In Part 1 of KSFR’s story about on-line dating scams, reporter Mary Lou Cooper spoke with AARP fraud specialist Dr. Doug Shadel. Shadel told the story of “Amy,” a widow who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to an anonymous romance scammer. In today’s follow-up piece, we learn more about Amy and about the love con artists who prey on vulnerable men and women.
Mary Lou Cooper reports on consumer issues for KSFR as well as on politics and elder affairs. She has worked for the U.S. Congress as well as for the Nevada and Tennessee legislatures, and remains a political junkie. She worked many years for an association of Western state legislatures and was a contributor to “Capitol Ideas,” a national magazine about state government. In 2016 Cooper received a public service award from the New Mexico Broadcasting Association for her KSFR story on Internet romance scams. She has received journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and from the National Federation of Press Women. She grew up in Oak Ridge, TN and received her BA from Emory University in Atlanta and her MA from the University of Texas Austin. She also holds fiction and screenwriting certificates from the University of Washington.