A widow was defrauded out of £50,000 by a Facebook dating scammer
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00:00 I was involved in a romance fraud. It started on Facebook on a widow's website, a widow's group
00:09 that I joined and this guy I got talking to, he lived in Manchester but he worked away a lot
00:23 in digging for minerals for this business of his that he owned. We got talking
00:32 and we had loads of banter and he was a widow so I thought oh we've got something in common.
00:42 The pain I'm feeling, he's feeling the same and it just went on from there and then about four
00:50 months into the relationship there was an accident that had happened over in Dubai where he was
00:57 working and six of his employees got injured. He had all these hospital bills to pay
01:04 so he said would I help him with with them? So he said I'll pay you the money back with interest,
01:13 don't worry about the money. Then the hotel was going to chuck him out, could I pay his hotel
01:20 bill? And it just went on and on from there and then eventually I'd run out of money.
01:28 So he then said I'll get my business partners to transfer money to you through my secretary
01:38 and then if you can transfer it through Bitcoin to me. So that's what I was doing and
01:45 until the Cheshire police come knocking on my door I knew nothing about it. I didn't have an
01:53 inkling, he was a scammer at all. He used to ring me up at least once maybe twice a week
02:00 on the phone, sounded very genuine. They know what to ask and they know what to tell you,
02:07 what you want to hear but you'd only hear from your husband and what have you. And then
02:15 they kind of reel you in and then you're into this relationship and they keep promising to
02:21 come over and meet up and you keep sending the money out and it's never ending, there's always
02:31 something. I was more embarrassed about bringing the subject up with my family so I kind of kept
02:42 it away from them but I have a close friend that I told and she just said be careful.
02:51 And because it sounds so genuine and everything else I kind of didn't believe what my friend
03:00 was saying. I thought I'm just a normal woman in a normal everyday life and it won't happen to me
03:10 but unfortunately it does, it happens to anyone. And you need to speak to family and friends,
03:19 don't keep any secrets. These romance scammers look for vulnerable people
03:25 so be careful what you share on Facebook and what you tell people.
03:34 Keep your cards close to your chest. These people are clever and they can do it to males, females,
03:41 they're just there to get your money. So don't be afraid, talk to your friends, talk to your family,
03:47 don't keep secrets. The genuine people will shine through. So I met this guy on a website,
03:58 it's a well-known one, he lives in Lynn. So I thought right let's see if he is real because
04:05 my trust in people now is very different to what it was when I got involved with the romance.
04:12 We're together, I'm seeing him still, in fact we're going on holiday next month.