Married Massachusetts man was thieving online Lothario: DA - msnbc.com

CONWAY, Mass A married man from Massachusetts pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to felony charges that he romanced four women he met online in order to bilk them out of more than $200,000.

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  • Albert Lovering, 54, of Waltham, was charged with 23 counts of larceny for stealing large sums of money from each of the women, as well as a single count of being "a common and notorious thief," said Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

    In Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on Wednesday, Lovering pleaded not guilty to the charges. Judge Sandra Hamlin ordered him held on $10,000 cash bail.

    If convicted of the counts, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

    Prosecutors say Lovering met the women through dating websites, including the "looking for romance" section of Craigslist, and via dating ads on Yahoo! and Plentyoffish.com. He sometimes used the alias "Doug Spencer," they said.

    Lovering's "cruel actions" began in November 2006 when he began wooing the women online, dating them for a while, and then fooling his victims into lending him thousands of dollars, with the expectation he would repay them, Leone said.

    But he never did, prosecutors said.

    "The defendant's lies spanned several years, targeting numerous victims who were conned into believing the defendant cared for them," Leone said in a statement.

    Altogether, the four women lent him a total of more than $200,000, Leone said.

    Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.


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