Daejon Labrayae Love was arrested by federal authorities this week. He is accused of using a false persona to defraud 26 women out of about $1.3 million. He allegedly posed as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, posting on social media and pretending to be an NFL player with millions in assets.
The romance scam extended to dating apps, the FBI says. Love even posted a video of himself pretending to sign a contract, running pass patterns on the beach, and posing with sports cars. It’s ridiculous and also teed up for a Netflix documentary.
Love brought his 49ers team-issued helmet home with him? He had it with him on the beach this summer? My friend of mine saw the story and sent me a text message: “His Instagram is so funny. Anyone who got fooled kind of deserves it lol.”
This story reminded me of a couple of other sports imposters I’ve written over the years. One of them involved a con man who pretended to be a former NFL player. Another involved a guy who owned a bunch of Jiffy Lube oil change spots and masqueraded as a professional baseball player.
More on both of those stories in a bit.
First, a little more on this 49ers thing.