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Paul Nelson and Sandra Yi reporting A Utah woman is warning people about a man she trusted. She says he cheated her out of thousands of dollars. It turns out she wasn't the only woman who fell for the suspect's scam. Police say there are at least four other victims and possibly more.
Police say Jeff Ipson used his MySpace page to meet girls, and then scammed them out of thousands of dollars. "He meets them, he'll go on dates with the young women, and what he'll do is try to flaunt the fact that he has wealth," explained Daniel Harkness, with the West Jordan Police Department.
But police say Ipson got his money through unsuspecting women between the ages of 18 and 20 years old. "He'll have a check off of his account. He'll write it to the young woman in her name, and then he'll ask the young woman to cash it at her bank, and then he'll get the money from the young woman," Harkness said.
That's what he allegedly did to 18-year-old Andrea Marse. She met Ipson at her work. On their first date he asked her to cash a check. "He said, 'Hey, we're close to your bank. Most places don't take personal checks, so how about I just write you a check and you go cash it for me?'" Marse said.
She said since the checks were written in her name, all the bank shows is that she took the money.
Over three months Marse cashed more than a dozen of his bad checks on her account, totaling $10,000. She says Ipson made promises to pay it all back. "He was quite the character, definitely had that part played very well," Marse said.
Marse was engaged to Ipson but left him after she discovered he had met and scammed other girls, too.
Police showed Eyewitness News recent surveillance photos of Ipson at several banks. They say he's passing bad checks on his 2-year-old daughter's bank account.
But this isn't Ipson's only alleged crime. In 2006, Eyewitness News did a story on Ipson when he posed as an undercover cop for West Valley City. He had a badge and a Taser gun. Ipson got probation for that but is still facing charges for stealing money out of an ATM in Cedar City.
Marse says she won't trust so easily again. "All I want is just everybody to be warned out there. It happens to everybody. You never think it's going to happen to you," she said.
Police talked to Ipson on the phone yesterday, but he refused to turn himself in. They're still looking for him. He faces multiple felony counts of fraud and theft.
