Sweetheart Scams: Tina Costello Elderly Financial Fraud

Tina Costello Sweetheart Swindler

These are the faces of the people who stole $150,000 from an elderly Arizona man. Please read my story and consider sharing it for others to read. 

Profile, Target, Defraud 

The Tina Costello Sweetheart Swindle 

This is not a case of a woman's mistaken intentions. This is a calculated con, from start to finish, by a family of Rom Gypsy scam artists in Arizona. It's about befriending their victims and draining their bank accounts - nothing less. 

Tina Costello Marks is a 42-year-old woman who, along with her husband, David, and their son and daughter-in-law, target elderly men they deem vulnerable to their financial scams. Posing Tina as the single woman 'finally able to trust again,' she befriends the older man which quickly evolves into a relationship, while inventing stories of needing capital for a non-existent business she’s starting, help getting back on her feet after leaving a bad marriage, enduring medical problems, needing transportation, etc.

Together, Tina Costello and her family bilk the man of his savings over the next few months, until he’s financially devastated. 

The criminal element of the Rom Gypsies is well-known to law enforcement across the country for cases of fraud, theft, swindles and other bunco-related crimes commonly perpetrated against the elderly and others in vulnerable positions in their lives. Gypsy crimes fall into specific, predictable types of con-related crimes (e.g. insurance fraud, psychic scams, ruse burglaries, home improvement fraud), and are generally carried out based upon the specialties of the individual families involved. While Gypsy families aren't known for a moral compass involving limitations, their focus tends to stay within a few select niche crimes the family specializes in. Their criminal lifestyle is multi-generational and the methods used to carry out these crimes are taught young and passed on to each generation like a blueprint, replacing the need for employment. The cons are skillfully executed throughout a lifetime, just as their parents did, just as their grandparents did, and just as their children will do. Tina Costello's con is separating elderly men from their financial assets using Sweetheart Swindles.
 

Tina selected one of her elderly victims from a Sam’s Club parking lot in the Phoenix area: 

Tina, along with her daughter-in-law, Sarah, approached the man claiming car troubles. Over coffee and lies about her identity and background, she told the man she was coming out of a bad marriage and grieving a dead brother ~ and so begins the confidence crime she and her extended family have pulled off so many times before, up and down the west coast. Finally, as fate would have it, she's met someone she can really talk to, open up to, and enjoy life with again, she claims. 

That unlucky person pulled into this con was my dad—an elderly farmer from the Midwest who had lost my mother to cancer 9 years prior, and had chosen the Phoenix winters over snow, like many retirees. The ‘chance meeting' at Sam's Club began a downward spiral in his life that would end with her stealing everything this hard-working man had worked his whole life for. 

Identifies herself with a false name, seeking investment monies for a non-existent business 

Tina Costello entered his life full-force with stories of the new business she was opening, a scrap-metal recycling company — and promises of a future together. She pursued him. She was suddenly in his life on a daily basis, involving herself in every aspect of it. Marriage was talked about. Everything was fast. My dad, having been widowed for several years at this point, enjoyed Tina's company and looked forward to spending all his time with her. She was fun and full of life, and age was just a number, she told him. It was, “A new start to the last chapter in my life," he said; words originally spoken by Tina, in fact. But the words appealed to him, and he would repeat them several times. He was welcomed by a very close-knit family, who was encouraging of the relationship: David, Jacob, Sarah and Anna - they were all part of the family's plan to empty his savings.

Tina's Car Scam 

Within days of meeting, Tina had begun taking advantage of my father, starting with driving him to a dealership and telling him of a great deal on a rare car; a 2013 $66,000 Roush Mustang, which was to 'gain value' over the next five years. It would be a very good investment for him, she said. 

My dad did understand he was buying a car on that day, but was told it would be his. The family had him wire $66,000 from his bank account and went to San Tan Ford in Gilbert. When the paperwork was being signed, Tina's son, Jacob, quickly ushered my dad into another area with the distraction of a question that needed answering right away. 

Before leaving this area, salesman Matthew Romano of San Tan Ford asked WHOSE name was going on the title - and my father raised his hand, stated his name, and told them it was his name going on the title. 

When Jacob and my dad returned to the area, conveniently, the paperwork had already been completed. This detail didn’t raise concern for him, considering he’d already signed before leaving with Jacob. A lot didn't raise concern.. they were much faster than him, their hearing was much better, and they were professional con artists who knew what they were doing. 

The car title arrived in the mail days later, and when my dad opened the paperwork — Tina was ON the title with him. I’ll be careful not to heap accusations onto a company based on one employee, but I won't hesitate to say this: That salesman knew that the elderly man giving him the money was the one who stated he was to be put on title, and signed the paperwork. It shouldn't matter what any other person 'said' after the owner left the room, the salesman should not have changed/added/altered what name was to go on this title. Agree? 

When my dad saw how his new car was titled, right away he asked Tina about this and she claimed it was "a mistake"—grabbing the title from his shirt pocket, saying she would get it changed, and taking the title with her. 

During the period of time that followed, they preyed on his age and inability to recognize that this was a con game, taking advantage of him and bilking thousands in cash, opened lines of credit, vehicles, new furniture—but most notably, for the phony business Tina claimed to be opening with his help. 'This is for our future,' she would tell him. He was an 'investor' in this non-existent business. (Note: the 'opening a new business' line is a textbook characteristic of these particular scams, as is medical problems.) The numerous checks were written to the name Nina Costello (that’s her actual name; she goes by Tina), and she misled him with each requested check with invented stories of what each was paying for.. ‘This one is paying for equipment at the job site,' and such. No job site, no business. All manufactured lies. 

She called my dad in a feigned panic one day shortly after, saying she went to go register his new Mustang for him (her name is still on title with his, remember), but claims to have discovered he's in big trouble with the Department of Motor Vehicles for lack of insurance, and that they're demanding $1000 or they'll come to the garage and take his car. Confusion ensues, the situation is critical, a proposal by my dad to simply come pay the $1000 was quickly shot down, and there’s a lot of commotion taking place and fast talking which he had a hard time following during the phone call, and Tina needs an immediate answer. The only way out of this urgent mess, she claims: Is for her—standing right then and there at the DMV window—to “just temporarily” retitle the Mustang in HER name alone, thereby removing my dad from his title until the problem is rectified. And, that’s what she did. 

He went to her house numerous times, asking for his new car—and she put him off every time, never letting him have it.

A car was only an initial step in the long con, but I’ve chosen to detail it not only because it illustrates the methods and strategies they employ, but because many Sweetheart Swindles will begin the same way. The ability to extract a car from him signified a score, and that this man would be vulnerable to bigger things. 

The con of building the false relationship and planning their ‘future' together went on many months, wrapped up in lies, promises, confusing distractions at just the right times, and of course, an escalating need for more money involving the new business my dad fully believed himself to be part of. It was a family con job: Tina, David, Jacob, Sarah and Anna (teenage daughter of Tina & David).. Their life of thievery is as natural to them as breathing. What happened to my dad, is a typical gypsy sweetheart swindle. The players go from one senior citizen to scouting the next, staying until they've depleted their entire savings, or until a family member catches wind of what's going on and alerts law enforcement (in some cases, even that’s not enough to get rid of them, yet). By this time though, the scam artists can be long gone, and so is any hope of recouping the money taken from the elderly victim. 

They do not, nor have they ever, held traditional employment—this is their income and it is their employment, and they live well from it—so as they move onto their next aging victim to financially exploit, my hope is that someone reads this; a family member, a caring neighbor, a friend with suspicions about a sudden young girlfriend or “new friend” entering an elderly man’s life…  maybe they can stumble upon this page and prevent Tina, David, Jacob and Sarah from destroying someone else's final years. 

They ARE still actively pulling the same sweetheart scams today, in 2017: Tina still operates in the Phoenix area (Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, San Tan Valley areas), devastating the lives of elderly men who didn’t know the information you’ve read. Countless readers, too, are identifying daughter-in-law Sarah as the woman pursuing their aging fathers and grandfathers. 

• ► Common Gypsy Last Names 
• ► Rita Tene-Bimbo, and Other Sweetheart Swindles in the News 
• ► Have information on Tina Costello? Please, message me. 
  
  

The Gypsies Directly Involved in my Father’s Scam:

Tina is a Skilled Con Artist — she was draining the life savings of men long before my dad, and continues doing so today, in 2017. 

►►If your father is a victim of Tina or Sarah, or if you have information, please send me a message. 

If your loved one is involved with the female subjects in these photos, this will end very badly. A major distinction between the women in my dad’s story and an opportunistic girl wanting her rent paid, is that the Gypsy woman in a Sweetheart Swindle will not relent until they've parted their victim of every last dime. Make no mistake: They don’t want some of your money—they want ALL OF IT. Tina Costello showed no mercy, kindness or conscience as her con came to an end, becoming aggressive in her demands and threatening at the suggestion the victim would cooperate with police. The unwavering persistence was not something researching other people’s accounts had prepared me for. They stopped at nothing even after being caught, as Tina feverishly continued contacting my father using blocked numbers long afterwards, continuing requests for money and inventing stories of fake illnesses and deaths in an attempt to reel him back in. 

They are heartless, exhaustive cons that continue manipulating their targets after financially ruining them, and after being ordered away by the victim's adult children. This is not one bad apple within a family—this is a crime family preying on vulnerable, weaker individuals, using a well-played, well-rehearsed plan to deplete their victims’ financial reserve entirely. Nearly all family members I have connected Tina to, in varying locations, have criminal histories involving fraud or theft to some degree, with many documented as Sweetheart Swindlers themselves, and some with multiple cases. 

If Tina or Sarah are involved with your elderly family member, don’t wait to intervene. If he’s reluctant to listen to his children and needs further convincing, message me. 

Why the Sweetheart Swindle Works 

For anyone reading this who may think that our parents and grandparents should be wise enough not to fall for something like this, I'd simply say that if you've lived your whole life without being truly blindsided by someone you think you know, then consider yourself lucky. Now imagine yourself at the age of 80.. Seniors are easy targets because they tend to be more trusting, they're prone to forgetfulness and can be easily confused, and, subsequently manipulated by the right person. Many times they've been living on their own for years after the death of their spouse. Their adult children, while probably keeping in close touch and staying up on their daily activities, may not live nearby and don't catch the warning signs. It's easy for their kids to write off simple bouts of forgetfulness as 'Mom or Dad told me the same story again,' or notice insignificant details within a story being mixed up, and regard it as harmless and part of the aging process, never realizing these seemingly minor changes in our parents present skilled thieves the opportunity to carry out large-scale financial crimes against them. 

Making the con easier to carry out, many of the Rom Gypsies selecting this lifestyle don’t look the way we expect criminals to look; they're well dressed, drive nice cars, they’re very clean, they are polite and very well-mannered (oddly enough) — a far cry, at first glance, from some 'thug’ you would expect to be defrauding the elderly, or anyone else. While someone coming off as tragically in need may set off alarms for your dad or grandfather at a first encounter, these women probably would not. Some of the shorter-lived scams in which an older and often confused man is induced to pay for groceries or an electric bill are dependent upon the gypsy girl seeming desperately down and out, or unable to pay for her child’s necessities.. but swindles like my father was drawn into are much more involved, taking place over a period of months or years, and often center around predictable stories of a woman who was in an otherwise stable position in her life prior to a recent divorce, breakup, or bad event, and who is now looking to improve her situation, with ambitions of starting a new life (enter the talk of a new business, the upcoming sale of some imaginary piece of property she’s waiting on, or whatever the case may be), and, after unexpectedly falling in love with the man, finds herself desiring a relationship with him. The tales of woe soon begin, though. (Enter the need for more business capital, tax problems needing to be cleared up, sudden costly medical problems, etc.)

The women come across as caring, very helpful, religious, and as very family-oriented individuals. They are pros at identifying their targets, gaining the trust of their victims, and fostering a relationship that the victim comes to rely on (techniques certainly not exclusive to these swindles, as demonstrated in gypsy fortune-telling cases). The women carrying out these crimes know that as the mind begins to slip, so do the defenses. As the elderly lose their sharpness, it's easier than you might imagine for someone to swoop in and wreck their lives financially in a very short amount of time—sometimes just days. There wouldn't be story after story of exploitation in the news if this weren’t the case. But while advanced age is often seen, it’s never a requirement; nor is a decline in cognition. People of all ages and backgrounds have fallen victim to their con games. It sometimes just takes the wrong person at the right time. 

SIGNATURE SPECIALTIES:

LINES TO WATCH FOR:

BELOW ARE LINKS to stories that might be of interest if you're unfamiliar with these types of crimes. Less often are the crimes of these nomadic individuals being referred to as "gypsy scams" in the news, due to the risk associated with lumping a specific group with specific crimes (blah, blah, blah). Those who investigate transient-criminal crimes, however, can easily recognize them as Rom Gypsy scams. 

On this website, I use the term “gypsies” both because they are ethnic Gypsies, and it's what they call themselves, so I have no reason to refer to them as anything different. 

Still, it’s not uncommon to see references to "gypsy scammers,” and other such phrases, as you read the various articles. Yep, it's an oppressive label in today’s politically-correct world, and perhaps if they want to change their associated labels, this criminal subculture should stop the crimes, and stop raising each generation to see those outside of their culture as a means for withdrawal of money. 

The articles below are merely a sampling to illustrate the more common cons taking place within the Rom Gypsies' criminal world. If I were to focus on listing their insurance fraud, car scams, staged auto accidents, dent-repair scams, ruse entry and distraction burglaries, scrap-metal theft, robberies, home repair, roofing, driveway paving and fortune-telling/psychic scams, I'd run out of room. One could only hope they'd inbreed themselves into extinction, but so far.. no luck. 

• Manhattan, NY - Woman Charged With Tricking Aging Men out of More Than $400,000
  • ►History: A Decade Prior She Was Married to Man in his 80s
• Boca Raton, FL - Convicted Sweetheart Swindler Charged in Another Exploitation Case
• Chicago, IL - Sham Marriage Drains 92-Year-Old Man’s Savings
• Hialeah, FL - Traveling Criminal Group Targets So. Florida Elderly
• Hartford, CT - Couple Steals from Blind Woman, 96, After Pushing Their Way Into Home
• Westfield, IN - Home Improvement Fraud: Man Accused of Preying on Homeowners in Driveway Sealing Scam
• Fairfield, CT - Bimbo Gypsy Arrested in Home-Repair Scam
  • ►Months Earlier: NJ Man Charged with Defrauding Elderly Victims out of $32,000
• Woodland Hills, CA - Self-Proclaimed Psychic Arrested for Grand Theft Following Investigation by Bob Nygaard, PI
• Minden, NV - Men Face Exploitation Charges After Accosting, Extorting Carsen City Man
• Dearborn Heights, MI - Fourth-time habitual offender: Metro-Detroit Woman Swindles Man of $200k; Claims Some was Being Spent Helping ‘Orphans'
• Los Angeles, CA - Insurance Fraud: Father-Daughter Team Staging Car Crashes Charged with Felony Fraud
• Broward County. FL - Family of Thieves Arrested in South Fla. Distractions Burglaries
• Somerville, NJ - Dozen Indicted: 51 Counts of Racketeering for Notorious East Coast Gypsy Criminals
• Pierce County, WA - Madonna Debby Steve, Married to 83-Year-Old, is Charged with Stealing $650k from Another Man with Dementia, Age 86
• Sacramento, CA - Merino and George Gypsies Murder Compassionate Elderly Man Who Took Them In
  
  • ►UPDATE: SWEETHEART MURDERERS GET LIFE IN PRISON: Sandy George, Michael Moreno & Kids, Kevin and Peaches Moreno, Get Life Without Parole for Killing Sacramento Man
• Santa Clara Co, CA - Gina Mitchell Tricks Elderly Man Into Marriage, Scams $350,000
• New York City, NY - Priscilla Kelly Delmaro Arrested in $700,000 Fortunetelling Scam
• Somerville, NJ - Imposter burglars pose as utility workers: Stanley Mitchell, Sonny Mitchell, Steve John/Steven Miller Charged with Racketeering in Multi-State Crime Spree
• Long Beach, CA - Elderly Homeowner Shoots Woman in Home-Invasion Robbery - Gus Adams, Mother Ruby Adams Arrested
  • ►UPDATE: Gus Adams Gets 12 Years Prison for Home-Invasion That Killed His Accomplice-Wife; His Mom will Serve Three
• El Cerrito, CA - Donna Racheal Demitro, Johnny Lee Arrested for Robbing, Beating Elderly Couple
• Edgecomb, MN - Los Angeles Woman, 89, Vanishes, Found Alone in Maine 4 Years Later
• Tempe, AZ - Ruby Marks & Son Rocky Marks Scam Elderly Man of 100k for Liver Transplant, Fake Business
• Dallas, TX - Vickie Steve Romances Elderly Men from Dallas to Seattle in Sweetheart Swindles
• Seattle, WA - Yana Ristick & Husband Michael Evans Bilk Men in Their 80s & 90s in Romance Scams (video)
  • ►Couple Back to Same Cons, Months After Prison Release
• Portland, OR - Tina Ephrem, Tim Ephrem Elder Fraud Unit Exposes 'Trusted Friend' as Con Artist
• Tacoma, WA - Sweetheart Swindler Rachel "Annie" Marks Accused of Murder by Victim's Daughter
• Riverside County, CA - Fraudulent Predators Extremely Supportive While Involved with Seniors
• Philadephia, PA, Houston, TX - Crystal 'Pinky' Johns & Patrick Stanley Steal $650,000 from Elderly Men in Pennylvania and Texas
• King County, WA - Gypsy Woman Blames 'Hard Life,' Romani Upbringing for Brutal Killing of Navy Veteran
• San Jose, CA - Shirley Stanley, Anthony Costello Steal Over $200,000 in Classic Gypsy Sweetheart Scam

• ►MORE STORIES CONTINUED 

Thank you for taking the time to read my dad's story. I hope that having published this site can help someone else in the future (ahh, the power of Google). When this disaster unfolded in 2013, I spend months searching for information on the people above, chasing aliases and traded names, and sifting through backgrounds of people that didn't make sense. Now I know that the next round of people getting scammed won't have to search so hard. :) 

And a big thanks to all the people who have contacted me with information! I never expected to have thousands of people caring enough to read this story, much less wanting to share it with others. Between the crimes against elderly and car schemes, I've been contacted by neighborhood committees, local organizations, colleges and our story was even mentioned on a New York City talk radio show recently! Amazing ~ and again, thanks so much for reading! 

Site Map 

Gypsy Scams, Fraud and Elderly Sweetheart Swindles

• What is a Sweetheart Swindle? 
• The gypsy scam artists who took advantage of my father: Photos 
  • Nina / Tina Costello 
  • David Steve / David Marks / Mark Stevens / David Stevens 
  • Jake Costello / Jake Marks 
  • Sarah Costello / Sarah Montes / Sarah Marks 
  • Fallon Costello / Fallon Marks 
  • Anna Costello / Anna Marks 
• Similar Scams in the News (continued from above) 
• Contact the site 

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