One of our fraud lawyers and her client appeared in a feature about romance scams in Fabulous magazine.
The three page write-up warned of the dangers of fraudsters lurking on online dating sites.
Our client, a 38-year-old mum, agreed to talk on an anonymous basis to the magazine as warning to others.
Her lawyer, Charlie Quail gave expert opinion on the subject of romance scams.
Charlie said: ‘We are seeing increasing numbers of people- particularly women- being scammed on dating sites such as Tinder. We are aware that fraudsters are deliberately targeting these platforms.
‘The scammers are taking advantage of the fact that many people on dating sites are often vulnerable having just come out of relationships. Fraudsters can spend months trying to get victims to fall in love with them before asking for money.
‘With the advance of AI and deepfake videos it’s easier for fraudsters to create particularly convincing scams. Our advice is that no one should ever send any money to someone they’ve met through a dating site, particularly if they have not met in person.’
‘Romance scams are particularly cruel because as well as the financial loss, it often leaves devastating emotional trauma and trust issues for the victim.’
Our client initially met the scammer through Tinder but he deleted his account and started message her via WhatsApp.
The romance scam turned into a crypto currency scam when the fraudster tricked our client into investing into a fake platform. In total she lost £13,000 which was a combination of her savings and money she borrowed from friends.
Lawyer Charlie is working on recouping the romance scam victim’s money.
Please visit our Romance Scam page to discover more about these types of fraud and how to avoid them.
Have you lost money to a scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.