AURORA — A former Fort Carson soldier who had previously served time in a military prison following a Denver7 investigation into a ticket scam on dating apps is back in custody.
Gavin Pobst, 28, was arrested by Aurora police on Friday and is currently in the Arapahoe County jail awaiting a transfer to El Paso County, where he had a warrant out for probation violations.
Denver7 Investigates first looked into Pobst in 2022 after speaking with several women accusing him of running an event ticket scheme on multiple dating apps. Victims said Pobst would meet them on dating apps and try to sell them tickets to events he could not attend and he would tell them he was being deployed.
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Scammer posing as deploying Fort Carson soldier, selling fake concert tickets
After they paid, the victims would never receive the tickets. This pattern continued in similar forms until Pobst was charged and pleaded guilty in military court in 2024 to larceny, money laundering, identity theft and criminal impersonation. An affidavit said he had "upwards of 60 victims."
In 2024, Pobst served time in military prison and was given a bad conduct discharge. He also pleaded guilty to an identity theft charge in El Paso County and was placed on probation starting in 2025.
However, even after his release, Denver7 Investigates continued to get calls, mostly from women stating that Pobst was contacting them on dating apps and persuading them to send him money for tickets to concerts and sporting events that would never materialize, leading to investigations in Arvada, Broomfield, Colorado Springs and Denver.
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Naana Serwah first met Pobst last summer on Tinder, where he was using the name Gavin Parker. He messaged her about going to a Rockies game and sent details and photos to build her trust.
“He's really good at this,” she said, scrolling through their early texts.
Text messages show that she sent him $45 for tickets, but their date never happened.
“Every single time that we tried to [meet], he would come up with some random excuse,” Naana said. “He went 'ghost' after a little."
When she threatened to go to the police, texts showed he refunded her through online banking app Chime — and that’s when she saw the name Gavin Pobst.
Last week, she told Denver7 Investigates that she was on the dating app Bumble and saw him on there.
In November 2025, Denver7 Investigates reported on the new investigations into Pobst. In the following days, the Colorado Judicial Branch said that the probation division filed complaints to revoke Pobst's probation in his two cases. Court documents showed those complaints noted violations such as a failure to report to probation officers, not completing moral recognition therapy and failing to complete his 100 hours of community service.
Bench warrants were issued Dec. 1, 2025.
An Aurora police spokesperson said Pobst was arrested Friday at a restaurant after someone called the department to alert them that someone with active warrants was eating at the location.
Denver7 had reached out to Pobst last week for comment, but he did not respond.
Metropolitan State University of Denver Criminology Professor Denise Mowder said in cybercrimes like these, victims are often too ashamed to file charges. And law enforcement doesn't aggressively pursue cases.
"As sad as it is, this is a property crime, and so they're given less attention than the murderers and the rapists and robbers," she said.
But in this case, she applauded Aurora police for responding to the call.
"Kudos to the Aurora police for getting out there and for listening to her," she said.
Still, Mowder said the probation violations may not be enough to revoke Pobst's probation and send him back to jail.
"If, however, the probation officer could then write a report so the judge knows about these other cases, even though they're not charged, the fact that there's investigations out there that will go a long way to show the judge that perhaps this guy's continuing this kind of stuff, and so we don't want to just let him lose to go out there and keep going," said Mowder.
Serwah still feels like there is a gap in the system and stressed the importance of staying vigilant on dating apps to avoid falling into traps.
“You can’t really be too naive," she said. "You kind of have to keep your guard up and have some discernment.”
