A man who convinced 30 women he was a doctor and subsequently defrauded them of a total of $1.3 million was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison.
Brian Brainard Wedgeworth, 47, formerly of Tallahassee, Florida, and Center Point, Alabama, used more than six different online dating services and 13 aliases to meet women, gain their trust, and take their money.
“Our citizens should not be preyed upon by fraudsters who steal through overtures of affection,” said Jason R. Coody, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, in a Department of Justice press release.
Wedgeworth, who was nicknamed the “Casanova Scammer” by authorities and the media, pled guilty to 25 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. According to the Federal Trade Commission, losses from similar “romance scams” last year skyrocketed to more than six times what they were in 2017.
Wedgeworth started the scam from a Georgia prison in 2016, according to the Sacramento Bee, where he was serving time for a previous case of fraud. He accessed dating apps like Hinge, Plenty of Fish, Coffee Meets Bagel, and Christian Mingle, and began romantic relationships, going by one of 13 names including Dr. Anthony Watkins, Dr. Brian Mims, and Dr. Brian Anderson. The women he targeted — including an actual doctor — were from Florida, California, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama,…
