VENTNOR — Authorities say an Atlantic County man who was on probation for wire fraud used a telephone dating service to scam at least eight women out of thousands of dollars.

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Patrick Giblin, 52, formerly of Ventnor, was charged with one count of wire fraud, federal authorities said Monday. He could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. According to a statement by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, Giblin had escaped from a halfway house and was on federal supervised release.

Authorities say between December 2012 and Dec. 16, 2014, Giblin went onto a telephone dating service and attempted to lure several women by making them believe they would eventually form a relationship.

"Giblin used a series of false representations to convince women on these services to loan him money based on the false promise that he would pay them back," according to the complaint against him.

Authorities say he posted messages falsely claiming he was moving to victims' locations. He also claimed he worked in the casino business and owned oceanfront property in Atlantic City. He then convinced women to wire him money through services such as Western Union and Moneygram, claiming he needed the funds for expenses such as car repairs, bills and moving costs, authorities say.

The U.S. attorney says at least eight women in five different states and Canada lost a total of over $7,000 to Giblin and police are continuing to investigate.

Giblin was previously sentenced in April 2007 to nearly 10 years in federal prison on wire fraud charges related to a similar scheme in which he defrauded more than 50 women, bilking them out of more than $200,000. According to federal prosecutors, while Giblin was on supervised release for that case, he fled to Colonie, New York, where he continued to scam victims and obtain money until he was arrested again in December 2014.

On Oct. 2, 2015, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison for violating the terms of his supervised release. He was taken into custody Monday following the completion of this sentence at FCI-Fairton.

Toniann Antonelli is a social content producer for NJ 101.5. She can be reached at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.

 

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