The internet is in shambles over this latest scam scandal after a man identified as Daejon Love allegedly conned women out of nearly $2 million, over the span of four years, by pretending to play for the San Francisco 49ers.
Love, along with his 18-year-old business partner Taylor Jamie Chan, were arrested in Boise, Idaho on wire fraud and conspiracy charges after having run their scheme on multiple victims since 2022, San Francisco Gate reports. The con was all predicated upon falsified claims that Love was a player for the California-based team, a lie that was supported by photos of him in 49ers gear, including a helmet, and videos showing him training for the NFL season.
Over the course of four years, Love used the fake content to lure 26 women into relationships before convincing them to allow Chan to “invest” their money before ghosting them. Women in Idaho, California, Oregon and Washington fell victim to the scheme and the pair of crime buddies banked an alleged $1.8 million.
An FBI affidavit says that Love also claimed to be from a wealthy Swiss family and often purported to be a real estate developer in the country.
Love leaned on social media content from actual NFL players to further legitimize his scams, often removing the original poster’s username when reposting to his own page. He also claimed to be friends with players like Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown and John Brown, who he said helped him secure his job with the 49ers despite being undrafted by the team. Videos online show Love standing in front of a custom cake made in the likeness of the team’s jersey with his name emblazoned across in celebration of “signing” with the team.
The FBI also stated that Love spent thousands of dollars buying custom team gear from a site called Green Gridiron in order to further deceive his victims. The affidavit states that he made multiple purchases for stacks of fake money that he would often use in his social media photos and worked alongside Chan to make fake bank statements and stock accounts that were intended to be proof his wealth and investment prowess.
Though Chan is now 18, if the government’s timeline holds true, he was merely 14 years old when he first started posing as Love’s “financial advisor.” The first detailed account of the pair’s crime is noted as taking place in 2022, according to the affidavit, and included Love asking a woman to send $10,000 to Chan for him to invest on her behalf. The deceitful duo left quite the paper trail behind for investigators with photos, videos and messages in Love’s iCloud that corroborate the claims against them.
Love was wearing 49ers gear when he was arrested. Well, he was most certainly true to the game.