Daejon Labrayae Love was arrested Monday in an alleged romance scam that investigators say used a fake San Francisco 49ers identity to drain more than $1.3 million from women who met him on dating apps and social media. Taylor Jamie Chan was arrested with him, and both now face wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
That arrest is what makes the case news today. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Oregon said the scheme began in February 2022 and ran for more than four years, with investigators identifying 26 victims. Love allegedly presented himself as an active 49ers wide receiver to look wealthy and connected, a pitch that gave the case its hook and helped the search phrase fake 49ers wide receiver catch on now that the charges are public.
Investigators said the pair targeted women by building romantic relationships, then steering them toward what looked like investment opportunities. Love allegedly told some women he was a real estate investor from a wealthy Swiss family, while court records say he used fake financial documents and fabricated wealth to keep the story moving. The affidavit says he spent more than $1,160 on custom football helmets at Green Gridiron and bought tools from Prop Money Inc., Useviral.com and Buzzoid to polish the illusion.
The alleged image-making went beyond the money props. Court documents show screenshots of Instagram posts in which Love wore 49ers gear and pretended to train, and investigators said he even faked a contract signing for a video. In other cases, he copied posts from actual NFL players and posted them as his own. He also allegedly used apps such as Fake Bank Account Pro to create fake bank accounts, while privately mocking the women with Chan and complaining about having to maintain the relationships.
There is one detail that cuts through the fraud: Love’s online persona was so thinly built that even search engines and artificial intelligence sometimes echoed it back. Investigators said that after some victims became suspicious and searched his name, results occasionally described him as a bona fide 49ers player. They also said both the NFL and the San Francisco 49ers told authorities he had no connection to them. In other words, the alleged identity was never real, only repeated often enough to look that way.
Love and Chan each face one count of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The case does not say how much each victim lost, but the total alleged loss is more than $1.3 million. What comes next is the court process, and for now the prosecution has already answered the biggest question in the case: the man who allegedly sold himself as a 49ers player had no tie to the team at all.
