MEMORIAL VILLAGES, Texas – If you have received a letter in the mail asking for money for proof that your husband cheated on you, the Memorial Villages Police Department warns that it is probably a scam and the mail should be treated as junk.
MVPD Det. Christopher Rodriguez said up to 10 people have received the letters in the last week, and the department said it may be the start of many more similar scams to come with the rise of artificial intelligence.
The letter landed last week in the mailbox of Beth and Richard Sewell, a couple that will celebrate 46 years of marriage next month.
“We’ve been married an awful long time,” Richard said.
“I’m not worried about us,” Beth said. “I opened it up and it was quite the surprise.”
She read the letter, then went to her husband and said, “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
The three-page letter came first-class mail in a window envelope. It was addressed to Beth and read, “I have hard evidence of your husband cheating on you with... I’m sorry, me.”
Based on Beth’s research, it appears the letter was printed, stuffed, and mailed using an online service.
The letter comes from a woman named Gina, who claimed to be a private escort in the past. She asked for a reasonable offer to sell proof of the affair, including photos, videos, and text messages. The letter asked Beth to keep it a secret.
The money was needed, she wrote, to go toward her baby girl’s health issues.
“A, he wouldn’t have had an affair and B, there wouldn’t have been a baby come out of it because he just certainly has not been up to it the last several years,” Beth said.
For the last four years, Richard has been battling lymphoma.
“Boy, they picked the wrong fella to put this on,” he said.
Gina isn’t a made-up person. A picture of her driver’s license and social security card came with the letter to prove she’s real. But police said Gina is a victim of identity theft.
“Someone hacked into her Microsoft account and stole a copy of the driver’s license and the Social Security number,” Det. Rodriguez said.
Gina, who KPRC 2 spoke with on the phone, has reported the identity theft to the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office. FBCSO hasn’t yet assigned the case to an investigator, a spokesperson said Monday.
“We believe that these are probably computer- or AI-generated letters. And the fact that they’re showing up specifically targeting individual residents with personalized information, we think this is probably going to be part of a bigger and probably more ongoing use of technology-type scam,” Chief Ray Schultz said. “We’re concerned with the additional use of AI to try to scam people that that just may be the beginning of a lot more scams that we see.”
Unsuspecting wives should treat the letters as junk mail.
“Tear it up, shred it, throw it away. Don’t answer it, no matter how curious you may be,” Schultz said. “They’re trying to get you to bite. And once you bite, then you’re going to get hooked. And you may be a victim of an even bigger problem.”
The Sewells were not curious, knowing the status of their relationship, but don’t want anyone else getting duped.
“Don’t take a letter in the mail at face value,” Beth said.
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