A woman has been 'scammed out of $100,000' after falling in love with a fake Bruno Mars account.
Chinwendu Azuonwu, of Houston, Texas, was charged with third-degree felony money laundering after it was alleged that he posed as the musician online.
According to the documents relating to the charges, Azuonwu, 39, originally from Nigeria, was connected to a scheme between September and October 2018 that took thousands of dollars from a 63-year-old woman from north Texas.
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The woman claims that she had created an Instagram account in the hope of finding some companionship and was contacted by a person pretending to be the 'Just the Way You Are' singer.
She told the authorities that she had fallen in love with the person running the account, believing that it was Mars as he had sent her a number of texts and photos of him while on tour.
'Mars' then allegedly asked her to send him a $10,000 check to a 'friend of the band' to pay for 'tour expenses'. The money was later deposited into an account at JPMorgan Chase.
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Two days later, the woman was asked to draw out more money, this time a cashier's check totalling an eye-watering $90,000 made out to a 'Chi Autos'.
The second amount was deposited on 14 September, 2018 to a separate account with JPMorgan Chase.
According to reports, each of the accounts were traced back to Azuonwu and his alleged accomplice, Basil Amadi, 29.
According to Harris County prosecutors, Azuonwu admitted that one of the accounts did belong to him, though he claimed he had no idea who Amadi was.
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He also told police that he didn't know how the $90,000 was deposited into his account.
Similarly, Amadi told investigators that he did not know Azuonwu and that he was unable to explain how $10,000 was paid into his account.
Both of the men involved in the case have been charged with money laundering, with Azuonwu's bail set at $30,000.
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Back in 2018, an Australian grandmother opened up about how she lost AUD $480,000 (£264,768 / USD $359,088) to three different online scammers, and warned others about the dangers of looking for love online.
Suzie, who chose not to reveal her surname, admitted to A Current Affair that she was 'gullible' but also says she was 'brainwashed' in her pursuit of finding the one.
The first man she met online claimed to be a British guy called David Fisher. After beginning an online romance, Suzie eventually handed over AUD $80,000 (£44,141 / USD $59,848) she had inherited from her dad - but once 'David' had the cash he disappeared.
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