The Third Person on FaceTime: Why a Fake 49ers Romance Scam Asked Women to Take Loans

Someone in your life is about to say this to you, or you are about to say it to yourself:

But I saw the other guy. He was on FaceTime. He showed the account.

I need you to sit with that sentence before you defend it. That is the sentence this letter is for. Not a logo. Not a typo. The moment a third person on FaceTime makes you feel crazy for still having a doubt.

I am not writing a news recap. I am writing as the person family already forwards the screenshot to. Here is what I look for. Here is why that second face is the part that hurts. And here is the fake 49ers romance scam the FBI just charged — alleged, not a story I invented — because it shows the trick in public, with dates and a complaint.

I do not hang up because I am jealous

People tell me I am being cold. They tell me I “don’t understand love.” They tell me he introduced his investor so I would stop being paranoid.

I understand love. I also understand a closer.

When someone you like puts a third voice in the room, your body does a kind thing. It relaxes. Two people feel like an institution. A screen with a large number feels like a bank. You do not want to be the rude one in front of a stranger who just “proved” the money is real.

That flush in your face is not stupidity. It is manners. They built the call to use your manners.

I have watched relatives go quiet after a three-way. Not because the math convinced them. Because arguing with two people at once feels like a scene. Scenes are what kind people try to end. They end scenes by agreeing to a small next step.

The small next step is often a loan.

The FaceTime that is supposed to end the argument

Here is the shape I watch for. I am not guessing. This is the shape in the federal complaint unsealed around the August 2026 arrests.

He meets you on a dating app. Tinder. Hinge. Facebook Dating. He is warm. He talks about a future. He wants to build wealth together. That word — together — is doing work. It turns a transfer into a marriage plan.

Then he does not ask you to trust him alone.

He introduces a second man. The “adviser.” The one who “grew the fortune.” They get on a three-way FaceTime. The adviser shows balances. Tens of millions, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Oregon said Love claimed. The number is meant to make your doubt look small.

Then they need your money. Not because they are poor on the screen. Because the story says this vehicle is closing, or this return is for both of you, or he will pay you back when the play settles.

If you do not have the cash, the ask changes shape. Take a personal loan. Just until it hits. You already saw the account. Why would you say no now?

That is the curiosity I need you to feel in your chest: if the fortune is already on the screen, why do they need your paycheck — and why do they need you to borrow?

A real desk does not need your courtesy loan to finish a legitimate trade. A romance-investment hook often cannot survive you saying, “I will call the bank on a number I already have, and I will not take a loan for a stranger.”

This is not a composite. This is the charge.

I promised you I would not invent a woman in a kitchen. So I will use the names the government used, and I will say alleged until a court says otherwise.

On 24 August 2026, the FBI arrested Daejon Labrayae Love, 35, and Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, at Boise Airport. Chan had flown from California to meet Love. Investigators said Love was in Idaho to meet new people. Both were charged in the District of Oregon with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. They were taken into federal custody. That is a charge, not a verdict.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said the scheme ran from February 2022. Love met most of the women on dating apps. He presented himself as a San Francisco 49ers player, or as a wealthy real estate investor, including a Swiss-developer costume. He posted a lavish life. He told women he wanted a future and a shared fortune.

Chan, prosecutors say, posed as the investment adviser. They exchanged messages that looked like adviser talk. Love forwarded those screenshots. They hosted three-way FaceTime calls and showed supposed gains. Financial records, the office said, show about $1.3 million from victim-investors. Twenty-six women were identified in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The FBI said there may be more. Of the people interviewed, none reported getting investment returns or loan repayments.

When the money stopped, or the questions started, Love blocked them.

I want you to hear the last sentence twice. The FaceTime was not the relationship. The block was the ending the job always had.

The Guardian, NBC News, and the Oregon U.S. Attorney’s statement all report that same spine. I am not adding a midnight stroller or a name I made up. If a detail is not in those public records, it is not in this letter.

Myth: a second human is proof

Myth: If another man gets on the video and shows a balance, it cannot be a scam. Scammers work alone.

Truth: The second human is often the closer. One person is a crush. Two people are a firm. Your doubt starts to feel like an insult in front of a guest.

I look at three things, not the number on the screen.

Did they contact you first on a dating app, then move money into the friendship?

Do they need you to send funds, crypto, a wire, or a loan — instead of you logging into an account you opened at a firm you already knew?

Does the “proof” live only inside their call — their app, their screenshot, their friend?

If those three sit together, I do not care how expensive the watch looks. I hang up. I do not finish the scene.

The ordinary romance scam already teaches the emergency-and-gift-card version. This version is colder. It dresses the same hunger as a portfolio. Same hook. Better lighting.

Myth: if they will meet you, they are real

Myth: Catfishers hide. If he will sit across from you, the FaceTime must be real too.

Truth: The Oregon complaint describes a lavish life shown in person and on social media. Meeting you does not retire the ask. It can make the ask harder to refuse. You have smelled his cologne. You have a memory. Memories are expensive to throw away.

I used to give this more weight than I should have. A real person can still sell a fake future. The question is not “is there a body in the room.” The question is “does the money story survive a channel I opened without them.”

Myth: a loan is just temporary

Myth: If I borrow and send it, I am a partner, not a victim. He will repay me when it lands.

Truth: In this charged scheme, prosecutors say women were pushed toward money they did not have — including loans — and the interviewed victims did not report being repaid. A loan you take in your own name is a debt that stays on your side of the glass after the block.

I need you to feel the cruelty of that design. They do not only take what is in the account. They try to take the number the bank will still let you borrow.

If anyone who met you on an app is narrating your credit as “our shot,” that is not romance. That is extraction with a pet name.

What I do with the phone still in my hand

I do not write them an essay. I have already watched that fail in how scammers think. Extra sentences are handles.

I screenshot the call names, the ask, the fake balance if it is on screen. Then I leave.

I do not “collect more evidence” by staying on the three-way. Staying is how the closer keeps talking.

I tell one human in the room. Secrecy is their feature. The FTC’s romance-scam pages say the same thing in drier words: talk to someone you trust before you send money to someone you met online.

If money or a loan already moved, I do not start with shame. I start with the bank, the lender if a loan was taken, ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and IC3. Then this map: what to do if you already paid. If a “federal recovery agent” texts you next, that is a second industry. You already have a guide for that costume.

The FBI asked anyone with information on this specific case to use tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI. That is for this file. Your own bank still comes first if your money already moved.

Trusted sources

• FTC — what to do about romance scams
• CFTC — Dating or Defrauding? relationship investment scams (Feb 2026)
• ReportFraud.ftc.gov
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
• FBI tips

What I want you to keep

• The third person on FaceTime is often the closer, not the auditor. Two faces are not a bank.
• The alleged fake 49ers romance scam used dating apps, a shared-future script, a staged adviser, and then a money ask — including loans. Charged. Not a composite.
• If the fortune is already on their screen, they should not need your paycheck or your credit.
• End their call. Verify in a place you opened. Tell one person. You were not rude. You were done.

I will leave you with the question I want sitting on the table after you lock the phone:

If they already have tens of millions, why is the next step your loan?

When you cannot answer that without using their words, hang up.