A Florida woman is accused of convincing a disabled man that she was “trapped in a domestic violence relationship” and “needed money to escape,” allegedly out of more than $2,000 in her lies.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Gianna Abel-Venezia He was arrested after being accused of defrauding a man, whom he contacted on the Internet. He is now facing fraud charges.
“Gianna met the victim on Facebook Dating and started talking to him on the phone. He told her that he was trapped in a relationship of domestic violence and he needed money to escape. In order to sell this story, he even sent pictures showing the injuries. We were saddened by his situation, the victim sent money,” wrote the police department on the Facebook site on Wednesday, May 20.
Police say Abel-Venezia, 19, continued to scam the victim and ended up sending him more than $2,000.
“When the victim found out that he had been lied to and confronted Gianna, he admitted that he was only talking to her for money and because he is disabled,” the statement continued. “He also told him that he has been doing this to people since 2025 and according to him, ‘no monk can do that.’
After Abel-Venezia was arrested, he reportedly doubled down that he should not be punished and said that if someone was “dumb enough” to send money, that was on him.
However, Abel-Venezia admitted that she knew what she had done was “technically wrong” and asked the coroner to apologize to the victim. “What he didn’t expect was to learn that defrauding people of money is actually illegal,” continued the Ministry.
After her interview, authorities have come to believe there may be other victims Abel-Venezia faked as “domestic violence” or “sex trafficking.”
The department concluded this statement by asking anyone who believes that they have been defrauded by Abel-Venezia to contact them. Detective Bradish at 352-402-6022.
Health activist Bobbi Vargas has been charged with stealing more than $2.3 million from business owners Grant and Elena Cardone, and attempting to use the prop money to pay off a third victim’s loan. A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police report obtained by KLAS alleges that Vargas (real name Bobbi Awad) used four. […]
It is not yet clear whether Abel-Venezia has filed a plea or retained a lawyer after his arrest.
After the police department shared this on Facebook, many people took to the comment section to express their sympathy for the victim. “People have good hearts and it’s a shame what he did and he doesn’t seem to care,” wrote another.
Meanwhile, another person said that it is easier to be fooled by a scammer than others might think. “I’m here to say that it’s more common than people think. I was scammed by a guy who asked me for money for various reasons,” wrote one social media user. “Thanks to my friends and my family, I got out of that relationship before I broke up.”
