Man Scammed $70K From Basking Ridge Resident On Dating Site: Cops

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — It was a wild and elaborate story — to say the least — which led a Basking Ridge resident to send more than $70,000 to a man they met on an online dating site. It turned out to be a scam, police say.

On Nov. 14 the Arbor Circle resident said he or she met a man named Adam Schell on the dating website. When the resident talked over the phone with him, the scammer said he was a Swedish citizen who used to live in Connecticut but was now living in Milford, Bernards Township Police report.

Schell told a story that he was a gemologist at a dig site in a "hot zone" currently in Turkey and that he was going to return to New Jersey, police said.

Schell would send pictures of himself at the "hot zone dig site" to the victim. One time, while on the phone with the victim, Schell claimed he was being robbed and a gunshot could be heard. Schell claimed that one of his security officers was killed, police said.

Schell then asked the Basking Ridge resident for money to buy a plane ticket to come home. The resident bought the ticket but Schell said he cancelled the ticket because he couldn’t leave Turkey due to unpaid taxes and needed about $23,0oo wired to a person named Madina Nurakhmetova, police said.

After the victim sent the money, Schell said he needed about $50,000 more to pay the interest owed on the original amount. After Schell got the additional money, he then said he needed more to pay off more debt, police said.

When the Basking Ridge resident said he or she didn’t have anymore money, Schell stopped taking the victim's calls.

The victim then contacted police. No one has been charged.

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