An elderly San Diego woman is now living in her car after being scammed out of her life savings by a con artist pretending to be Keanu Reeves.
Katherine Goodson, 67, has gone public with her harrowing story in a bid to raise awareness of the rise in celebrity romance scams affecting the elderly.
“I don’t blame anyone but myself,” the widow, who lost her husband in 2007, told NBC affiliate KNSD.
Goodson moved to San Diego in 2022, the same year she received a text message from a man purporting to be a Hollywood celebrity famous for movies like “Point Break” and “The Matrix.”
The Reeves impersonator then asked Goodson to send her a $500 gift card to prove she wasn’t only interested in him for his money.
“I sent it, but I said, ‘I want to hear your voice,’ and as soon as I heard his voice, I said, ‘You’re not him,’ and I blocked him,” Goodson told the network.
Later, however, she received a message from another person claiming to be the real Reeves.
The supposed “John Wick” star told Goodson he felt “terrible” that she had been the victim of a scam, and the pair immediately began exchanging messages.
The widow said that she quickly fell in love with your text.
“He wanted to marry me,” she ventured. “I was lonely”.
For the next two years, Goodson corresponded with the man via text message, but he always had an excuse as to why he couldn’t meet in person.
Despite this, the elderly man sent cash, gift cards and Bitcoins, totaling more than $60,000.
She also corresponded with strangers through other phone numbers who claimed to be “members of Reeves’ management team.”
However, in August, Goodson ran out of money and the messages from “Reeves and his team” turned hostile.
Then she realized that she had been tricked.
“It was just a mess,” Goodson recalls. “It was mind-boggling to the point where I didn’t know anything.”
Now, the elderly woman is at the bottom, living in her car and trying to get back on her feet.
Goodson says she has nothing to lose by going public with her story and wants to warn others about the dangers of scams.
“There’s nothing that hasn’t already been done to make me feel worse,” she said sadly.
However, Goodson is not alone.
KNSD reports that $1.1 billion was lost to romance scams across the US in 2023.
The Post has reached out to Reeves’ current representatives for comment.
The star of “Speed” has no social networks. He has been in a relationship with artist Alexandra Grant since 2017.
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