A self-proclaimed online-dating rube from Queens slapped OkCupid with a lawsuit after a man he met on the singles Web site swindled him out of more than $70,000.
Hopeless romantic Michael Picciano blames OkCupid and its parent company, IAC, for failing to conduct “even minimal screening of its subscribers and therefore deceptively creating the impression that their dating service was safe . . . when in fact . . . [it] was a trap for the unwary,” he says in his Manhattan civil suit.
Picciano, 65, first received a message from “genuineguy62″” on Feb. 11, 2013.
The Little Neck resident says he “felt safe” and “trusted” his online match, purportedly a man named Bruce Thompson, simply because Thompson had a profile on OkCupid, which bills itself as “the best free dating site on Earth.”
By March, the two had been in contact via phone, Skype and their personal e-mail accounts.
Picciano even agreed to Thompson’s suggestion to delete their online accounts since “they had found each other,” according to court papers.
Picciano says he “felt comfortable” with his new beau and readily agreed to wire Thompson $24,000 “for unexpected fees he incurred in his dealings setting up a new computer-parts business” — even though the instructions required Picciano to send the money to a “Dennis E. Racer” in Addison, Texas, and an “Edmond Thebeau” in Canada.
Then in April, Picciano sent yet another payment of $46,420 at Thompson’s request to “MacBenson and Associates” in the UK through his Capital One bank account, the suit says.
That same month, Picciano got wise to the ruse.
“It was apparent that Mr. Thompson had used the same Cleveland, Ohio-based phone number and the same e-mail address . . . with Mr. Picciano that he had used to perpetrate other frauds,” the suit says.
Picciano went to cops, who told him to stay in touch with Thompson. Eventually, the fraudster sent him a forged check and a loan note, but the crime lab found no fingerprints.
In his suit, Picciano claims the con man is still trolling for victims on OkCupid under the screen name “bigheartedbt.”
Picciano declined to comment.
OkCupid did not return messages for comment.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain