Dean Ramirez appeared to be the relief to Bonnie Doose’s pain.
Doose, now 76 and a homeowner in Riverside, became a widow in 2023 when her husband, Kirk, took his own life as he weakened from a terminal illness. She has no children to check on her, and the closest relative is a step-niece in San Bernardino County. Two years later, desperately lonely, Doose filled a dating app profile with those personal details.
“I just put it out there,” she said. “I’m honest.”
That honesty was all Ramirez, or whoever he is, needed. He passed himself off to Doose as an oil rig worker with $7 million in the bank who needed $15,000 here, $25,000 there — over and over — to pay a tax lien that would unfreeze his millions. He promised Doose the companionship she coveted, a bigger house and a better car, and that he would pay her back.
The screenshot he texted her showing the bank balance was convincing, and together they shopped for homes online and dreamed of being a couple.
Three years later, after Doose fell for what authorities say is the most common ruse against those age 65 and older — the romance scam — Doose is out of the $250,000 she wired Ramirez from her bank account over two years as well as $175,000 she sent him after selling her house.
She never met Ramirez.
Doose is still in the house for the time being, thanks to the purchaser’s good graces, but time is running out.
“You know, when you’re married, you’re safe,” Doose said. “I was naturally a victim, and I’m a very vulnerable victim, perfect for the one that was scamming me.”
Doose wiped her eyes as she told her story to The Press-Enterprise at the Corona office of her attorney, John E. Tiedt, in the hope that others will be spared a similar emotional and financial disaster. Anyone is susceptible, said Doose, who said she has college degrees and worked in child development.
“I’m not stupid,” she said. But she acknowledged that she may be suffering from mild dementia.
Riverside police Detective Robert Olsen, who investigated the case, said loneliness is the most common thread among romance-scam victims, and they share too much.
“People are just too open on social media,” Olsen said. “Phone numbers, addresses, picture of a new car, license plate numbers, family, friends. There’s a lot of intelligence work that goes into building a profile of a victim. How they know you are going to be sympathetic to being stuck on an oil rig and helping them get off.”
Tiedt said he doesn’t like the phrase, “romance scam.” He prefers, “Undue influence syndrome.”
Ramirez told Doose that he was a 60-year-old widower. He was flattering and caring, and he reassured Doose that he wanted one last relationship.
“You almost feel brainwashed at a point,” Doose said. “And you feel lucky that you found somebody who cares.”
Said Tiedt: “They almost had a script perfect for her, obviously not the first, probably hundreds before her, but they came with the right script. They got her trust. And from that point forward, she knew that she was not going to be lonely anymore, that she had a chance of living out her years with somebody in a new home that he had promised.
“The hook was in.”
The requests for money to unfreeze the $7 million kept coming and were filled until the house was about Doose’s only asset remaining.
A neighbor to whom Doose confided told her she was being scammed. She would not have it.
“I didn’t want to believe he was that good,” she said.
So when Ramirez asked for $116,000 in December 2025, she sold the house for $377,000, which Tiedt said was about $90,000 below market value. Now Doose was facing eviction, and when the neighbor again told her she was being scammed, she contacted Tiedt and the police.
Tiedt came up with a plan to keep the house; all Doose had to do was put the remaining proceeds in an escrow account. But Ramirez continued draining Doose. To help unfreeze the $7 million, she sent him $23,000 … then $20,000 … and then $16,000.
Ramirez was ready when Doose questioned him.
“He goes, ‘We’re almost there,’ ” Doose said. “He goes, ‘Well, we’re building. Just keep going.’ So, I was very reluctant, but I did it, because he kept promising.”
Doose said she finally cut off Ramirez, who hasn’t gone away. Even during the newspaper interview, he continued texting her.
“Honey I have been so worried,” Ramirez wrote, adding a prayer emoji. “Please try to reach me. Dean.”
Tiedt described the plan to keep the home as likely doomed.
Olsen, an economic crimes detective, investigates scams similar to this. He believes Doose’s scammer lives in Nigeria and works through intermediaries to avoid arrest.
“Primarily, when we are dealing with the elderly, it’s not about educating the elderly as much as educating the people around them to notice when these things are occurring,” Olsen said.
Doose has simple advice for anyone who receives requests for money from strangers:
“Get rid of them fast,” she said.