Elderly Phillies fan 'scammed out of $50,000' by man pretending to be shortstop Trea Turner

An elderly woman in Pennsylvania was scammed out of $50,000 by someone who was impersonating Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner.

The 70-year-old woman, who did not give her name to reporters, says someone used the shortstop's status among Phillies fans to prey on her.

This woman from Towamencin Township, Pennsylvania lives with Parkinson's disease.

'I was gullible, I believed him,' the woman said. 'I should've known better but, I just, I overlooked it.'

According to WTXF in Philadelphia, it all started when the woman defended Turner from criticism on Facebook back in 2023.

That led to a man, who claimed to be the shortstop, contacting her. Eventually, he began harassing her. 

'He was relentless, but he's convincing, he's repeating things that I knew Trea Turner did on the ball field,' she said. 'He kept harping on it for about three weeks so finally I said, 'Alright, what do you want?'

That's when the man pretending to be Turner said that he wasn't getting along with his wife and he 'needed help with various properties' to keep things quiet, she told WTXF.

The woman began sending him payments - which totaled up to $50,000 in funds across multiple different accounts before she stopped.

Local police 'are investigating the scam and working closely with federal partners,' WTXF says. They believe that this was operated by someone 'outside of the country' and don't have any local suspects.

Fortunately, the woman was able to get some of her money back, but is largely focused on sharing her story to prevent this from happening to others. 

'He was so convincing, I'm thinking I'm not stupid, but he got me, I just want to warn people, be careful of this,' the woman said. 'We're still financially fine. He did not ruin us. He didn't win.' 

A Phillies spokesperson told WTXF that they couldn't comment on the situation due to it being an active criminal investigation.