Maryland woman met a man, moved into his home and vowed to invest his $400K — then blew it on casinos and a $55K car

Once she moved in, she used possibly fake credentials to convince him to give her hundreds of thousands of dollars, which she said she was investing. Instead, she spent it on casinos and expensive cars.

“She saw that she had a mark,” said Montgomery County State attorney John McCarthy. “She had somebody she could take advantage of… claiming she was gonna send the money to Goldman Sachs to invest it in Pfizer stocks.”

After a jury convicted her in just 75 minutes, a judge passed down a 20-year sentence: 15 years spent in jail, 5 in supervised probation post-release. She was convicted of theft scheme, securities fraud and misappropriation of funds by a fiduciary.

Here’s what happened — and what you should look out for so you don’t end up in the same boat.

Sears convinced the victim to make financially risky decisions

Sears, who also went by JaNay St. Clair, took $406,954 from the victim over the course of three years, starting in 2021. She said the money was going into an “investment pool.” It was actually going into her own account.

She told the victim that the investments would make enough for him to become “financially independent,” and said that it was a special type of investment only available to wealthy people like her.

“The defendant groomed the victim, gaining his trust, and deceived him into believing she was acting in his best interest,” said McCarthy.

Even before she started to outright scam the victim, she was encouraging him to make financially risky moves. In 2020, she encouraged the victim to open a HELOC, or a home equity line of credit.

As a line of credit, HELOCs work like a credit card; you’re allowed to borrow against a certain amount of money on a revolving basis, paying interest on however much you use.

Unlike most credit cards, HELOCs are a secured line of credit. The bank you open a HELOC with will generally let you borrow in greater amounts than it would for a credit card because you’re borrowing against your home’s equity.

That means, if you fail to pay off your HELOC in a timely manner, the bank could take your home as collateral. If your home drops in price significantly after you open the HELOC, you could even find yourself owing more than your house is worth.

HELOCs aren’t always a bad idea, but you generally shouldn’t take one out just because someone you know thinks it’s a good idea. If someone you know is trying to push you into a HELOC — especially if they want you to lend them money — that’s a red flag.

Look out for these tells

Unfortunately, Sears isn’t the only person using dating apps to scam people. “Romance scams” — scams where a bad actor attempts to start a romantic relationship with someone to earn their trust before scamming them — are a popular form of scam that’s only becoming more widespread as social media and AI become more commonplace.

In 2025, people reported $929 million in losses from confidence or romance scams to the FBI. They were the third most costly type of scam for those 60 and older that year.