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đŸ“±The Hinge Swindler | Morning Newsletter

And there’s an investigation into two escaped Philly prisoners

Shreya Datta, 37, of Old City, Pa., poses for a portrait at the Race Street Pier in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Datta was scammed for about $450,000 from a guy she dated for 3-months on hinge.
Shreya Datta, 37, of Old City, Pa., poses for a portrait at the Race Street Pier in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Datta was scammed for about $450,000 from a guy she dated for 3-months on hinge.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
    by Taylor Allen
    Published 

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

The sun returns today with a high of 80. Enjoy the clear skies.

Want to know something about Philly? We’re relaunching Curious Philly, where no question is too big or small for our reporters to research and share what they learn.

It’s been more than a decade since dating apps transformed the world of online dating and all the joys and pitfalls that come with it.

Today’s lead story is different. It’s more of a cautionary tale for those looking for love. Shreya Datta, a 37-year-old director at multinational tech company in the Philly suburbs, shared her story.

If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.

— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

She was scammed out of $450,000

Shreya Datta was on Hinge for months after recently getting over a divorce.

That’s when she swiped on someone whom she thought was a wine trader from France who’d recently moved to West Philly.

She thought she met her dream guy, but, over time, he turned into a nightmare. By the time Datta realized what was happening, she was conned out of $450,000.

Datta was a victim of “pig butchering.”

It’s a term used when con artists pose as someone else to develop relationships with victims to convince them to invest large sums of money in a fake cryptocurrency platform.

Note: Cryptocurrency investment fraud is the fastest growing kind of investment fraud, according to the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3). Victims reported $2.57 billion in losses last year, nearly tripling from 2021.

Keep reading to learn the complete story of the long and sophisticated scam.

Jeff Brown founded a nonprofit that paid over $1.5 million to his company

Mayoral candidate and grocer Jeff Brown is the founder of Uplift Solutions, a nonprofit that provides jobs for formerly incarcerated people.

Between 2016 and 2020, when Brown chaired the nonprofit’s board, Uplift paid more than $1.5 million to Brown’s supermarkets to lease office space, buy food, or reimburse the corporation’s donations to other community groups.

The company did not respond to a question asking why the nonprofit was reimbursing the company’s charitable donations to community groups. Brown, who left the board in 2021, declined an interview for this story.

Notable quote: “There’s a difference between whether it’s legal and whether it’s ethical. And nonprofits have to be held to a higher ethical standard,” Laura Otten, a nonprofit consultant, said. “It makes zero sense to raise money for a nonprofit to give to a for- profit to be philanthropic.”

Continue reading to learn more about the close relationship between Brown and Uplift.

What you should know today

  1. An investigation looking into how two prisoners escaped a Philly jail Sunday includes staffing concerns and a hole in a prison fence.

  2. A jury found former president Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. She was awarded $5 million.

  3. The Philadelphia mayor’s race has a renewed focus on safety after a canvasser was killed a week before the Democratic primary election.

  4. Penn Medicine residents voted to unionize, forming the biggest new union in Philadelphia in more than 50 years,

  5. The Writers Guild of America East picketed the production of the AppleTV+ show Sinking Spring in Delaware County.

  6. Taylor Swift concerts start at $1,300 on StubHub. It’s part of a larger trend of expensive ticket prices. Regardless, Philly Swifties are making it work and desperately strategizing to get cheaper seats.

  7. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Tanner House in North Philadelphia and Chinatown on this year’s list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023.

  8. Remember to use our guide to Philly’s 2023 Democratic primary for mayor, City Council, and more.

🧠 Trivia time 🧠

Jerry Blavat’s Jersey Shore nightclub, Memories in Margate, is up for sale.

When did it open?

A) 1972

B) 1975

C) 1969

D) 1980

Think you know? Find out.

What we’re...

👀Watching: Main Line Billionaire Jeffrey Yass and Philly developers are spending big money to influence City Council races.

⚟Reading: A day in the life of the Phillies’ head team physician.

đŸ§© Unscramble the anagram đŸ§©

Hint: Devil’s Pool

IKONICSWASH

We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Send us your own original anagram to unscramble if you’d like. Cheers to Christine Taylor, who correctly guessed Tuesday’s answer: LOVE Park. Email us if you know the answer.

Photo of the day

That has been your Wednesday morning news debrief. I’m off to go on my morning run. Thanks for waking up with The Inquirer.☀