini and going in on million dollar investments.
Jackie still hadn't met Brandon. That's when she got a
call from a detective.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
He says, this, Jacqueline Crine, Shall I say yes? He said, Jacqueline,
we got a call, an anonymous call from a gentleman
with a thick Indian accent, stating you were being scammed
and they felt sorry for you. I think I like
blanked out, maybe had a little seizure or or just
(25:01):
that gut punch. He was like hello, I said, uh.
He said, are you being scammed? And I said, uh no,
like very doubtful, like oh so I hung.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Up Immediately, Jackie tried to sign into her online account
where she managed all of her investments, but the website
was down. She was locked out. In that moment, everything
clicked for Jackie, the doubts she pushed away about Brandon,
about that one hundred thousand dollars check. She wasn't ready
(25:36):
to admit it out loud, but she knew the truth.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
My head exploded, like I said, oh my god, oh
my god, oh my god, oh my god. I sat
for probably two hours numb, very numb, thinking oh my god,
oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, and
just trying to tally up all the losses.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
The loss was massive. She'd cashed out all of her
retirement accounts, hundreds of thousands. She'd even borrowed against the
value of her home. While she was reeling, she knew
one thing. She couldn't let Brandon know that she had
been tipped off.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
So the next day Brandon called, I said, oh, I'm
not feeling well. You know, I've got to sign his headache.
And I didn't say anything. I just was trying to
figure out what the hell I was going to do.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
She went to the police again. This time it wasn't
a suspicion. She knew something was wrong and she wanted
her money back.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I get an appointment with the state police and he's like,
you know, try to bring you all the information you can.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And Jackie had the receipts, thousands of them. She went
to geek squad Best Buy to transfer all of her
text messages and emails with Brandon to a hard drive.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It took them six hours. I think there has to
be over ten thousand. I don't know twenty thousand text
messages and all this stuff. I made capies and I
have a suitcase full of these text messages. So I
went dramatically to the State Police, dragging a suitcase in
(27:20):
this sea drive.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
The investigation would take some time, and the cops wanted
to get as much out of Brandon as they could.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
When I went to the State Police, they tried to
get me to still talk to him, but I just
couldn't fake it any longer.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
She needed to confront Brandon about all the money he
had stolen from her.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I said, you ruined my life, you know. He denied it.
He's like, oh, where's this coming from? And I was like,
I can't even believe this, and he just like, no,
let me talk to my broker. I'm going to get
this straightened out.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
This confrontation, and it wouldn't be without consequence.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I was getting all these rejection letters from credit unions,
Christian credit unions, credit card companies, all all. I'm like,
what is this? I did not apply for any of this.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Since Brandon knew Jackie was on to him, he made
a last ditch effort to squeeze her for all she
was worth. Suddenly, Jackie was getting notifications from banks and
credit card companies she'd never heard of.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
How could I owe City Bank one hundred thousand dollars
when my limit was forty thousand On my credit report
there is an account from Fifth Third Bank. I do
not have the Fifth Third account, so if that count
was open at that bank, they may have used checks
to make payments to my MasterCard, which were fake checks anyway,
(28:49):
but they paid them.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
After that, Brandon went MIA. He disappeared from Jackie's life entirely,
and the police investigation uncovered that the real person in
Brandon's photos.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Was a gentleman from Australia.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
The guy in the pictures had no idea who Jackie was.
He lived in Australia, worked in construction, and unbeknownst to him,
someone somewhere had been stealing his photos straight from his
public social media profiles. Jackie was reeling because she'd spoken
to Brandon's two kids on the phone. All of a sudden,
(29:28):
she realized those must have been adults, disguising their voices
and playing the part of children.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
He was controlling it all because it was like texting
me at the same time, I guess, acting like he
was the kids.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
It was so intricate. There was no way Brandon could
have done this alone. The police had been investigating her
case and they came back with a few answers.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
The state trooper traced two of the crypto wallets bunch
Shanghai went to Nigeria.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
The investigation led the police across the world to warehouses
full of computers, and the.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Police actually investigatively had traveled to Thailand and Cambodia and
said the building was as big as a casino, full
of tables and computers and people scamming. So I stepped
into something huge. I think it is international, and I
(30:33):
have no idea where this person is.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
As far as that one hundred thousand dollars check Jackie
got in the mail, the police went back to check
it out. They found out that it was sent from
a woman in Florida who was another victim of this
complex scam.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
I find out later from the state police that she
sent two people one hundred thousand dollars and she thought
I was an investor. That's what she was told.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
One thing she doesn't have the answer to is who
called to tip off the police. She wonders if it
was Brandon himself disguising his voice or someone else who
she'd never met.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
My girlfriend thinks that maybe it was him, and she's like,
I think he's had feelings for you, And I think
somebody probably if you were talking to me for a year,
you'd probably get feelings for me too.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
While detectives chased wallets across borders, Jackie had to live
in the wreckage. At home, there was still the question
of her party, which was supposed to be the following week.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Why would I cancel if we've already I someone was
invested like seventy two grand.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
She'd already paid for the party, so she might as
well enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
It was a white party, it was open bar. It
was unbelievable. Some people will never experience this again in
their life. You know. It was a beautiful day, so
you know, we're all just on this sixtieth birthday party
having a great time.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
But the whole party was built on an illusion, and
Jackie was one of the only ones that day who
knew the truth. It was hard enough for Jackie to
go through with the party. She couldn't bring herself to
tell her friends and family what really happened.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So we go on. The party goes on without a hitch.
You know, They're like, oh, where's the old couldn't you know,
couldn't make it because I was kind of it was
kind of dark, and I'm going through with the state
police and the investigation.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
But after the party, it was time to face the music.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I'm starting to have to deal with what is happening
now with all these finances. It seemed like mission impossible.
With how I was trying to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
She had to tell her family and friends what happened.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I tell my niece, and I tell my best friend,
my godmother who's in her eighties. I thought she was
going to have like a heart attack. She was so
heartbroken that someone would do this to me.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Even Jackie was having a hard time believing it. Everything
about Brandon felt so real. They prayed together. He's in
her meals multiple times a week. He really knew her.
It made Jackie question the thing she knew to be
true about herself.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I thought I was like a sharper tech in the box.
It seems ridiculous because there was Some of my friends
are like, jack come on, he can't show his face.
This is a scam. Only look me. Maybe twice I
heard this is a scam.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
When she reflects on how this happened, it's.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
A psychological thing where I feel like I got softened
by that partner being just that great and supportive and
I'm so proud of you and da da dah, this
and that, but human and I think that human factor
got in and he was able to, whether you say,
manipulate me or just have me trust him.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
The emotional manipulation is the thing that she struggles to
make sense of. She wasn't desperate for a partner, She
was just open to connection, and Brandon, whoever he was,
took advantage of that. It was enough of an opening
for this scam to work.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
He really sold me like, Yep, we're going to be together.
So I think just that vulnerability, which I didn't at
the time think I had, it is so hard to
stop my brain from just you know, rehash, rehash, rehash.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Jackie's had to face steep financial consequences. When we asked
her the total amount she started shuffling through papers.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Forty thousand, four one hundred and twenty thousand, one hundred
and eighty nine thousand, plus another one hundred and fifty
thousand plus one hundred thousand to bank of America thirty
thousand to Navy Federal Did I say City Bank one
hundred thousand. It's definitely over a million.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
She'd been wiped out for the first time in decades.
She had to budget for every dollar.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I was in my local grocery store and this cheese
company had some smoke gooda cheese. So I said, oh,
taystep and I said to him, Oh, how much is this?
It was eight ninety nine, and I said, shit, I
can't justify paying almost ten dollars for a little tiny
ball of cheese.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Jackie borrowed money from her niece to get an attorney
to file for Chapter thirteen bankruptcy.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
I owe City Bank one hundred thousand dollars. They want
twenty five hundred a month. What I try, I had
to do was negotiate, but it's not working. My credit
went from seven ninety to now five hundred. I've never
ever had bad credit. I never missed the payment on anything,
(36:18):
but now having to see what bad credit does. I
work hard, I make my money, and it's going right back.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Out because of this scam. She'll never have the retirement
she planned and saved her entire life for.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
That part brings a lot of anger and hurt. I
got a tax bill from the IRS for the four
h three B I owe fifty five thousand, fifty six
now and I'll have to make a payment plan.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And because she borrowed a get is the value of
her home.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I'm in a short sale. We got to find you
somewhere lit. I'm just not sure what the future holds.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
She held out a hope for a few months that
the police could recover her assets, but because crypto transactions
use the blockchain and not traditional banks, that money can't
be traced back to individuals. The police hit a dead end.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
I know I'm not going to get a dime of
that money back, but they are keeping the case open.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
The police were so worried about Jackie's mental health that
they sent a social worker to do a wellness check.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Maybe because I do have a gun permit and I
have a gun, that they might look like, uh oh,
because people have taken their lives or harmed themselves with
all of this going on, and with just the pure
magnitude of how much money I lost, But that was
never a thought, ever a thought.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Jackie's resilient.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
She kept going, I don't let it consume me, because
that would paralyze me. I'm like, I gotta go to work.
I gotta face these people, and that right was one
of the hardest things I had to do at that time,
was put a smile on my face and continue on.
There's a ignition in me that is gonna prevail with this.
(38:23):
She says.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Her line of work puts loss in perspective.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Working at a cancer hospital. You know, I like stuff,
I like nice things, but you can't take any of
it with you.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Her knee stepped up and started a fundraising campaign, which
helped Jackie cover a few bills.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Maybe like four thousand. People gave what they could, but
I was overwhelmed with people just being generous.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Unfortunately, this type of crime is prevalent in older demographics,
and Jackie's story, while devastating, is not unique. AARP, a
nonprofit organization that provides resources related to aging, reached out
to Jackie. They wanted to work with her to help
educate others about these types of scams.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I was a spotl like speaker for April and one
woman you know, confessed that she was scammed and she's like,
you know, how do you move on? I said, One
day at a time. There's times I want to beat
myself up, but nope, I just educate people, and I
(39:37):
always say, don't do what I did. That's what is
motivating me to fight.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Jackie wants to help prevent this kind of scam from
happening to other people, to show how sophisticated these scams
can be. Jackie didn't trust Brandon based on his online
messages alone. He invested real money into her life, and
she saw the payoff. Her favorite meals were delivered to
her door. Expensive jewelry arrived in the mail, Her bank
(40:07):
accounts grew. It was more than just a promise of luxury.
It was the true taste of it for many months.
Scammers like Jackies are willing to spend one hundred thousand
dollars on their victims if it means they will eventually
get a million back. These scams don't happen in the
blink of an eye. The scammers invest money, emotion, and
(40:30):
time into their victims for months before pulling their rug
out from under them. We end every weekly episode with
the same question, why do you want to share your story?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I have to tell myself every day I'm a victim.
Whoever is on these websites scamming people. Their entire job
is to distance me with my money, and I know,
just talking people, they are plagued with fear and embarrassment,
(41:04):
and that fight in me said, if you go hide
and you don't tell your story and you know you're embarrassed,
you're not going to help anyone.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Within seconds, I get a Facebook message, is this about
your dad? And I got like a chill down my back.
I responded with yes, with like a bunch of dots,
and he immediately replied with I know this because it
happened to me too.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Before we end the episode, I have some exciting news Betrayal.
We'll be doing our first ever live show as part
of the Virgin Voyage's True Crime Cruise. We'll be answering
listener questions and discussing them live on stage with Stacy
and Tyler from Betrayal season three, as well as Caroline
from season four. So if you have a question for us,
(42:18):
please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com with
the subject line listener question and if you want to
join us on the Caribbean cruise, there are still spots
available search virgin voyages dot com, slash true crime. If
you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team
or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us
(42:40):
at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com, That's Betrayal Pod at
gmail dot com, or follow us on Instagram at Betrayal Pod.
You can also connect with me on Instagram at It's
Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter, view additional content, and
connect with the Betrayal community, join our substance at Betrayal
(43:00):
dot substack dot com. We're grateful for your support. One
way to show support is by subscribing to our show
on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
(43:23):
Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by Me
Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced
by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt,
and Kristin Melcurie. Casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart
team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krincheck. Audio editing and
(43:46):
mixing by Mattlvecchio. Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's
theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mybe
Music and For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
Hey, Betrayal fans, I have exciting news to share. Season
three of Betrayal is now a docu series on Hulu.
It's the gripping story of Stacy Tyler and the doctor
who betrayed them. See the voices You've come to know
in Betrayal Under His Eye, streaming now on Hulu.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The state trooper traced two of the wallets, one to Shanghai,
one to Nigeria, and she said the building was as
big as a casino, full of tables and computers and
people scamming.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
change everything.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I've always been an advocate for the underdog. I would
give anything to help people, and I always stick up
for people as well.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's Jackie Crenshaw. She's a mimographer in new Haven, Connecticut.
That means she administers breast cancer screenings and she's been
doing that for over thirty years. She was the first
black woman to manage the imaging center at Yale New
Haven Hospital.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
And when I go to conferences around the country, they
might be like, all right, I've heard your name.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's more than a career for her. She's passionate about
addressing racial disparities in breast cancer detection.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Statistically, African American women are diagnosed later as the breast
cancer has progressed. I am the outreach coordinator, so I
teach people how to examine their breast. Some people just
do well when they see someone like themselves. I actually do.
(02:01):
They're called beauty shop chats, so we go to beauty
shops and I teach breast cancer prevention.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
She's the one calling her four older sisters checking to
see if they've had their annual breast exam.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I have to say I'm not bossy, but I've always
taken the lead, even as the fifth of five girls.
A rainy day back then, there was no computers or
any of that stuff, so I was the teacher as
the youngest.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Jackie never had kids of her own, but I have
raised many.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I probably have fifty sixty nieces and great nieces and nephews,
so a lot of checks to college, you name it,
I did it.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
She always put her career and her friendships over romantic relationships.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
The last serious relationship I had was about fifteen years ago.
It was a ten year relationship she.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Ended it because he seemed threatened by her independence. Her
whole life, Jackie's been the breadwinner and she's had a
hard time finding a partner who was comfortable with that.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Most of my people around me would say, Oh, people
are intimidated by you because of my career and you know,
wit and everything.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And Jackie was comfortable on her own.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
At that time. Say, in May of twenty twenty three,
I had everything I needed. I owned my condo, had
a nice car, good job. I basically was at a
place where I could have gotten anything I wanted, and
I had everything I want as far as material things.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Around that time, Jackie started thinking about what she wanted
the last chapter of her life to look like. She'd
been saving for retirement for decades.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I would put extra away, just putting away a nice
amount every two weeks and stacking things up. I thought,
I would, you know, retire First I thought about six
to it, and I'm like, nah, I'm sixty five.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
She wanted to travel and take it slow in retirement,
and the more she thought about it, she realized.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I didn't feel like I was desperate or lonely or
any of those things, but I was ready for some companionship.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
She'd never been on social media, much less on a
dating app, and then.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
A friend of mine suggested this website, which specialized in
African American dating.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So Jackie gave herself a pep talk.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I was like, Okay, jack maybe try this site because
again she helped me set up my profile because I
didn't know anything.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
She picked her photos and set her preferences for a
potential match. She wanted someone self sufficient, someone who had
their own thing going, but she also wanted someone fun
to experience the next stage of her life.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
With, someone who like to take care of themselves, you know,
they didn't have to be a musclehead or anything like that,
and someone who liked to travel.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Within a few days, she got a match that piqued
her interest. She opened his message.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
All right, Jacquelyn, my name is Brandon and you're beautiful,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
When she looked at his photos, one thing immediately stood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Out the eyes, his blue eyes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Brandon worked in construction, and he looked like a family man.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
There's pictures of him with the kids, pictures of him
at work.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Brandon was also a little cheeky. She hovered over one
photo in particular, it's like a.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Picture beautiful face and you could like see his bum
a little bit, just lay it in the bed. I
was like, oh my god, you're showing your assets.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
His messages kept coming.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
The first three times, it might have been twice a
day or something like that, but it became very regular.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Brandon wanted to start talking on the phone, so a
few days later he gave her a call.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
He did have a deep, deep voice, but it was
just very calm and soft spoken.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
They started talking on the phone almost every night, sharing
their life stories.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
He's like, oh, you know, I just went back to
work two years after losing my wife.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
His wife had died in a car accident right at
the beginning of COVID, leaving him as a single parent
to their two sons. He had kids later in life
after starting a successful career. Now Brandon was fifty and
ready to date again. He trusted Jackie with really personal challenges.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
He told me one of his sons had like stopped
talking when the wife died, but he said, oh, but
we'll have enough money to who you know, gave him
special help and all these different things.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Brandon lived in New York City, a two and a
half hour drive from New Haven, and after a few
weeks of talking, they set a date to meet in Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
He made reservations at a really nice seafood restaurant, which
I'm like, not as.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
He know, he'd clearly done his research and picked a
place that would really impress. It would be his first
date after his wife's death, so this was a big deal,
and he knew Jackie was nervous too, so we offered
to get her a gift in advance, a new date
night outfit, something she would feel beautiful in. He sent
(07:38):
her a few hundred dollars and she got an expensive dress.
But as the date approached, Jackie started to get cold feet,
so she asked her older sister for advice.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
She's like, no, don't go. You gotta get kidnapped or something.
So I didn't go to the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
She sent him a text to let him know. Brandon
said he underst stood they were both new to online dating.
He could see why she'd be cautious, so they decided
to slow things down and get to know each other more.
Brandon started wooing her from afar.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So he's like, oh, what's your address. I'm going to
send you something and he did.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It was a bouquet of flowers and balloons. It made
her smile. And from there he started sending little deliveries, like.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
If I got home late and you know, I worked
a ten to twelve hour day or something like that,
and I'm like, I'm just gonna eat both cereal, then
it'd be food delivered. And that was like every same
a weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
He asked about her favorite restaurants. Whenever she had a
long day, he started sending her food that would be
waiting for her at her front door.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Oh my god, he must really care about me that
he was feeding me and just looking out for me.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Whenever he saw an opportunity to make her feel special,
he took it.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Oh they were love songs poems, you know, very touching,
and it's like, oh, I haven't had this in a while.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
They looked at the calendar to see if there was
another weekend they could meet in person, a redo of
their first date when Jackie got spooped. But Brandon traveled
a lot for work. If he was on a work contract,
he could be tied up for weeks, if not months.
Plus being a single dad made it even more difficult
to find time. But he wanted Jackie to know he
(09:28):
was serious about her.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He's like, I feel like we have a connection and
we should get off the site. That's when we really
started talking quite a bit, like maybe three four times
a day. It felt good.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
After that they were official.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
He was the best, like perfect boyfriend that you could
think of. He just kept saying, I'm here for you.
I'm going to take care of you.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Jackie told her friends and family about Brandon.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
They were almost relieved. I think they were generally happy
for me, you know, oh, she's found somebody finally.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
He was a good match, someone who grounded her when
she got overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
He'd always say to me, come down, come down, come down.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
A few months in, they started saying those three words.
He said it first, but she felt it too. Brandon
opened up more about his two sons. The laws of
their mother caused both the kids to shut down. It
sounded like the whole family was just coming out of
a very dark period.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He was like, oh, I thought about taking my own life,
you know, I leave these kids with no parents.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
On the phone at night, Brandon would sometimes cry. Jackie
had helped her siblings raise their kids, and she knew
how exhausting it could be to be a single parent.
Brandon also traveled for work, which meant that the kids
mostly stayed with the nanny.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
He's just me like, can't wait to get back with
the boys after this job.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Faith had been a huge part of Brandon's life and
had helped him through the grieving process. So on the
phone one night, Brandon asked if they could pray together.
It became something they did every night, and it.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Was like, Oh, pray that the kids, and then this
and then that, and it's just now sure tern No,
it's my turn, you know, back and forth.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Jackie's a spiritual person, but praying together with a partner
was new to her. It took her spiritual practice to
another level.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I started praying not like I ever had before.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Jackie was about to turn sixty, and for the first
time in her life she had a true partner, someone
who would take care of her.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
All that I've given to my community and taking care
of everyone. I said, Oh, it's finally my turn for
someone to take care of me, like God's answered my prayers.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Jackie met her new boyfriend, Brandon Miller, on a dating
site for black singles. Within a few months, he was
saying things to her like.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh, you seem like someone I want to settle down with.
You're the one I want you to raise my kids.
We're going to be together. I used to call mister Miller.
I'll be like, hey, mister Miller.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And he had his own pet names for her.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
He would always say Queen, my queen, be you know
missus Miller. Yeah, like perfect.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It was easy to envision a future together. She wasn't
intimidated by the idea of helping him raise his sons.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I've been taking care of children my entire adult life,
so it wasn't like, oh my god, I'd be overwhelmed
by children and at my age, how are you going
to meet someone who does not have children.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Plus, he could afford a full time nanny for the kids,
and he continued to send Jackie gifts.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
He even sent me a necklace that had my picture
on one side and his on the other.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
When she would send him pictures of her day, he
noticed she wasn't wearing the necklace.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
He's like, oh, you're not wearing a necklace. I said, no,
I'm not gonna wear until you get here.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
They hadn't met in person yet, but it was always
just around the corner. The next time he finished a
work contract and had time available, he promised to come
visit her.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Come, I'm going to see you. We're going to be together.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
One of Brandon's side hobbies was investing. He had invested
the payout from his wife's life insurance, which helped him
to stay afloat during COVID.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
He used that money to invest and get all this
money to be able to invest more and just keep
investing because that's all he had to do during COVID
with the kids at home. Was learning all about investing.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And he wanted to help Jackie learn how to do
the same.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
He said, oh, have you heard of crypto? I said, ah,
I've heard about it, but most people, you know, like
getting And he's like, oh, I've really got to read
up on it, and you know, I know a lot
about it. Let me know if you think you want
to invest.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
He sent her screenshots of his returns.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So then he starts to send me these statements which
he had I think at that time, I don't know
invested two million and had four million.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Jackie thought about her own accounts and what it would
mean to double that number. Doubling her retirement fund would
mean being able to travel more. Maybe she could buy
a vacation home and bring her family there too.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I'm like, I really want to retire, all right, So okay,
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
She decided to start small, with forty thousand dollars from
her four oh one K. The account would be in
her name and she would be the only one with
access to it, but Brandon would help her set it up.
He put her in touch with a friend of his
who could broke her the deal.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
This second person whose name is Mike. He has like
an English accent. He calls me and he's going to
help me set up the account, show me how to
buy bitcoin.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So Jackie invested forty thousand dollars. It was pretty easy,
and the next month.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
They sent me a state and I was like, what
is this one hundred thousand dollars one hundred and something.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
This didn't make sense. No returns could be that high.
This must be someone else's money, and that meant someone
else had access to her account.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
She called Brandon and I said to him, you told
me nobody would have access, and I even have an
email that I said, and I said, I want my
money back. Because I was told that this was only
going to be my account. He said, no, no, no, I
wanted to put this in so you could grow your
money faster.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Brandon had invested some of his own funds as a
gift to increase her returns, and he also wanted to
open up a shared account, one where they could both
invest in their future.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
So then he's like, you know, I'm going to send
you one hundred thousand dollars and we'll invest it, you
know more.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
They started painting the picture of what their life to
get could look like, what this money could buy them.
They also started planning for the moment they'd finally meet
in person.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So the holidays come and he's not able to come again.
But it's like, look, i'm gonna make this up to you.
Your sixtieth birthday's coming, and I said, well, you know,
I had a fiftieth birthday party on a yacht.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
If a yacht is what she wanted, Brandon can make
it happen. He offered to pay for Jackie's sixtieth birthday party.
He wanted it to be the celebration of a lifetime
because she deserved it. This party was especially meaningful because
Brandon would be there to meet all of Jackie's family
and friends.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And I was like, well, what's the budget? He says,
blank check, blank.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Jack blank check is the kind of phrase that does
something to your body. She'd never been worried about money,
but this was the first time in her life she'd
gotten to play with money.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Now I know how to plan a party, So I
find this boat. I start making all these plans. I
mean I had a photo booth, a cigar bar, sparkles, DJ,
everything you could think of, to the tune of eighty grand. Now,
(18:20):
if I was retiring, there's no way in hell I
would have paid that much for a party. My other
party ten years before it might have been twenty thousand.
But you know, my birthdays in July, and I always
want to give my friends and family and experience that
they would never have.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
When it came time for Brandon to pay.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
He sends sixteen thousand back my way through wire transferred
to my account. I get a cashier's check and I
pay the vendors.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Her confidence in him and their relationship started to deepen.
Whenever he said he would do something, he was good
for it. When Jackie's niece joined the party, planning. Brandon
was happy to connect with her.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
My niece and I went to see the boat and
he called and he was talking to myself and my niece.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Plus Jackie was already seeing returns from her initial investment,
so she decided to invest more with Brandon's broker.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
And I showed several people and I was like, They're like, oh, wow,
you're making all this money.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That's when Jackie got a letter about a shareholder opportunity.
It was from one of Brandon's connections in the finance world.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
This letter was addressed to both of us.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
It was an opportunity to get in on the ground
floor of a new crypto company.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It was a million dollar buy in.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Brandon agreed to split it with her. At this point,
Jackie was all in. She cashed out one of her
retirement accounts, which.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Was four hundred and nineteen thousand after taxes, and she
made the transfer bought bitcoin transfer to the wallet.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Their party was still a few months away. The relationship
felt strong, and the returns on their investment were even stronger.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
By now, I think he has like ten million in
his gont you know, and I think mine may have
reached two million.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Jackie was counting down the days until her party. She'd
booked the vendors and sent out the invites.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So all the build up for my sixtieth birthday party
was going to be Everyone was so excited to meet branded.
They were going to meet Brandon and the kids. And
this is a person who I was going to spend
my life with. And I think everyone was knowing I
deserved a partner to spend the rest of my life with,
(20:43):
Knowing how I've dedicated my life to my family and
all my coworkers and the hospital, I've been loyalty to
a fault. So they were really, you know, looking forward
to it.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Brandon planned to come in a few days in advance
to finally meet her and help with last minute preparations,
and in the weeks leading up to it, they were
constantly in touch.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
So we're planning the party, I'm buying dresses and sending
in pictures. Oh that's beautiful again, the beautiful.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That blank check Brandon mentioned he followed through Jackie got
a check for one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
So eventually the check did come and I'm like, I
told my girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Jackie's friend was excited for her, but she was also
a little skeptical. One hundred thousand dollars was a huge
amount of money to receive in the mail, and there
was something else about this check that didn't seem right.
Brandon's name wasn't on it. Instead, it was a woman's name,
a woman Jackie had never heard of. When she asked
(21:53):
Brandon about it.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
He told me that she was one of his clients
and she owed him money.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I'm okay, but Jackie's friend wasn't convinced. She encouraged Jackie
to go to the police to make sure the check
was safe to cash.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I go to the police and I say, I got
this check. I don't know if it's fraud or it's
bake or whatever. But they just blew me off, took
down my statement and just said, oh see if it clears.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
The check cleared. If the cops weren't worried about it.
Jackie wasn't either. Brandon had one more surprise the day
after the party. He wanted to take her on a trip.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
We were going to Santorini.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
That trip would be the beginning of their life together,
finally in the same place.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So he wanted to move to Connecticut. I was like,
you know, the weather's like here, and he's like yeah,
he you know, had been in New York and Virginia.
And that's when he started sending me along with these statements,
he's sending me real estate listings of a million dollar
homes in affluent parts of Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
They were strategizing about which town and neighborhood would be
best for his kids.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And he's like, Oh, what are the schools like around there?
And I'm telling them about the country day schools and
where they are.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
The date of the party was growing closer. Brandon was
finishing up a work contract across the country.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And he's still He's coming, He's coming, he's coming. He's
wrapping up the job in California.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
About a week before the party, I get.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
A call on my cell phone and I said East
Haven Police. I'm like, God, what the hell do they want?
She picked up and it's a detective trand he says this,
Jacquelin Crinchhaw. I say yes, he said, Jacquelin, we got
a call, an anonymous call from a gentleman with a
thick Indian accent, stating you were being scammed and they
(24:00):
felt sorry for you.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
After planning a blank chech sixtieth birthday party, scheduling a
trip to Santorini and going in on million dollar investments.
Jackie still hadn't met Brandon. That's when she got a
call from a detective.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
He says, this, Jacqueline Crine, Shall I say yes? He said, Jacqueline,
we got a call, an anonymous call from a gentleman
with a thick Indian accent, stating you were being scammed
and they felt sorry for you. I think I like
blanked out, maybe had a little seizure or or just
(25:01):
that gut punch. He was like hello, I said, uh.
He said, are you being scammed? And I said, uh no,
like very doubtful, like oh so I hung.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Up Immediately, Jackie tried to sign into her online account
where she managed all of her investments, but the website
was down. She was locked out. In that moment, everything
clicked for Jackie, the doubts she pushed away about Brandon,
about that one hundred thousand dollars check. She wasn't ready
(25:36):
to admit it out loud, but she knew the truth.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
My head exploded, like I said, oh my god, oh
my god, oh my god, oh my god. I sat
for probably two hours numb, very numb, thinking oh my god,
oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, and
just trying to tally up all the losses.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
The loss was massive. She'd cashed out all of her
retirement accounts, hundreds of thousands. She'd even borrowed against the
value of her home. While she was reeling, she knew
one thing. She couldn't let Brandon know that she had
been tipped off.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
So the next day Brandon called, I said, oh, I'm
not feeling well. You know, I've got to sign his headache.
And I didn't say anything. I just was trying to
figure out what the hell I was going to do.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
She went to the police again. This time it wasn't
a suspicion. She knew something was wrong and she wanted
her money back.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I get an appointment with the state police and he's like,
you know, try to bring you all the information you can.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And Jackie had the receipts, thousands of them. She went
to geek squad Best Buy to transfer all of her
text messages and emails with Brandon to a hard drive.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It took them six hours. I think there has to
be over ten thousand. I don't know twenty thousand text
messages and all this stuff. I made capies and I
have a suitcase full of these text messages. So I
went dramatically to the State Police, dragging a suitcase in
(27:20):
this sea drive.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
The investigation would take some time, and the cops wanted
to get as much out of Brandon as they could.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
When I went to the State Police, they tried to
get me to still talk to him, but I just
couldn't fake it any longer.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
She needed to confront Brandon about all the money he
had stolen from her.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I said, you ruined my life, you know. He denied it.
He's like, oh, where's this coming from? And I was like,
I can't even believe this, and he just like, no,
let me talk to my broker. I'm going to get
this straightened out.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
This confrontation, and it wouldn't be without consequence.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I was getting all these rejection letters from credit unions,
Christian credit unions, credit card companies, all all. I'm like,
what is this? I did not apply for any of this.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Since Brandon knew Jackie was on to him, he made
a last ditch effort to squeeze her for all she
was worth. Suddenly, Jackie was getting notifications from banks and
credit card companies she'd never heard of.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
How could I owe City Bank one hundred thousand dollars
when my limit was forty thousand On my credit report
there is an account from Fifth Third Bank. I do
not have the Fifth Third account, so if that count
was open at that bank, they may have used checks
to make payments to my MasterCard, which were fake checks anyway,
(28:49):
but they paid them.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
After that, Brandon went MIA. He disappeared from Jackie's life entirely,
and the police investigation uncovered that the real person in
Brandon's photos.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Was a gentleman from Australia.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
The guy in the pictures had no idea who Jackie was.
He lived in Australia, worked in construction, and unbeknownst to him,
someone somewhere had been stealing his photos straight from his
public social media profiles. Jackie was reeling because she'd spoken
to Brandon's two kids on the phone. All of a sudden,
(29:28):
she realized those must have been adults, disguising their voices
and playing the part of children.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
He was controlling it all because it was like texting
me at the same time, I guess, acting like he
was the kids.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
It was so intricate. There was no way Brandon could
have done this alone. The police had been investigating her
case and they came back with a few answers.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
The state trooper traced two of the crypto wallets bunch
Shanghai went to Nigeria.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
The investigation led the police across the world to warehouses
full of computers, and the.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Police actually investigatively had traveled to Thailand and Cambodia and
said the building was as big as a casino, full
of tables and computers and people scamming. So I stepped
into something huge. I think it is international, and I
(30:33):
have no idea where this person is.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
As far as that one hundred thousand dollars check Jackie
got in the mail, the police went back to check
it out. They found out that it was sent from
a woman in Florida who was another victim of this
complex scam.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
I find out later from the state police that she
sent two people one hundred thousand dollars and she thought
I was an investor. That's what she was told.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
One thing she doesn't have the answer to is who
called to tip off the police. She wonders if it
was Brandon himself disguising his voice or someone else who
she'd never met.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
My girlfriend thinks that maybe it was him, and she's like,
I think he's had feelings for you, And I think
somebody probably if you were talking to me for a year,
you'd probably get feelings for me too.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
While detectives chased wallets across borders, Jackie had to live
in the wreckage. At home, there was still the question
of her party, which was supposed to be the following week.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Why would I cancel if we've already I someone was
invested like seventy two grand.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
She'd already paid for the party, so she might as
well enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
It was a white party, it was open bar. It
was unbelievable. Some people will never experience this again in
their life. You know. It was a beautiful day, so
you know, we're all just on this sixtieth birthday party
having a great time.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
But the whole party was built on an illusion, and
Jackie was one of the only ones that day who
knew the truth. It was hard enough for Jackie to
go through with the party. She couldn't bring herself to
tell her friends and family what really happened.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So we go on. The party goes on without a hitch.
You know, They're like, oh, where's the old couldn't you know,
couldn't make it because I was kind of it was
kind of dark, and I'm going through with the state
police and the investigation.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
But after the party, it was time to face the music.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I'm starting to have to deal with what is happening
now with all these finances. It seemed like mission impossible.
With how I was trying to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
She had to tell her family and friends what happened.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I tell my niece, and I tell my best friend,
my godmother who's in her eighties. I thought she was
going to have like a heart attack. She was so
heartbroken that someone would do this to me.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Even Jackie was having a hard time believing it. Everything
about Brandon felt so real. They prayed together. He's in
her meals multiple times a week. He really knew her.
It made Jackie question the thing she knew to be
true about herself.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I thought I was like a sharper tech in the box.
It seems ridiculous because there was Some of my friends
are like, jack come on, he can't show his face.
This is a scam. Only look me. Maybe twice I
heard this is a scam.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
When she reflects on how this happened, it's.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
A psychological thing where I feel like I got softened
by that partner being just that great and supportive and
I'm so proud of you and da da dah, this
and that, but human and I think that human factor
got in and he was able to, whether you say,
manipulate me or just have me trust him.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
The emotional manipulation is the thing that she struggles to
make sense of. She wasn't desperate for a partner, She
was just open to connection, and Brandon, whoever he was,
took advantage of that. It was enough of an opening
for this scam to work.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
He really sold me like, Yep, we're going to be together.
So I think just that vulnerability, which I didn't at
the time think I had, it is so hard to
stop my brain from just you know, rehash, rehash, rehash.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Jackie's had to face steep financial consequences. When we asked
her the total amount she started shuffling through papers.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Forty thousand, four one hundred and twenty thousand, one hundred
and eighty nine thousand, plus another one hundred and fifty
thousand plus one hundred thousand to bank of America thirty
thousand to Navy Federal Did I say City Bank one
hundred thousand. It's definitely over a million.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
She'd been wiped out for the first time in decades.
She had to budget for every dollar.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I was in my local grocery store and this cheese
company had some smoke gooda cheese. So I said, oh,
taystep and I said to him, Oh, how much is this?
It was eight ninety nine, and I said, shit, I
can't justify paying almost ten dollars for a little tiny
ball of cheese.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Jackie borrowed money from her niece to get an attorney
to file for Chapter thirteen bankruptcy.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
I owe City Bank one hundred thousand dollars. They want
twenty five hundred a month. What I try, I had
to do was negotiate, but it's not working. My credit
went from seven ninety to now five hundred. I've never
ever had bad credit. I never missed the payment on anything,
(36:18):
but now having to see what bad credit does. I
work hard, I make my money, and it's going right back.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Out because of this scam. She'll never have the retirement
she planned and saved her entire life for.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
That part brings a lot of anger and hurt. I
got a tax bill from the IRS for the four
h three B I owe fifty five thousand, fifty six
now and I'll have to make a payment plan.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And because she borrowed a get is the value of
her home.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I'm in a short sale. We got to find you
somewhere lit. I'm just not sure what the future holds.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
She held out a hope for a few months that
the police could recover her assets, but because crypto transactions
use the blockchain and not traditional banks, that money can't
be traced back to individuals. The police hit a dead end.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
I know I'm not going to get a dime of
that money back, but they are keeping the case open.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
The police were so worried about Jackie's mental health that
they sent a social worker to do a wellness check.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Maybe because I do have a gun permit and I
have a gun, that they might look like, uh oh,
because people have taken their lives or harmed themselves with
all of this going on, and with just the pure
magnitude of how much money I lost, But that was
never a thought, ever a thought.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Jackie's resilient.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
She kept going, I don't let it consume me, because
that would paralyze me. I'm like, I gotta go to work.
I gotta face these people, and that right was one
of the hardest things I had to do at that time,
was put a smile on my face and continue on.
There's a ignition in me that is gonna prevail with this.
(38:23):
She says.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Her line of work puts loss in perspective.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Working at a cancer hospital. You know, I like stuff,
I like nice things, but you can't take any of
it with you.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Her knee stepped up and started a fundraising campaign, which
helped Jackie cover a few bills.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Maybe like four thousand. People gave what they could, but
I was overwhelmed with people just being generous.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Unfortunately, this type of crime is prevalent in older demographics,
and Jackie's story, while devastating, is not unique. AARP, a
nonprofit organization that provides resources related to aging, reached out
to Jackie. They wanted to work with her to help
educate others about these types of scams.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I was a spotl like speaker for April and one
woman you know, confessed that she was scammed and she's like,
you know, how do you move on? I said, One
day at a time. There's times I want to beat
myself up, but nope, I just educate people, and I
(39:37):
always say, don't do what I did. That's what is
motivating me to fight.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Jackie wants to help prevent this kind of scam from
happening to other people, to show how sophisticated these scams
can be. Jackie didn't trust Brandon based on his online
messages alone. He invested real money into her life, and
she saw the payoff. Her favorite meals were delivered to
her door. Expensive jewelry arrived in the mail, Her bank
(40:07):
accounts grew. It was more than just a promise of luxury.
It was the true taste of it for many months.
Scammers like Jackies are willing to spend one hundred thousand
dollars on their victims if it means they will eventually
get a million back. These scams don't happen in the
blink of an eye. The scammers invest money, emotion, and
(40:30):
time into their victims for months before pulling their rug
out from under them. We end every weekly episode with
the same question, why do you want to share your story?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I have to tell myself every day I'm a victim.
Whoever is on these websites scamming people. Their entire job
is to distance me with my money, and I know,
just talking people, they are plagued with fear and embarrassment,
(41:04):
and that fight in me said, if you go hide
and you don't tell your story and you know you're embarrassed,
you're not going to help anyone.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Within seconds, I get a Facebook message, is this about
your dad? And I got like a chill down my back.
I responded with yes, with like a bunch of dots,
and he immediately replied with I know this because it
happened to me too.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Before we end the episode, I have some exciting news Betrayal.
We'll be doing our first ever live show as part
of the Virgin Voyage's True Crime Cruise. We'll be answering
listener questions and discussing them live on stage with Stacy
and Tyler from Betrayal season three, as well as Caroline
from season four. So if you have a question for us,
(42:18):
please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com with
the subject line listener question and if you want to
join us on the Caribbean cruise, there are still spots
available search virgin voyages dot com, slash true crime. If
you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team
or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us
(42:40):
at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com, That's Betrayal Pod at
gmail dot com, or follow us on Instagram at Betrayal Pod.
You can also connect with me on Instagram at It's
Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter, view additional content, and
connect with the Betrayal community, join our substance at Betrayal
(43:00):
dot substack dot com. We're grateful for your support. One
way to show support is by subscribing to our show
on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
(43:23):
Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by Me
Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced
by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt,
and Kristin Melcurie. Casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart
team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krincheck. Audio editing and
(43:46):
mixing by Mattlvecchio. Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's
theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mybe
Music and For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
Host
Andrea Gunning
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