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Man Charged In $60,000 Scam Of Woman He Met Online

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TBO.com

Published: January 8, 2009

A Tampa man is suspected of having swindled a woman he met on a dating Web site out of about $60,000, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

David Joseph Jimenez, 44, who also goes by Michael Jimenez, was arrested Tuesday at J. Alexander's, a restaurant at 913 N. Dale Mabry Highway, on unrelated charges. Jimenez's address in Tampa is 9760 Magnolia Blossom Drive.

Jimenez has not been charged in the alleged scheme involving the woman he met on-line, Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said.

Jimenez was released in 2007 from a Tennessee prison, where he had served time for an array of financial crimes, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies launched an investigation in June after a 37-year-old Pinellas woman reported that she had been swindled by Jimenez, whom she had met on Match.com, sheriff's officials say.

Jimenez met the woman in person in February, 2008, and dated for four months, sheriff's officials said.

He was using his brother's name at the time and gained access to the woman's personal identification information, even though they never lived together, the sheriff's office said. He had his name added to her credit cards, then intercepted the statements before she received them or had them sent to other addresses, the sheriff's office said.

Jimenez also tricked the woman into having her sign a car loan application for a Mercedes-Benz, which he then drove and wrecked, sheriff's officials say. Her total financial liability, as a result of Jimenez's actions, totaled $60,000, officials said.

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