Prosecutors in Oklahoma say a woman there defrauded an almost inconceivable amount of money out of four old women — including going so far as to get one of the victims sell her house to send even more cash — in an online romance scam the scale of which absolutely boggles the mind.
On Monday, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced that authorities in the state had arrested a 53-year-old woman named Christine Joan Echohawk (pictured above, in her mugshot) on allegations that she bilked about $1.5 million out of four elderly women in an online romance scam. That’s right… $1.5 million.
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The AG’s office said in a news release that the scam primarily took place over the last three months of 2024. In it, Echohawk was allegedly able to convince four elderly women in their 60s and 70s who were living out of state that she was supposedly a man. In a surprisingly short period of time spread across those three months, Echohawk got into romantic online relationships with the victims while posing as said man.
Then, prosecutors say Echohawk was convincing enough to get the women to send her money. Lots and lots and lots of money. The AG’s office said:
“All of the victims are elderly women ranging in age from 64 to 79. They believed they were sending funds to, or for the benefit of, a male subject with whom they thought they were in an online romantic relationship.”
WTF…
The whole thing came crashing down in January when a bank in Oklahoma managed to intercept a $120,000 wire transfer to Echohawk from one of the victims:
“Drummond’s office received a tip from MidFirst Bank in January of suspected senior-fraud activity after the bank intercepted and held a $120,000 transfer from one of the victims. The Consumer Protection Unit subsequently investigated.”
From there, the investigation began to quickly come together. The state’s aforementioned Consumer Protection Unit began to dig deeper and found that the victims had been sending large amounts of cash to Echohawk. They also sent Apple gift cards, cashiers’ checks, and cold hard cash through the mail, too. Oh, and then there’s this: one of the victims SOLD HER FREAKING HOUSE so that she “could send $600,000 to the scammer,” the AG’s office stated.
OMG!!!
Echohawk was first confronted by local authorities in Pawnee County, Oklahoma about the allegations in early January. Cops didn’t have enough evidence to charge her with anything at the time, sadly. And she was apparently spooked enough by the investigation that she stopped defrauding people… for a bit. After what the AG’s release called a “short hiatus,” though, Echohawk got back in the game and picked right up where she left off — until she finally got nabbed.
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Somehow, the story doesn’t even quite end there. To try to cover her tracks, Echohawk had allegedly been laundering the ill-gotten money through various bank accounts, then converted all of it to cryptocurrency and sent the crypto payments to a person whom cops still haven’t identified. Whoa!
But while prosecutors are still trying to figure out the identity of that person, Echohawk is in jail. She’s being held in the Pawnee County Jail on charges including the unlawful use of criminal proceeds and using a computer to violate state statutes. Regarding the arrest, AG Drummond said:
“These types of scams that target seniors are especially egregious. I applaud the work of my Consumer Protection Unit to fight for these victims and to hold accountable their alleged perpetrator.”
Now, Echohawk is facing five total counts that, the AG’s office says carry a combined maximum of 24 to 62 years in prison and up to $262,000 in fines.
What an absolutely insane story. Those poor, poor women who must have been in such a vulnerable state — and now must be in such an awful financial situation because of it. Ugh.
[Image via Pawnee County Jail]
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