Budding romance or scam? Port Royal woman gives thousands to Facebook friends

A Port Royal woman fears her mother was scammed out of thousands of dollars by strangers on social media.

The woman’s adult daughter contacted the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday to say her mother had given between $7,000 and $8,000 to people who contacted her through Facebook, according to a sheriff’s office report.

The victim told her daughter she doesn’t believe she is being scammed, is in a romantic relationship with one of the people who contacted her through Facebook and wants to help financially, according to the report.

Since August, at least five different accounts on the social media site have contacted the victim by private message, starting conversations and asking for money, according to the report. Another of the victim’s daughters would block the accounts as they came up, but a new would would follow shortly after, the report said.

The daughter who filed the report said she contacted Facebook to report them as scams, according to the sheriff’s office report.

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Budding romance or scam? Port Royal woman gives thousands to Facebook friends."