The DMs can be a dangerous place. Even the most innocent seeming bachelor could be setting up traps that are hard to escape.
Nearly 50 women between Texas, Florida, Arizona and California, experienced just that when a charming Wilson Jackson won their hearts and drained their bank accounts, the Daily Beast reported.
Dubbed the “romance scammer,” Jackson has a long history of courting and befriending women just to con them into his schemes, according to the Daily Beast.
Originally from Daytona Beach, Florida, Jackson spent many years perfecting the craft of wooing women with his charm. He was always put-together and a great listener, his past girlfriends told Daily Beast.
One of Jackson’s ex-girlfriend said he would make someone feel “like you’re the most beautiful thing in the world,” according to the article.
“In that moment that you were with him, you almost felt like you were the most important thing to him,” she said.
However, dealing with Jackson came with consequence for many women.
He was known for stealing rings, cash, credit cards and checkbooks. He would convince women to lend him money and never pay them back, the Daily Beast reported.
Even after a first date, Jackson was known for racking up financial details and credit cards then ghosting the women immediately after meeting with them in person.
“It was just really crazy and I was really heartbroken because that was all the money that I had,” one of Jackson’s victims told ABC7.
In 2018 Acacia Oudinot, a 37 year-old from Arizona, met the handsome con-man via Facebook messanger, according to the Daily Beast.
After weeks of DMs, FaceTime calls and what may have felt like genuine conversation, Oudinot told the Daily Beast she agreed to spontaneously meet Jackson in Los Angeles after her other plans suddenly fell through.
“He talked about he wants kids, he wants to get married. He wants to have a family,” Oudinot told ABC7.
Jackson bought Oudinot a plane ticket, that Oudinot later found out was invalid and was forced to repurchase the ticket at the airport. Oudinot arrived in L.A. and spent a nice weekend with Jackson.
By the time she got home, her bank account was $3,000 short, the Daily Beast.
Jackson had become a master at evading the police throughout. Between 2002 and 2012 alone, he had 75 charges and almost half were felonies, but had never spent more than a year in jail, according to Daily Beast.
“As if a broken heart wasn’t enough, he would financially devastate many of these women,” LAPD Commercial Crimes Division Captain Lillian Carranza told ABC7.
“While they were asleep or using the bathroom he would go into their purse, steal their identity, their checking account information, their debit card and credit card information,”
When police intervention become slow and unreliable, a network of Jackson’s victims began to investigate all of his scams. With the help of the LAPD detectives, Jackson was finally arrested in May 2019 after upwards of 10 years of scamming, according to the Daily Beast.
Some credited Oudinot, a white woman, with leading the charge to get Jackson convicted, the Daily Beast reported.
The Daily Beast also noted that Jackson spent many years preying on Black women, but his demise came only after “ripping off” a white woman.
“People of color already feel like police aren’t going to help them. If they don’t do something right away, they get discouraged and say, ‘They’re not going to do anything.’” said one woman, who Jackson gave a personal check to in hopes that she’d cash it with her own account.
After the bank put a hold on the check and noticing that the check belonged to Oudinot, she immediately reached out to her, the Daily Beast reported.
Jackson’s preliminary court hearing is in July but he lost his attorney after paying her with a bounced check, according to the report. His bail is set at $300,000
“Having the right woman in your life is like printing your own money,” read one of his social media posts obtained by the Daily Beast.