90 Day Fiance personality Stephanie Matto is speaking out about a harrowing incident involving a stranger who tracked her down and visited her home.
The 33-year-old reality TV star-turned-entrepreneur detailed the scary occurrence on social media, telling her fans and followers, “I was part of a romance scam on Facebook.”
In a recent TikTok, Stephanie called the experience one of the “scariest” and “most odd” of her life.
Stephane recounted the events over the weekend, explaining that it all unfolded over just 24 hours.
On Saturday, January 27, at 11 p.m., Stephanie heard a car outside her home and looked outside to discover a man getting out and approaching her residence.
Stephanie’s driveway is long and private, so as she told her fans, there was no reason why anyone should have been at her home at that hour.
90 Day Fiance star Stephanie Matto faces a strange man who shows up at her doorstep
Frightened by what she discovered, Stephanie scooped up her dogs and went inside her closet, where she “sat there sobbing” as she called 9-1-1.
When the police officers arrived, they approached the mystery man to question him. After questioning the male suspect, cops came to Stephanie’s door.
Officers asked Stephanie whether she knew the gentleman and showed her his ID.
“I have never heard of this name,” Stephanie told police. “I don’t know who this is.”
The police found Stephanie’s remarks “strange” because the man told them he had flown from Oregon to her home state of Connecticut to meet her.
Not only that, but the man insisted that he and Stephanie had a date scheduled for that evening.
Stephanie discovers a Facebook catfishing scam was behind the mystery man showing up at her house
After further investigation, Stephanie learned that this man had been talking to someone on Facebook who had been passing off her photos as their own.
The man was very apologetic after discovering what had happened, but Stephanie was still understandably scared because someone was catfishing her and giving out her home address.
The police discovered that the catfish had been scamming this unidentified man out of money for the past year, using Stephanine’s photos and pretending to be her.
Stephanie investigated on Facebook and was able to find her scammer.
Stephanie said that she discerned that this was a “Nigerian romance scam” from what she found on the Facebook profile.
Although the ordeal is over and solved, Stephanie is admittedly still “terrified” and feels horrible for the scammer’s victims.
Stephanie ended her TikTok by urging her followers to be careful about meeting with potential dates online, especially if they haven’t communicated via video beforehand.
“So, just be cautious, be careful, and don’t believe everything you see online,” Stephanie warned.
Season 10 of 90 Day Fiance airs on Sundays at 8/7c on TLC.